The 7th Eastern Partnership Informal Working Group Meeting on Research and Innovation

On 27 and 28 November 2025, the Seventh Informal Eastern Partnership Working Group Meeting on Research and Innovation took place in Berlin, Germany. The meeting was co-chaired by Carole Mancel-Blanchard, Head of Unit RTD.03 “International Cooperation – Europe and Americas” at the European Commission, and hosted and co-chaired by Florian Frank, Head of Division “Cooperation with Eastern European Countries (non-EU), South Caucasus, Central Asia” at the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space of Germany.

The two-day meeting was attended by representatives from five EaP partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine), by  some EU Member States (France, Germany, Austria), and by delegates from Türkiye, Montenegro, and the EaP Civil Society Forum. EU officials from DG RTD, DG EAC, DG ENEST, the EEAS, and representatives of various German research organisations attended the event as well.

Beyond reviewing the latest developments across EaP countries in the implementation of post-2020 R&I priorities — and progress made since 2024 — the agenda featured a special session on the challenges facing Ukraine’s R&I system due to Russia’s ongoing war of aggression. During this session, participants discussed support measures for Ukraine in research and innovation provided by the European Commission and Germany. An important contribution was provided by Expertise France, who presented the EU4Innovation EAST programme, managed by DG ENEST: an initiative focused on digital innovation in the Eastern Partnership region, with special measures targeted at Ukraine’s deep tech and digital sectors. The International Coalition for Science, Research, and Innovation in Ukraine, officially launched in Rome on 11 July 2025 during the 2025 Ukraine Recovery Conference, was mentioned as well. Its strategic importance for providing support for some urgent needs and long-term priorities of the Ukraine’s research and innovation system was underlined and other Eastern partnership countries were invited to join the coalition.

Round-table discussions across the two days proved to be a productive forum for exchanges on some of the key challenges in implementing the EaP post-2020 R&I priorities across the five EaP Partner countries as for example the need to increase gross expenditure in R&I by at least 50% to ensure sustainable growth and to strengthen excellence and the technological base by increasing to 700 the number of EaP partner countries’ participations in Horizon Europe. Participants pointed out the need to strengthen academia-business links in all five EaP Partner countries and thus to increase participation of private companies from the region in Horizon Europe. 

A dedicated discussion was held on scientific diaspora collaboration across the Eastern Partnership region — including presentations by the European Commission on Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions and examples from Türkiye and EaP countries. Due to the strategic importance of diaspora engagement, participants concluded that diaspora initiatives are most effective when embedded in broader national and regional R&I strategies and linked to major EU programmes such as Horizon Europe.

More information

International cooperation with the Eastern Partnership