PRIORITY AREA 7

Priority Area 7 “To develop the Knowledge Society (research, education and ICT)” is coordinated by Slovakia and Serbia, with the involvement of a wide network of key players.

On our website you can find more information about main activities, projects and actions in the field of knowledge society in the Danube Region, latest news and upcoming events on the topic.

The Steering Group of Priority Area 7 revised its targets in 2016 and the updated PA7 targets are the following:

  1. To increase the effectiveness of investment in R&I through establishment of a funding coordination network aiming to initiate a minimum of 2 dedicated EUSDR activities each year (e.g. joint calls; joint strategic project proposals (within a multilateral framework)).
  2. To increase the number of EPO and PCT patent applications filed from the Danube Region by 20% by 2020.
  3. To enhance regional research and education co-operation to reach 20% of academic mobility within the region by 2020.
  4. To increase the annual output of co-publications in the region by 15 % by 2020.
  5. To develop RIS3 in all Danube countries (or their regions) by 2020.

These targets were endorsed by the EUSDR National Coordinators on Joint Meeting of EUSDR held in Bratislava on 23 May 2016.

Remark: The EU Strategy for the Danube Region has been established as a mechanism for the better coordination of activities in the Danube Region. It aims at a more effective spending of existing resources but in principle, no extra funds have been made available. In this sense, the work of Priority Area 7 “Knowledge Society” has to be understood as a contribution towards these targets which depends on national/regional and EU framework conditions in the education, research, development and innovation areas.

In order to reach the defined targets in the expected timeframes, the Steering Group has adopted a Roadmap. The actions of the Roadmap are regularly monitored and assessed, and the Roadmap updated regularly at the Steering Group meetings.

One of the first activities and contributions from the members of the PA7 Steering Group were focused on the assessment of the state of the art on the targets defined in the Action Plan. The comparative analysis is available here.