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| Connect 2025 Official Poster |
CONNECT 2025 promotes and strengthens the building of the knowledge society to support democratization.
To this aim, we dwell on our wide network of scientists from the region and connect new students from the
different regions of the WB (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia) with
collaborators from Germany, Türkeye, Hungary and with each other. This network has led to successful
cooperation between the partner Universities, both scientifically and personally.
The project is focusing on the alignment and integration of the countries in the WB (especially Bosnia-
Herzegovina and Serbia as candidates for EU membership) into the European Research Area (ERA) as the
bigger framework for cooperation in Europe. The overall theme is: How can WB researchers and politics
converge towards the ERA and how they can benefit from the ERA?
The project aims to discuss the goals of the European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda and how the
countries in the WB (especially Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia as candidates for EU membership) can be successfully integrated into the various ERA activities.
The ERA Policy Agenda defines the following priority areas:
- Deepening a truly functioning internal market for knowledge: CONNECT will focus on Open Science, Promotion of research careers and talent circulation and gender equality.
- Taking up together the challenges posed by the twin green and digital transition, and increasing society's participation in the ERA: CONNECT will address the digital transition/impact of AI and green transition in terms of eco-system.
- Amplifying access to research and innovation excellence across the Union: Here we focus especially the
Widening, Twinning and COST Programs under Horizon Europe to bring expertise to the WB.
The format of CONNECT 2025 will be of Symposium style in Neum (Bosnia-Herzegovina) in August 2025 (5 days+arrival/departure days. It will start with impulse talks in the morning, followed by intense World Cafe style group discussion sessions in the afternoons with wrap-up presentation of each group in the evening. Included are scientists, ECRs and students from the target countries Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia with two external partners from Türkiye (also a candidate for EU membership) and Hungary (to bring in a view and expertise on ERA different from Germany).
