Whilst in Georgia, President Cloetingh met with Mikheil Chkhenkeli, Minister of Education and Science and Deputy Minister, Alexander Tevzadze to discuss the work of COST and the many opportunities available for Georgian researchers as a Near Neighbour Country (NNC )
President Cloetingh said “COST is building bridges between researchers and countries. My meeting today with Minister Chkhenkeli followed by the COST Info Day chaired byDeputy Minister Tevzadze in Tbilisi, strengthened established connections and paved the way for starting new ones. I am working to see that Georgia is getting closer to join the COST family as soon as possible.”
COST President, Sierd Cloetingh addresses over 100 participants during the Info Day in Georgia
In Chisinau, Moldova, on the 3 May, COST Director, Ronald de Bruin met with Monica Babuc, Minister for Education, Culture and Research and Elena Belei, State Secretary for Research, who expressed their wish for increased participation for Moldova in COST. The Minister and Secretary also presented statements during the official COST Info Day.
COST Director, Ronald de Bruin with Monica Babuc, Minister of Education, Culture and Research
During the event attendees learnt about the work of COST and COST Actions, including how they could participate in ongoing Actions, launch new Actions and how they could prepare successful project proposals.
Participants also heard first-hand accounts regarding the benefits of taking part in COST Actions including Serghei Sprincean, who participated in Professionalization and Social Impact of European Political Science and Svetlana Coiocaru, who participated in European Network for Combining Language Learning with Crowdsourcing Techniques. Also presenting during the Moldova Info Day were COST National Contact Point, Larisa Virtan and Anatolii Sidorenko, the Director of the Institute of Electronic Engineering and Nanotechnologies.