Call for proposals of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the Internationalisation of Science and Research of Regulations governing the funding programme "International Cooperation in Education and Research – The Central, Eastern and South Eastern European Region".

Funding Purpose: Cooperation in education and research with Central and Eastern European and with South Eastern European countries is marked by the expansion of the European Education and Research Area, the Innovation Union and the extension and integration of the European Union (EU).

Against this background, the target countries of this call for proposals are:

• the EU Member States Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia;
• the official EU accession candidates Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia and
• the potential EU accession candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Republic of Kosovo.

The current formats of cooperation are intended to strengthen the international and European focus of German institutions in the field of education and research and to improve their competitiveness.

This BMBF programme provides financial resources for projects to prepare proposals and applications for funding under the thematic priorities of the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 and other research-relevant EU programmes. This includes projects which support the partner countries in making use of EU structural funds for research purposes and to thereby enable them to cooperate and compete in both the European and international research area. International links are to be created along the entire value-added chain in order to support technology transfer and innovation. Participation by companies, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), in the R&D consortia is therefore expressly desired. More information is available here!