HERD is a National SM initiative with the core objective to enhance the research capacity of Georgian HEIs through developing R&D units supported by professional development of research management mechanisms, skills and tools, evidence based policies & tech-transfer aiming to introduce technology and online national platforms, train admin staff and PhDs, contributing to Georgian R&I capacity nationally and internationally.Specific objectives are: 1. To introduce software online platform for Georgian HEIs R&D units facilitating planning, implementation and evaluation of R&D activities and KPIs. 2. Create an Online Georgian Research Portal accumulating and disseminating all public information on research activities, human resources and infrastructure of Geo HEIs and supporting inter- and intra- university collaboration nationally and internationally. 3. Upgrade the research management and data analysis skills of university admin staff in research management, analyzing institutional research data and providing ground for further forecasting and strategic planning. 4. Enhance the capacity of the target universities in respect to tech- transfer and university-industry collaboration. The relevance of this initiative are: a) Georgian HEIs are urged to respond to the national policies for R&I capacity building to provide high impact in socio-economic development of the countryb) Internationalization of R&D as mandatory feature after joining H2020 as associate memberc) New standards by quality assurance agency to develop evidence-based policies for R&D in Georgian HEIs and tracking the KPIsd) Georgian HEIs attempt to align their research management processes with EU standards.The HERD impact at the individual level [min 10 000 PhD students, 80 admin staff and 4 282 academics], institutional [12 GE HEIs] sector [transferable to the entire HE sector and research centers] and society level [supporting tech-transfer and innovation].
1) Establish a joint research platform through introducing a Research Management software in target HEIs; 2) Create an Online Georgian Research Portal displaying the state-of-the art information on the activities, human resources and infrastructure of the academic institutions in Georgia; 3) Upgrade the research management and data analysis skills of the target HEIs admin. personnel; 4) Enhance the capacity of the target HEIs in respect to research transfer and university-industry collaboration.
Before the start of the project institutional research units that would be responsible for data processing, analyzing, research management and strategic forecasting were poorly or not developed at Georgian HEIs. HERD has equipped Georgian HEIs with proper research management tools to track overall performance of individual universities, support inter-university and interdisciplinary cooperation, attract new generation of PhDs, and university-industry cooperation via knowledge transfer.
<< Background >> Before the start of the project institutional research units that would be responsible for data processing, analyzing, research management and strategic forecasting were poorly or not developed at Georgian HEIs. HERD has equipped Georgian HEIs with proper research management tools to track overall performance of individual universities, support inter-university and interdisciplinary cooperation, attract new generation of PhDs, and university-industry cooperation via knowledge transfer. << Objectives >> 1) Establish a joint research platform through introducing a Research Management software in target HEIs; 2) Create an Online Georgian Research Portal displaying the state-of-the art information on the activities, human resources and infrastructure of the academic institutions in Georgia; 3) Upgrade the research management and data analysis skills of the target HEIs admin. personnel; 4) Enhance the capacity of the target HEIs in respect to research transfer and university-industry collaboration. << Implementation >> Project consortium has successfully managed to implement all respective deliverables as being included in the project application documents, though there have been several obstacles identified during the course of project implementation. The major obstacle was related to the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic and respective lockdowns that affected the agenda of the project, slightly delayed the implementation of certain deliverables and prolonged the eligibility period of the project. << Results >> Fulfilling all its deliverables HERD upgraded the research capacity of Georgian universities through developing the research and development units operating within the target universities through series of trainings on strategic planning, importance of institutional data, data analysis and online research management platform, thus contributing to upgrading the Georgian research capacity on the national level and developing Joint Research Management Portal – GRIS.EMIS.GE.