The Central European Initiative (CEI) is composed of 18 Member States: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine, embracing a territory of 2.4 million square kilometres and a population of nearly 260 million.

The CEI UNIVERSITY NETWORK (CEI UniNet), established in 2004, is CEI’s main activity in the field of Higher Education. The CEI University Network is based in Trieste (Italy) at the CEI-ES headquarters and is headed by the Rector of the University of Trieste. Co-operation within the CEI University Network takes the form of Joint Programmes (JPs) of post graduate academic character, such as PhDs and Master’s courses. Summer schools, seminars and workshops may also be eligible provided they envisage a teaching element, a minimum duration of one week, and an award certificate. A JP can be submitted either by nationally recognised universities or other institutions of higher learning provided that the latter has an adequate academic profile.  A JP presupposes the co-operation of at least two universities/institutions of higher learning belonging to the CEI Member States. Priority is given to JPs involving Participating Universities from CEI non-EU Member States (Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Ukraine) and involving a larger number of Universities.

There are six (6) main areas of cooperation of the CEI University Network:

- Advanced Biotechnology

- Economics

- Environment and Sustainable Development

- ICT

- Infrastructure and Logistics

- Regional Development, Public Administration (including Governance Models)

Other areas of co-operation are not excluded if the merit of a Joint Programme proposed justifies its Adoption.

A JP is based on the principle of mobility of both students and teaching staff. Project implementation should start after 1 July 2012. Project duration should normally not exceed 1 year. The applications that pass the eligibility check (fulfilment of formal requirements) will undergo the evaluation procedure. During the evaluation, the CEI Secretariat may request additional documentation or amendments to the application, which must be delivered by the applicant in writing by standard electronic means.

The evaluation procedure will be divided into three phases:

Phase 1: A preliminary evaluation is carried out by the CEI University Network Executive Board composed of the Coordinating Universities of the CEI UniNet related to the applications from the respective countries. The Executive Board will send a selected number of JP proposals to the CEI Secretariat.

Phase 2: A second evaluation is then carried out by the Chairperson of the CEI University Network (Rector of the University of Trieste) together with the CEI Secretariat who take into account the overall priorities for eligibility as well as the available financial resources.

Phase 3: A selected list is then sent to the CEI University Network Executive Board for a final approval

After approval of the project by the Board, the applicant will be informed about the amount of the approved CEI contribution and the conditions of disbursement. The list of the proposals selected will be published on the CEI website (www.ceinet.org) once this process is concluded.

The financial support available this year is of 50.000 EUR for 5 projects on competitive basis.

CEI UniNet projects usually take the form of medium sized projects of about EUR 80.000,00 to 100.000,00. The maximum awarded CEI grant amounts to EUR 10.000,00 and shall not exceed 50% of the total eligible project costs.

Applications must be submitted by a University / institution of higher learning in an CEI Member State which acts as applicant/coordinator of a given Joint Programme, in partnership with at least one University / institution in a CEI Member State (non EU member States are preferable).

The Application Form is available on the CEI Website: www.ceinet.org

For more information please contact: 

CEI Secretariat                                  Tania Pibernik

Via Genova 9                                     Executive Officer

I - 34121 TRIESTE                             E-mail: pibernik@cei-es.org

www.ceinet.org                                   Tel. +39 040 7786 721