Excellence-In-ReSTI partners convened for their Project Management and Steering Committee Meeting in Sofia, Bulgaria, hosted by partner ARC Fund. After an intense summer, partners discussed their past Excellence-In-ReSTI experience, and reviewed the advancement in the first stage of the project. Also, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss and make decisions about the most relevant project issues in the second period of project implementation. Project partners will focus on the identification of good practices in ReSTI management within the Danube region paying specific attention to existing gaps and to opportunities for transferability within the region.

These initial results will provide input to the discussions on the design of a comprehensive Excellence-In-ReSTI curriculum, guided by the ambition to increase the competencies and employability of ReSTI managers in the region. An important deliberation will be on the aspects of a pilot course, which will emphasize the characteristics and differences between science management, innovation management (both technical and social innovation), and will offer guidance on how to set up a research or innovation project.