Expanding Research Opportunities for Central Europe

A new initiative between ICTP and the Central European Initiative (CEI) encourages early-career scientists from several CEI member states to participate in ICTP's Programme for Training and Research in Italian Laboratories (TRIL). TRIL offers valuable, hands-on experience to early-career scientists by placing them in one of hundreds of Italian laboratories that participate in the ICTP programme.

Through the ICTP-CEI initiative, titled 'CEI-ICTP Researchers' Mobility for Sustainable Development', scientists from seven non-EU CEI member states in Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans will be encouraged to apply to the TRIL programme. As TRIL fellows, they will work side-by-side with Italian and international researchers in a wide range of fields, returning to their home countries to share their new knowledge with their students and colleagues. Their experience helps to build a sustainable capacity in basic and applied research that can help their nations' progress.

The CEI is an intergovernmental forum encompassing 17 Member States in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Its institutional mission is to promote regional cooperation for European integration and sustainable development. To this aim, international scientific cooperation and science diplomacy are decisive tools, thus representing a priority throughout the entire CEI membership. This is clearly stated in the “Trieste Declaration on Science” - unanimously adopted by CEI ministers in charge of research, innovation and higher education in December 2019 – where mobility of researchers is singled out as an essential action to support.

ICTP has been supporting global efforts to advance scientific expertise in the developing world for about sixty years. Its mandate is to provide scientists from developing countries with the continuing education and skills they need to enjoy long and productive careers. This is done through high-level training and mobility programmes in physics, mathematics and related fields. Moreover, ICTP is interested in expanding its cooperation with countries of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, and particularly with CEI non-EU Member States in Eastern Europe and in the Western Balkans.

To that end, the new agreement with CEI opens up opportunities for young scientists in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Ukraine. ICTP and CEI also see their new initiative as a joint contribution to the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, approved by the United Nations General Assembly for 2022.