Meeting with Jaba Samushia, General Director of Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia

On August 12, 2021, Jaba Samushia, General Director of Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia met with Nino Okribelashvili, Coordinator of the project - Raising Research Capacity of Georgian HEIs through Developing R&D Units / HERD, reference number: 598207-EPP-1-2018-1-GE-EPPKA2-CBHE-SP (2018-2578/001). The project Coordinator introduced the main outlines of the EU-funded Institutional Development Project to the newly appointed Head of the Foundation and spoke about the general difficulties encountered in the HERD implementation process related to the limited access to Scopus and other scientific databases since 2021. N.Okribelashvili noted the importance of the Unified National Science Portal for HEIs and research institutions and stressed the need for permanent access to academic research databases for the successful functioning of the HERD portal – Georgian Research Information System – GRIS.emis.ge. For his part, Mr. Jaba Samushia confirmed that Georgian scientists will have unhindered access to the databases of the international scientific publishing house Elsevier in the nearest weeks. He also outlined the key issues in which the Foundation's participation will be crucial and will be particularly helpful in sustaining the results achieved with EU financial support. On the other hand, the creation of a scientific platform will help researchers and policymakers in terms of EU best practices in establishing modern research approaches and values in the country.