HERD Kick-off Meeting, 27-28 February, 2019

The kick-off meeting of HERD project (under the EU co-funded Erasmus+KA2 program) was held on February 27-28 at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University which stands as the leading partner of the project. Rector of TSU, George Sharvashidze, Deputy Minister of Education, Science, Culture and Sport of Georgia, Irina Abuladze, Head of National Erasmus+ Office, Georgia, Lika Glonti, academics and students attended the first working meeting. The agreements for the partnership were signed between TSU and consortium members. The meeting was initiated to introduce each partner’s resources, competences and experience in R&D management. First step was to establish steeering committe SC from the consortium members for providing guidance on key issues of the project. One member was selected from each partner university who will be responsible for monitoring strategic issues and decision-making process and inform their own organization. According agenda of the meeting the next activity was presentation of newly developed frameworks for Needs assessment of R&D in Georgia, Quality Management Plan and Media Communication Strategy. Besides, three options of potential Research Management software were presented Via skype and discussed. In the last part of the meeting participants agreed on several details regarding the project management. The participants outlined the plans for the first year and agree on the challenges and risk factors of the project outcomes. Moreover, the ways of project administration and implementation were discussed thoroughly.