On November 22-23, 2017, European regional meeting of the Global Research Council (GRC) was held in Stockholm, Sweden. The meeting was hosted by the Swedish Research Council For Sustainable Development.

National science foundations from the EU Member States and the associated countries of EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020 attended the Regional meeting. Georgia was represented by the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG), as the list of participants included the Director General of the Foundation, Manana (Mako) Mikaberidze and the Deputy Director General Nino Gachechiladze.

Two following topics were discussed during the meeting:

• Science Diplomacy;
• Peer-Review

The meeting aimed to strengthen the collaboration between internationally recognized foundations and agencies which fund scientific research, to emphasize the close cooperation between science and diplomacy and to strengthen the communication between fields of scientific and foreign policy.  In this context, special emphasis was put on the sustainability of international cooperation and on sharing economic interests and the necessary infrastructure for joint scientific activities.

The Fund's representatives discussed the criteria of expert assessment that are essential for bilateral trusts in cooperation between financing institutions, as well as for effective and transparent administration of joint programs.

Beside this, the European funds participating in the meeting formulated a new vision for the 2018’s GRC Annual Meeting, which will be held in May, 2018 and will be hosted by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and National Science Foundation of Korea.

Participants of two days international event were the representatives of leading European Scientific Foundations from Sweden (Swedish Research Council), Switzerland (Swiss National Science Foundation),  Poland (National Science Centre of Poland), Norway (The Research Council of Norway), United Kingdom (University of Exeter), United States of America (American Association for the Advancement of Science), Republic of Ireland (Science Foundation Ireland),  Germany  (DFG, German Research Foundation), Turkey  (TUBITAK - The scientific and technological research council of Turkey), Azerbaijan  (Science Development Foundation under the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan), Russia (Russian Foundation for Basic Research), Slovakia (Slovak Research and Development Agency), Luxemburg (Luxembourg National Research Fund), Italy (National Institute for Nuclear Physics), Spain (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology - Secretary of State for Research, development and innovation), Israel (Israel Science Foundation), Slovenia (Slovenian Research Agency), Croatia (Croatian Science Foundation), Czech Republic (Czech Science Foundation), also the  representatives from European Research Council and the board of The EU framework program for research and innovation „Horizon2020“.

Among  the representatives of the European Regional Meeting were: Dr. Sandeep Sandhu-the representative of the United Kingdom`s Research Center and executive of CRC supporting group; Mrs. Maud Evrard - representative of European Science and GRC; Dr. Marga Gual Soler - representative of American Association for the Advancement of Science; Prof. Jane Elliot-representative of  University of Exeter etc.  There was also panel discussion about Science Diplomacy with the representative of Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Andres Throedson, secretary general of Formas and the representative of Sweden in  IPCC Prof. Markku Rummukainen and the representative of royal institute of technologies Dr. Lize-Marie van der Watt

Internal workshops were held during the meeting and the representatives of European foundations discussed about the issues related to science and diplomacy and peer review.

Internal meetings were held during the meeting for discussing European foundations’ vision in terms of the Science Diplomacy and Peer Review.