Researchers Mobility for Sustainable Development

The Central European Initiative (CEI) and ICTP agree on the urgency to provide young scientists/early-career researchers with opportunities for career development through international mobility. 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 have been, are and will be 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. The 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. Therefore, eligible applicants will be young scientists/early-career researchers from the following CEI Member States: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Moldova, North Macedonia, Serbia, Ukraine. Based on the above, CEI and ICTP agreed to launch a new initiative entitled “Researchers’ Mobility for Sustainable Development”, which is also a joint contribution to the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development, approved by the United Nations General Assembly for 2022.