At the end of June (27-29.6. 2018), Daniel Straka, Martin Kujan and Petra Lipnická from SOVVA together with Karol Fröhlich from the Electrotechnical institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences prepared and led workshops aimed at spreading know-how about Centres of Exellence (CoE) in Tirana, Albania. 

On the first day, the lecturers provided a brief introduction into the Centres of Exellence, using the examples of Best Practice and experiences from Slovakia, EU and the Word. In the afternoon, the presentations concentrated on how to set up Centres of Excellence within Academia setting. The lecturers shared the know-how on building Centres of Excellence, provided the participants with the knowledge of Integral elements of CoE. At the end, the participants could hear the experience of Karol Fröhlich from the Electrotechnical institute of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, who shared the case study of his institute.

On the second day the participants were learning how to set up and run Centres of Excellence, which included learning how to prepare a project and find funding and how to cmmunicate and cooperate with various partners (academia, universities, industry, government). In the afternoon, the topic shifted to support of entrepreneurship and collaboration with private sector through technology transfer offices. The participants of the workshop learned the specifics of technology transfer process, as well as important institutional policies on tech transfer. To make matters more concrete, the lecturers provided the participants with case studies from Slovak universities and Slovak Academy of Sciences.

The third day was dedicated to individual meetings, consultations and discussions, for which the participants had to register in advance.

“Entrepreneurial Albania” is a consultation project managed by Slovak Organization for Research and Development activities (SOVVA) and Albanian Centre for Business Research and Training (ACBRT) in support of strengthening cooperation between stakeholders and learning within Albanian innovation ecosystem. The project received support from SlovakAid under the “Transformation Experience Sharing Programme” and draws on experience from SOVVA, Neulogy and SAPIE in supporting the startup and innovation ecosystem in Slovakia.