The "Doctoral School of the Western Balkans" (ED-BALK) project wins AUF's IntenSciF program

Through studies on the structure and organization of higher education and doctoral studies in all the countries of the region, the project aims to prepare for the development of a Western Balkans Regional Doctoral School - ED-BALK.

For one year, the AUF will accompany the project in its next stages:

• Strengthen Western Balkan doctoral study systems in compliance with European legislation by implementing innovative doctoral pedagogies and drawing on French pedagogical engineering
• Prepare the start of academic cooperation initiatives between France and Western Balkan states
• Prepare the presentation of a project funded under the Erasmus plus program for the creation of the ED-BALK doctoral school.

The project is based on a first phase that began in autumn 2021 with the organization of several workshops, training courses and webinars in the Western Balkans followed by an international colloquium at Inalco, a mapping of higher education and a feasibility study for the creation of a regional Doctoral School. Feasibility was analyzed on the basis of three main pillars: guaranteeing institutional feasibility, guaranteeing financial feasibility and guaranteeing pedagogical feasibility. The results of the study guarantee the feasibility and relevance of the project.

* The project management of the "ES-Balk" program has been entrusted to France Education International by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE).

Project partners are the Saint Clement of Ohrid faculty of Bitola (Northern Macedonia), the Institute of Political Studies of Belgrade (Serbia), the Faculty of Philology of Nikšić (University of Montenegro), the European Center for Research and Free Creation (CERCL) and EuropaNova.

Coordinator at Inalco: Frosa Pejoska-Bouchereau, University professor of Macedonian language, literature and civilization, deputy director of the PLIDAM research laboratory (Inalco), former director of Inalco's Doctoral School, n°265, Langues, Littératures et Sociétés du monde, and co-director of the "Oralité" Master's degree.

"The ED-BALK Doctoral School is thought of as a transnational space dedicated to high-quality scientific training and research; a place conducive to the meeting of young researchers, intellectual exchange, the emergence of joint projects and the enhancement of collaborative partnerships; a pole of excellence through regional cooperation and exchanges of best practices in the field of research.

ED-BALK: A flagship project for the Western Balkans and a regional promotion of French pedagogy and the French language." (Frosa Pejoska-Bouchereau)


Project initiators and coordinators:
Frosa Pejoska Bouchereau, Inalco
Marc Nebojsa Vukadinovic, Lecturer at Sciences Po Paris (Dijon campus)

Launched in 2021, the IntenScif program is an incentive instrument for accelerating emerging projects articulating the French-speaking scientific community and the European higher education and research area. It mobilizes springboard funding and supports the consolidation of consortia engaged in drawing up major proposals to European, international or national agencies, public or private, to develop ambitious collaborative projects.