BALCON

BALCON was a Support Action funded by the EC under the FP7 “Information and Communication Technologies” programme (FP7-ICT). It aimed to reinforce the research cooperation between the academic and industrial communities from the EU and the Western Balkan Countries (WBC) that are active in the design, development and implementation of systems and applications for Monitoring and Control (M&C).

The project objectives of BALCON included:

• analysing the EU-WBC research collaboration potential in the broader field of M&C, by
• reviewing the R&D priorities and trends in both regions;
• highlighting the research excellence in the Western Balkan Countries;
• identifying the research areas of common interest, which may result in substantial benefits for both regions if R&D collaboration is reinforced.
• creating a community of experts (“Advisory Group”) from both regions in the targeted research field to: catalyse collaboration among leading research teams from both regions; offer a point of reference in the process of reinforcing collaboration among EU and WBC research teams; launch an open dialogue on the research areas with a high EU-WBC collaboration potential.
• organising a variety of networking, training and awareness raising activities to:

• share insight into EU-funded collaborative research activities (especially under FP7/HORIZON2020)
• promote the research competencies of research teams from the Western Balkans
• bring into direct contact researchers from both region enabling the exchange of ideas on their collaboration potential under FP7/HORIZON2020)
• prepare the ground for the initiation of joint R&D activities