Capacity Building and Support: the Six WB Economies’ Main Results

Capacity building was one of the core pillars of the POLICY ANSWERS project — and one of its most tangible legacies across the Western Balkans.

The programmes implemented across the six WB economies were not designed in isolation. As Sanja Popovic Pantic, from the Institute Mihajlo Pupin and moderator of the capacity building panel at the final event, explained: «These programmes were co-created with national stakeholders and aligned with the Western Balkans Agenda for innovation, research, education, culture, youth and sport.»

The approach was deliberately flexible. «We revised the programme after the first year to establish what worked well, what didn’t work and where the gap still existed. And we adjusted it again to respond to newly emerging needs» — ensuring that activities remained relevant and impactful throughout the four years of implementation.

Each of the six economies implemented several activities to support researchers, policymakers and institutions in improving their ability to design and manage research and innovation initiatives, targeting key areas such as proposal writing, EU programme participation, institutional capacity and cross-sector collaboration.

For each economy, an important stakeholder has summarised the overall results of these activities. Browse the six economy reports below.