The Regional Research Promotion Programme in the Western Balkans (RRPP) aims at establishing and strengthening research capacities in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia. The programme has an implementation perspective of 10 years and will support the development of research capacities in the area of social sciences, especially in topics relevant to transformation. It should offer a cooperation platform to researchers in the region, particularly those that are to become the driving force of higher education reforms and that can effectively promote a stronger recognition of the social sciences and above all the significance of research in this area.

The Second International Scientific Conference "Social, Political, and Economic Change in the Western Balkans", was held in Durrës, Albania, on 25-27 June 2010. It gathered more than 90 researchers from the region and around the world. A prominent keynote speaker was the Swiss Ambassador to Albania, Yvana Enzler.

The main aims of the conference were to exchange the scientific findings and discuss challenges, contradictions and ambivalences resulting from the transformation process with which the researchers in the field of social sciences are confronted in the Balkans. Furthermore, the conference enabled regional and international networking and helped establishing communication between scientists interested in regional research cooperation. It primarily brought together PhD students and MA graduates from the Western Balkans, but also from Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Malaysia, Italy, Switzerland and from the United States.

Special attention was paid to the transition in Albania. Valuable inputs were provided by Albanian political scientist, Ermal Hasimja, as well as by Clarissa de Waal, a social anthropologist at Cambridge University and author of the volume Albania Today: A Portrait of Post-communist Turbulence.

The Regional Research Promotion Programme (RRPP) in the Western Balkans is managed by the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) in cooperation with research institutions from the region. It is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and has been operating in Albania since 2009. Its coordination office in Albania is attached to the European University of Tirana (UET). The office cooperates closely with the headquarters in Switzerland and other universities and research institutions in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia. While serving as the main organiser of this year's conference, it also organises regional trainings and provides support to Albanian researchers in implementing their RRPP funded research projects.

Conference Website

Photo gallery