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newslog 2002

The INTER project under the EU-Comenius programme purports to improve quality of education and contribute to innovation in schools by supporting them in the implementation of an intercultural approach, fostering reflection on and providing a practical tool for initial and in-service training of teachers. The project will focus on developing, using, and validating a practical guide which will facilitate analysis, implementation and improvement of intercultural education in schools. navreme will carry out the accompanying evaluation of this project until 2004. A first workshop lead by Teresa Aguado took place on 19-21 December 2002 in Madrid at (UNED, the Spanish University for Distance Education.
(23 December 2002).

The final event of the Serbian UNDP project on project management training is took place on 16 December in Belgrade (Yugoslavia). All trainers, participants of the roll-out, several of their bosses, and government officials took part in the certification event. It was preceded by a one-day Internal Evaluation Meeting, to de-brief and plan for 2003, scheduled on 14 December 2002. Bernd Baumgartl, Helmut Schramke, Petra Jedlickova, and Danijel Pantic from the navreme/ECG consortium were present. After a speech by the representative of the Serbia Prime Minister, UNDP officials and Dr Baumgartl presented the project's success in delivering, empowering, and changing the behaviour in a cascading scheme.
(16 December 2002).

Negotiations are coming to final stage with the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the project in Macedonia. Signing of the contract should still take place in 2002, in order to start the project as soon as possible, and assist the University of Skopje with advise, contacts and procurement.
(9 December 2002).

A Steering Group meeting of the CErn project under the Leonardo Programme took place in Pontybridd (Wales, UK) from 1-4 December 2002. Together with colleageus, Bernd Baumgartl co-decided on the programme in 2003, finetuned the training programme, and developed a game for evaluators - LUDOVALUATE. The game is posted on this website already - see "about network/ludovaluate".
(7 December 2002).

The final Week 4 of roll-out of the Serbian project management training was coached by Bernd Baumgartl. Again, remarkable evaluation results and excellent feedback from participants underlined the capcaities of the local trainers trained before by navreme
(24 November 2002).

In the UNDP Project in Serbia, Tsako Pantaleev from navreme coached week 2 (11-15 November) with 2 parallel roll-out weeks, assisted by local experts.
(16 November 2002).

Within the Salzburg Seminar University Project, Bernd Baumgartl is a member of the high-level expert team to visit the State University in Baku, Azerbaijan from 12-17 November 2002. The project is financed by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and results in recommendations for the management and strategy of the university.
(11 November 2002).

Helmut Schramke assisted to the first week of roll-out training in Serbia. The UNDP project participants ran their first training sessions with remarkable success, and received excellent feedback from the trainees. New slides were produced, logistics organised, and sessions tested meanwhile. Tsako Pantaleev from navreme will coach week 2 (11-15 November) with 2 parallel roll-out weeks, assisted by local experts.
(10 November 2002).

A Leonardo bid was submitted today to the National Agency in Austria. The project proposal (E-VAL3) involves 12 organisations from 9 countries, and foresees the further development of electronic evaluation tools. It will be coordinated by navreme, and - if accepted - work will start in July 2003. (4 November 2002).

Material production for the roll-out training of the train-the-trainer project in Serbia was keeping navreme and participants busy all week. Support trips by Helmut Schramke and Bernd Baumgartl to Belgrade were undertaken. The materials are now ready in Serbian language, and a first delivery week starts on 4 November, coached by navreme, in Zlatibo (Western Serbia). (30 October 2002).

Good news from Spain: a Comenius project on "Intercultural Education" was accepted for financing by the European Commission. Under the coordination of Universidad de Educacion por Distancia (UNED) in Madrid, 16 organisations across Europe will develop new curricula from 2003-2005. navreme is charged with quality assurance, and an accompanying evaluation process. (26 October 2002).

navreme, together with the Salzburg Seminar University Project and the Macedonian DETRA Center was selected for the short list of the Austrian project with the University of Skopje (see news of 10 September). The project should assist the University of Skopje in its planning, management and procurement, and is foreseen to run from January 2003 to June 2004. Terms of Reference have been sent to invite for bids. (23 October 2002).

The third week of training for the Project Management Training in Serbia (UNDP) took place 12-18 October in Zlatibor, Western Serbia. Trainers are navreme's experts Helmut Schramke (AT), Juraj Nemec (SK), and Danijel Pantic (YU) from the HD European Consulting Group (www.hd-ecg.com). (18 October 2002).

Within the TEEC consortium, navreme together with The Evaluation Partnership (UK) submitted a bid to carry out an Ex-Ante Evaluation of the next phase of the Phare programme. The following experts were nominated by navreme: Jenny Hughes, Tsako Pantaleev, and Bernd Baumgartl as the team leader. (9 October 2002).

Dr Bernd Baumgartl was invited to be a guest lecturer at the University of Belarus in Minsk. He spent 8-16 October there, and lectured on "Xenophobia in Europe", on "Populism in Austria", and the very setting and way of work of navreme's, as an example of the network and knowledge economy. (8 October 2002).

A team meeting of all involved experts in the Project Management Training in Serbia took place on 6 October in Vienna. The team is now familiar with the group, and a de-briefing of week one was undertaken. Week two on "Project Implementation through Team-Building" is running from 7-11 October, and trainers are navreme's experts Tim Sims (UK), Petra Jedlickova (CZ), and one expert from the local partner HD European Consulting Group (www.hd-ecg.com): Milovan Batak. (6 October 2002).

Within the Salzburg Seminar University Project, Helmut Schramke is a member of the high-level expert team to visit the State University in Tbilisi, Georgia. The project is financed by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and results in recommendations for the management and strategy of the university. (30 September 2002).

UNDP has asked navreme to carry out an evaluation of the Judiciary Training Centre in Serbia. The Centre is carrying out training for prosecutors, judges and other personnel of the judiciary sector. Bernd Baumgartl had a meeting with the project officers and consultants in Belgrade, and Tim Sims will undertake a site visit beginning of November. A report and recommendations will follow, and aim at a incremental improvement looping, towards the creation of a self-evaluation system at the JTC. (29 September 2002).

Training in Serbia starts 23 September. The first week of the UNDP project focuses on project design, management and evaluation, and features navreme's trainers Tsako Pantaleev and Bernd Baumgartl together with Tanja Jurisevic from the local partner HD European Consulting Group. 20 participants from government, private sector and NGO will be trained and become trainers themselves. The training is held in Zlatibor near Belgrade. (21 September 2002).

On 23 September, Dr Helmut Schramke is representing navreme at the first meeting of THE EUROPEAN EVALUATION CONSORTIUM (TEEC) EEIG (www.navreme.net/eeig.htm) at the European Commission's DG Budget. Partners in the European Economic Interest Group (EEIG) are The Evaluation Partnership (UK), particip (DE), Economisti Associati (IT) and navreme (AT). A work programme on coming evaluation assignments will be handed over by the Commission, to be executed by TEEC in the near future. (20 September 2002).

Contemporary with the visit of the Chinese Prime Minister, a high-level Chinese delegation from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences (SASS) has visited navreme. In the framework of a project on “The Development of Shanghai: A Comparative Studies with International Cities in the World“, the following experts spent a weein Vienna: Professor Yuan Enzhen, Director of academic committee in Institute for Economy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, President of Shanghai Economic Association; Professor Jiang Tiezhu, Deputy Director of Institute for Economy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences; Associate Professor Chen Renhe, Director of Office of Academic Secretary in the Institute for Economy, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Secretary General of Shanghai Economic Association; Professor Su Songxing, Intitute of Religion, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Vice President of China Youth and Juveniles Studies Association. The project aims to study this subject and establish institutional contacts in the areas of social economy, education and similar. The Chinese scientists are, amongst other, involved in the economic and developmental planning of the Special Economic Zone Shanghai, and serve as advisors to the Mayor of Shanghai. Meetings were organised with the University of Vienna, the Technical University, the Urban Planning Department, the Interdisciplinary Center for Comparative Research, HHP International Economic Lawyers, MECCA Consulting, the Ministry of Science - and at navreme's office. (19 September 2002).

Bernd Baumgartl from navreme participated at two conferences in Portugal: Euronet and CERN/EVAL had their meetings in Lisbon and Evora respectively. Euronet has taken up speed via the platform (www.learningpolicies.net), and EVAL (theknownet.com/eval-cern/) has its final meeting with the presentation of several electronic evaluation tools developed by the project. Planning for continuation will take place... (12 September 2002).

After signuature of the contract with UNDP for the seminar series in Serbia (announced below), Dr Helmut Schramke and Dr Tzako Pantaleev took part in the exploratory mission for the navreme team. Meetings with participants, local partners, UNDP officials and Ministries, and virtual conference with all experts, have helped to finetune the programme. (11 September 2002).

Yet another proposal was sent off today: funded by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the University of Skopje in Macedonia will receive a one-year consultancy by Austrian and European experts. navreme, together with the Salzburg Seminar University Project and the Macedonian DETRA Center, expressed its interest, proposed a strong international expert team, and is confident to be invited to tender. (10 September 2002).

navreme is coordinating a panel at the UNESCO conference on Human Rights Education (www.jyu.fi/ktl/unesco2003/), to be held in June 2003 in Jyvaskyla, Finland. It will target HR education provision in transition economies, with their specific environment. The table will reunite several UNESCO chairs in Central and Eastern Europe. Together with Prof Elena Korshuk from Minsk State University, Bernd Baumgartl is the convenor of this table. More to come! (9 September 2002).

UNDP has awarded the contract for "PROVISION OF TRAINING MANAGEMENT OF REFORM POLICIES AND PROGRAMMES, COMPONENT 2 - Development of Competence Nodes: Training for Civil Servants of the Republic of Serbia" to navreme. Between September and end November, navreme's experts Tim Sims (UK), Helmut Schramke (AT), Juraj Nemec (SK), Tsako Pantaleev (BG), Petra Jedlickova (CZ), and Bernd Baumgartl (AT), together with experts from the local partner HD European Consulting Group (www.hd-ecg.com) will deliver training courses for civil servants on International Project Management, Team-Building and Training to Train. (2 September 2002).

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Addiction Research (Interdisziplinäres Zentrum Suchtgiftforschung) of the University of Vienna has asked navreme to host its website. Since 1 September 2002, the site is available under the url www.navreme.net/sucht/Welcome.html. (1 September 2002).

Another request is under elaboration for the European Training Foundation (www.etf.eu.int): to provide an evaluation of the Action Plan to Promote the Culture and Practice of Civil Society and Related Networks in the South-Eastern European Region (Phare B-700/200/T-2000/054), started by the Royaumont Process within the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe. On behalf of Lernia (www.lernia.se) in Stockholm, navreme provides the experts Bernd Baumgartl and Marco Lorenzoni, collaborators in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia and Serbia, and is also responsible for the drafting of the technical proposal. (30 August 2002).

navreme candidated together with the Salzburg Seminar and a Public Relations firm for a tender by the European Commission, DG Research. The title of the project is "GOVERNANCE OF THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH AREA: THE ROLE OF CIVIL SOCIETY" and it should investigate Civil Society participation in the EU's and some 30 countries' research policy development. (28 August 2002).

The research paper on "Ethnic Clash Avoided" on the multi-cultural situation in Crimea was finalised these days, and sent to the University Computense in Madrid. A edited volume and special issue on ethnic conflict and its resolution worldwide is being produced there. The paper was written on the basis of an evaluation carried out in Ukraine, and is co-authored by Bernd Baumgartl and navreme's associate Nina Kolybashkina from Simferopol. (12 August 2002).

Bernd Baumgartl was - for a third time - a Professor at the Summer University of the Central European University. The course "Intercultural Citizenship" was attended by 25 post-graduate students, university teachers and specialists from Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, Turkey, and Nigeria. Further resource persons were Course director Cesar Birzea (RO), Miroslav Kusy (SK) and Vedrana Spajic-Vrkas (HR). A possible continuation of this teaching task is the Centre for Humnan Rights in Croatia, and its summer school in Makarska, Dalmatia, as of summer 2003. (4 August 2002).

Planning has started to design follow-up programmes for CERN and E-VAL, and to register an EEIG for the Capitalisation and Evaluation Research Network. Likely is an extension of the evaluation culture towards and experimenting of online evaluation tools in Eastern Europe. (17 July 2002).

The draft final report of the evaluation of the NARIC network was handed over by Marco Lorenzoni on behalf of the Pragmatic Network of Individual European Consultants (www.navreme.net/pragmatic.htm) to DG EAC of the European Commission. Petra Jedlickova and Bernd Baumgartl from navreme participated to the report which was submitted before the deadline, and included policy recommendations and scenarios for 2010 (12 July 2002).

The joint Steering Committee of CERN (the Capitalisation and Evaluation Research Network - under the EU Leonardo programme) and E-VAL, its electronic environment (www.theknownet.com/eval-cern/), took place in Dublin 6-7 July 2002. Progress was monitored of the evaluation tools under development: evaluation design wizard; empowerment measurement tool; "What the Hell...?" evaluation game; social impact evaluation; I-VALUATE - weighing and scoring of criteria; and Simulation for training of evaluators. Afterwards, Bernd Baumgartl visited 's partners Tim Sims and Jenny Hughes in Betws Gwerful Goch (North) and Abergavenny (South Wales) respectively to plan future navreme activities (10 July 2002).

"I hereby certify that THE EUROPEAN EVALUATION CONSORTIUM (TEEC) EEIG is this day registered" - reads the Certificate of 27 June by the Registrar of Companies in the United Kingdom. It refers to the European Economic Interest Group (EEIG) set up by The Evaluation Partnership (UK), particip (DE), Economisti Associati (IT) and navreme (AT). In future, our framework contract for evaluation services with the European Commission will use this legal construct of a "European firm". (27 June 2002).

Today navreme sent off a major tender proposal for UNDP, concerning Public Administration Reform in Serbia. If approved, the project foresees train-the-trainer modules in Belgrade in autumn, and a roll-out of training in PA until the end of the year, covering approximately 250 Serbian officials. The consortium partner is the Serbian European Consulting Group. Several of navreme's partners from CZ, BG, SK, UK, YU and Austria will be involved. (26 June 2002).

On 21 June the fourth session of the Eurone&t Steering Committe took place in Prague. It resolved several strategic issues for the Network financed under FP5. Bernd Baumgartl and Helmut Schramke assisted on navreme's behalf. Moreover, a meeting with associate Petra Jedlickova was held on future evaluation cooperation, and a new contact was made with the Administration of the Prinicpal property of the Schwarzenberg family in their castle Orlik in South Bohemia. The latter may result in a joint project to develop tourism and hotelery jointly. (24 June 2002).

15-20 June were the dates of the recent mission to Bulgaria. It comprised a cross-domain meeting of the Eurone&t project in Sofia, and the evaluation interview with the Bulgarian NARIC on academic recognition. The workshop resulted in enhanced transnational cooperation for the project, and navreme will work with the Bulgarian partners on interviews with policy makers. The NARIC evaluation will flow into the Pragmatic Network's report to DG EAC of the European Commission. (21 June 2002).

Today the radio station Deutsche Welle from Köln (dw-world.de) registered an interview with Bernd Baumgartl to be transmitted to their Bulgarian audience next week. The trigger for the interview was the first anniverary of the new Bulgarian government, lead by the former tsar Simeon Sax-Coburg-Gotski. The themes ranged from internal and foreign policy to Bulgarian concerns like unemployment, poverty or crime, and resulted in an assessment of Bulgarian progress in its negotiations for EU membership, possibly to take place in 2007. (12 June 2002).

Bernd Baumgartl was awarded a contract by the Dutch Institute for Public Administration (ROI - www.roi-opl.nl), and sponsored by the Open Society Institute (OSI - Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative), in the Mentor Programme for Public Policy Centres in Eastern Europe - Latvia Mentor Programme. The beneificiary organisation is the Latvia Centre for Human Rights and Ethnic Studies in Riga. Dr Baumgartl will provide technical assistance by jointly developing a strategic plan, by helping with fund-raising, and by ongoing consultation. Within the duration of one year, 3 visits to Riga are planned. (6 June 2002).

Together with navreme's collaborator Nina Kolybashkina from the Crimea Institute of Peace, former UNDP official and post-graduate student at the European Peace University in Schlaining, and currently with the United Nations University in Tokyo, Bernd Baumgartl has been writing a paper on ethnic conflict in Crimea ("Ethnic Clash Avoided - Conflict Prevention Strategy and Lessons Learned"). Today a draft version was sent to the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, who will publish the paper in a special issue on ethnic conflict of their anthopological journal. (30 May 2002).

In the framework of the evaluation of the NARIC network, carried out on behalf of DG EAC of the European Commission, Bernd Baumgartl interviewed NARIC Austria in Vienna. The Austrian NARIC is hosted by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and is very active nationally and EU-wide in spreading information about recognition of academic studies abroad. More information is available at NARIC's homepage www.bmbwk.gv.at/naric. (21 May 2002).

For the third time, Bernd Baumgartl was a visiting professor at the European University Centre for Peace Studies (www.aspr.ac.at/welcome.htm) in Stadtschlaining. Located at the Austrian Study Centre for Peace Studies in a charming castle in Southern Burgenland, Austria (see a photo on the hompage at www.aspr.ac.at), the EPU runs 3-months Certificate Courses and 1-year M.A. programme. Graduates receive a recognised Master of Advanced Studies (Peace Studies), and come from an international background, ranging from Eastern Europe, to Asia, Africa or North America. Dr Baumgartl's course, from 5-10 May 2002, was focusing on "Communities, Development and Conflict / Design, Management and Evaluation of Projects". (11 May 2002).

Within the NARIC evaluation (see below), Dr Baumgartl interviewed the Greek NARIC named DI.K.A.T.S.A. in Athens on 24 April 2002. The protocol of the interview and a case study will be part of the Pragmatic Network's evaluation report to the European Commission, FG EAC. (30 April 2002).

The Second Workshop of the "Eurone&t" research project took place in Athens on 21-22 April 2002. It was the first plenary meeting with all core and invited partners. It featured presentation on important learning policies, like education, research, universities, etc. More on the project and meeting is available at the Eurone&t web-site www.learningpolicies.net. (28 April 2002).

Since 25 April, the "Eurone&t" information and communication platform is online. It was set up with the technical support by the Austrian community server firm www.factline.com. Content is managed by navreme. Its address is: Eurone&t web-site "www.learningpolicies.net". (26 April 2002).

Civics Education in Georgia is a running programme by USAID. navreme was asked to provide input with a view to its experience with the Council of Europe's work on Education for Democratic Citizenship. The consultancy would assess what the current level and type of activities related to civic education is in Georgian schools, including who is doing what: Ministry of Education policy development in this area, NGO activity, status of teacher training to skill them for this type of teaching, teacher in-service training, etc. (10 April 2002).

In the framework of a EU Grundtvig project, Dr Baumgartl was invited to propose a framework for an Accompanying Evaluation. The project ECTS-ILLL is dealing with a crucial aspect of the erection of the “Europe of Knowledge” or “European Education Area”. Thus the impact of the project will depend not only on the quality of the methodology and tools, but also on the ease with which these approaches can be readily used in the four pilot vocational areas and the possibilities of a wider network across all the countries of the European Higher Education Area. Given the continuing nature of policy development and reform as proposed by the Barcelona Declaration of 2002, it would be vital that this specific project is subject to a process of continuing valorization. (6 April 2002).

Selma Prodanovic is a new permanent collaborator with navreme in Vienna. Selma has a background in Public Relations and Marketing, and pursues an M.A. on intercultural education. She was born in Sarajevo, but has lived in Vienna for more than 10 years. Welcome! (2 April 2002).

Together with The Evaluation Partnership (UK), particip (DE), and Economisti Associati (IT), navreme (AT) has won a framework tender by the European Commission, DG Budget, for all evaluations which are cross-domain, i.e. involve more than one DG. An EEIG (European Economic Interest Group) is being formed at present by these four organisations, in order to start evaluations as soon as possible. Only in 2002, 1 million Euro will be tendered under this title. (26 March 2002).

For the Eurone&t project, navreme is in charge of the ICT platform. It will be online soon, and comprise a public and internal area, contain features like chat, news, documents, events and others. At the Eurone&t Athens plenary workshop (22-23 April) a briefing for participants will be held. (18 March 2002).

EKIS is the new ICT system used by the Government of the Land Niederösterreich (Lower Austria). 7,000 employees were moved to the new platform with the help of the EKIS-team of ICT experts. In order to further plan the group's activities, and to enhance organisational development, graphic designer Camilla Torna, Bernd Baumgartl, and Helmut Schramke held a session with the EKIS group on 8 March in St. Pölten, by using navreme's tool "inorma". The successful session included the development of 3 scenarios for the yer 2005, and a visual representation of the EKIS geography - now and in three years time. (11 March 2002).

Dr Baumgartl has written a first version of "Scenarios for the European Higher Education and Research Area 2010". It will be partly of use for the ongoing NARIC eveluation (see below), and for the "Eurone&t" project. Those interested are welcome to request a copy and provide comments! (7 March 2002)

Dr Baumgartl and Olga Strietska-Ilina from the National Training Fund in Prague participated at CEDEFOP's workshop on Evaluation Research on 28/2 and 1/3 in Thessaloniki. They presented navreme's abstract and outline for research on "Evaluation in EU and International Programmes". (26 February 2002)

A proposal for the Socrates programme was sent under the Comenius 2.1 activity line. Under the lead of the University of Madrid, a consortium of EU and accession states (including navreme with special repsonsiblity for accomanying evaluation) will produce materials and reports on intercultural learning in VET and general education. A decision by the European Commission is due in summer 2002. (22 February 2002)

The first phase of the NARIC evaluation is finalised: after a meeting with DG EAC's Steering Committee in Brussels on 15 February 2002, the Interim Report is being delivered to DG EAC. It includes a questionnaire for all NARICs, an analysis of all web-sites, the history of the network, and a vision for future work. Work so far was carried together with Marco Lorenzoni from Bridges in Brussels, under the name of Pragmatic Network of Individual European Consultants. A final report is due by June 2002. (18 February 2002)

The - below announced - seminar in Bosnia and Herzegovina was completed in a very succesful and pleasant manner: all course participants were interactively trained in issues of Human Resource Management in Public Administration and prepared for their own role as trainers for colleagues during February and March. Mr Tim Sims, and Dr Tsako Pantaleev, together with Dr Baumgartl, were the trainers of the last week focusing on team-building. The final event with representatives from Embassies and Ministries demonstrated the learning achievements of the Bosnian colleagues to a large audience, and Dr Baumgartl, together with the Austrian Ambassador, handed over Certificates to all course participants. (4 February 2002)

Dr Baumgartl is the seminar director of the fourth week (28/1-3/2/02) of a EU programme in Bosnia and Herzegovian ("Support to the Common Institutions of BiH"), implemented jointly by the German GTZ and the Austrian Academy for Public Administration. The whole seminar addresses "Human Resources Management in Public Administration", while the last week will concentrate on "project management, leadership and team work". Further colleagues from navreme's network include Dr Helmut Schramke, Mr Tim Sims, and Dr Tsako Pantaleev. (24 January 2002)

navreme's new year started 7 hours earlier than in Europe - in Asia! High-level meetings and presentations at education institutions in Beijing (Peking University "Beida", Central University of Nationalities), Shanghai (Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, Fudan University) and Hongkong (at University of Hongkong, Centre for Research on Eduation in China) were well received and promise further collaboration. Chinese experts will now participate in the EU FP5 research projects on education policy and regional development. Dr Baumgartl agreed continuing exchange with an NGO on evaluation in education, and publications on the EU are underway in Chinese journals. (18 January 2002)

Under the last call of the Fifth Framework Programme on Research and Technological Development was submitted by a consortium of European Universities, institutions and firms: "Regions and the Civil Society - Re-Framing and Transforming a Political Paradigm in a Changing European and Global Context". If approved by DG RES, navreme will serve in the Steering Committee of this project, together with the University of Bremen (Bremen Forum for European Regional Policy), the European University Institute in Florence, and CNRS in Paris. The para-phrased research question of the Thematic Network is "What will be the role of regions in a reformed and enlarged EU?". (16 January 2002)

News Archive 2001 and before