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Give shelter! Instead of cards, presents, calendars, pens, watches (!), pictures, gadgets or other presents, the equivalent expenses was be sent to Pakistan this year. The earthquake in October has left a whole region of Northern Pakistan in ruins. Apart from the deplorable death of 90,000 people, at presents several millions are facing enormous hardship, lack of food and shelter - and life danger. This is why for Christmas 2005, navreme has acquired an emergency shelter for one Pakistani family to survive the winter, which is starting these days, with snow, temperatures below 0 degrees, and 100s of villages unreachable for several months. Gerhard Schaumberger, a navreme collaborator, is in Muzafarabat now, to organise emergency aid on behalf of Hilfswerk Austria, a relief NGO. He personally guarantees that the money arrives where it is most needed. You can help as well, e.g. via Account Number AT43 6000 0000 0900 01002; Reference: Schutzhütte Pakistan" - Hilfswerk Austria, www.hilfswerk.at (24 December 2005). Off-springs at navreme: around 20 black molly fish were born today in the navreme office's acquarium. The little ones already swim lively, and are safeguarded from the hunger of the other inhabitants, including their mother, in a special kindergarden container of our "air conditioning and mental relaxation facility". ;-) (20 December 2005). Web-ring of Evaluators founded: a further evaluation network was established recently, of which Bernd Baumgartl from navreme is a founding member. In the form of a web-ring (www.evaluators-webring.net), whereby independent evaluators and small-size evaluation consulting companies from around the world interlink their websites, and offer their expertise and services in a package. The web-ring set-up is coordinated by navreme's partner Marco Lorenzoni and his label Bridges in Brussels/BE. More information on this site is available under networks (17 December 2005). Currently navreme is networking in Turkey: Anna Glass is in Istanbul to discuss the details of a possible evaluation with one of the best private universities: Sabanci. Bernd Baumgartl is meeting network partners and evaluation specialists, and will visit the Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara (15 December 2005). Dr Bernd Baumgartl was invited to give a lecture at Varna Free University in Bulgaria. His lecture "Which Europe: Integration, Enlargement and Identity/ies" is followed by discussions with rector Anna Nedjalkova, who is also the chair of the national association of private universities. navreme intends to set up a European network of private universities with several national associations in the near future (13 December 2005). The third workshop of EVAL4 Test-Scan, the Leonardo project was held in Sofia/BG on 9-10 December. The project's full name is Electronic Evaluation 4, and it will deal with Testing Evaluation Systems and Tools for stakeholder collaboration and Networking. One of the tools is navreme's game ludovaluate. Project partners are members of the evaluation network CERN EEIG, registered in Ireland (10 December 2005). In a cooperation with Graham Atwell from Pontydysgu (Pontybridd, Wales), Anna Glass of navreme will participate at the next Workshop of the Leonardo project vqts, in Vienna on 1-2 December (www.vocationalqualification.net). vqts specific aim of this pilot project is to create a systematic procedure to ensure international transfer of vocational qualifications (in terms of competencies and skills) at secondary level in order to increase mobility in VET. Students / Apprentices should be able to use their qualifications - acquired in educational institutions or / and in companies - as a "common currency" throughout Europe as foreseen in the "Bruges-Copenhagen" process. Pontydysgu and navreme are responsible for the evaluation (29 November 2005). Sebanci University, one of the top private universities in Istanbul/TR, has been sent a proposal for an external evaluation. Following talks with Dr Cemil Arikan, Director of Research and Graduate Policy in Warsaw, navreme proposed to use the MENTOR tool for discussions on the scope and objectives of such evaluation. Anna Glass will be in Istanbul 15-22 December, and visit the campus. Subsequently, navreme will send a coherent and informed proposal what and how the evaluation could be framed, which resources are needed. The Salzburg Seminar/Visiting Advisors Program will be our partner, and an international team, from diverse European backgrounds, and also including American expertise. Naturally Turkish experts should be on the panel as well (25 November 2005). The Final Report for the evaluation of INTAS has been finalised and sent to the European Commission. It contains results of the data collection phase, analyses and recommendations, and includes the comments received during the fourth workshop with the Steering Group at the European Commission in Brussels. It accepts the difficulties to continue the organisation of INTAS in its current settings, but strongly recommends to maintain the functions of INTAS (as a fund for science in the CIS; and as bridge to the EU's Framework Programme for Research). Moreover, the instruments and expertise of INTAS should not be lost either, and could be highly useful for international cooperation in general, as well as the new European Neighbourhood Policy (25 November 2005). navreme boheme has prepared a bid for the Evaluation of two ESF Calls in the Czech Republic. The programme will be evaluated with four aims: Human Resources (Capacity Building and Empowerment), Management (Organisation and Procedures), Stakeholders (Partners, Community and Clients) and Environment (NGO Sector). The criteria for evaluation are Process, Efficiency, Capacity-Building and Institution-Building. The bid is prepared by Petra Jedlicková and her team, Bernd Baumgartl is to be the Evaluation Supervisor. This and other activities were discussed in a recent strategy meeting of navreme boheme in Prague (22 November 2005). In the major bids by European Consortia, with Bernd Baumgartl as a senior expert via the Italian firms agmin in Verona and DRN in Rome have been sent to the European Commission: MTP4 in Russia and HE in Ukraine. The Management Training Programme in the Russian Federation is the successor of the famous Jelzin Initiative, aiming at training and placement of young Russian managers in Western Europe. In Ukraine, a tertiary sector assessment was launched, which will identify priority areas for future EU support via the Tacis programme (20 November 2005). On 14 November, a Workshop on Intercultural Communication was organised by navreme in cooperation with beta forte health communications (www.betaforte.at). The workshop presented examples of navreme's international projects with intercultural aspects to 18 mediators from - amongst others - the health and communication sectors. It identified specific situations for intercultural mediation, and developed targeted tools for interventions. It was co-sponsored by the telecommunication provider Connect Austria, and takes place at their "one smart space" (smartspace.one.at) in Vienna (15 November 2005). After submission of the Draft Final Report for the impact evaluation of INTAS, a fourth participatory workshop was held with the European Commission in Brussels, on 11 November. It served as a discussion forum, and provided comments on the Report. Participants were the Members of the Steering Group from DG RTD and other Commission services; for the evaluation team, Prof Michael Daxner and Anna Glass M.A. joined team leader Bernd Baumgartl. The Report gives detailed recommendations and outlines a transition period for INTAS to be transfered in the future non-ERC executive agency, to be operational in 2008 (12 November 2005). The first European Conference on Private Higher Education (Private Higher Education in Europe: Its Role and Functioning in the Context of the Bologna Process) was organised by UNESCO-CEPES and took place in Warsaw (PL) on 4-5 November 2005. A draft final report on Private Higher Education, based on a series of national case studies had been authored for navreme by Anna Glass and Jochen Fried. All findings were presented by Bernd Baumgartl and Anna Glass in Warsaw, in a innovative visualisation created jointly with ICASTIC in Firenze (IT) - (06 November 2005). Final interviews took place at the European Commission in Brussels (BE), for the draft final report of the INTAS evaluation. Dr Baumgartl discussed the legal analysis with DG RTD lawyers, and investigated transition solutions for the gap between the end of INTAS' madate (31/12/2006) and the start of the new agencies for FP 7 (in 2008). The report was language-edited by Ms Glass, and is now in the UK for QA with colleauges from TEEC. On 11/11, a workshop will be held with the Steering Committee to discuss the report and collect comments for the final version (25 October 2005). On 22 October, INTER, a 3-years EU Comenius project on Intercultural Education, was awareded the Evens Award for Intercultural Education. 2003-2005, the project has developed a formal and informal intervention model, holistic, integral and encompassing all dimensions of the educational process in order to achieve a real equality of opportunities/results, to promote intercultural communication and competency, and to overcome racism in all its expressions. The Evens Foundation (www.evensfoundation.be) awards "outstanding contributions to the integration of citizens in Europe". In the words of the jury, INTER is "a very innovative and intercultural project which is capable of being transferred and implemented in schools and other training situations". See the announcement of the Award Ceremony in Antwerpen (BE), and navreme's press communiqué (22 October 2005). The first meeting of a new EU Leonardo Project took place in Vienna on 21-22 October: "DEQU" will create a Central European network of practice oriented higher education institutions (which can be supported by research or consulting institutions), and quality assurance agencies and political decision makers (partner: navreme boheme). Project coordinator is the education company 3s in Vienna. DEQU aims at developing elements of quality assurance in selected “key processes” for practice and professional field oriented higher education under the outlines of the Bologna process as well as the Bruges-Copenhagen process. It will be instrumental to boost preparation for a planned European network of Private Universities (15 October 2005). On 14 November, a Workshop on Intercultural Mediation will be organised by navreme in cooperation with beta forte health communications (www.betaforte.at). The workshop will present examples of navreme's international projects with intercultural aspects to mediators from - amongst others - the health sector. It aims at identifying specific situations for intercultural mediation, and at developing targeted tools for interventions. It is co-sponsored by the telecommunication provider Connect Austria, and takes place at their "one smart space" (smartspace.one.at) in Vienna (16 October 2005). Ms Anna Glass has joined navreme as a project manager. Ms Glass has highly relevant work experience from the Salzburg Seminar, and recently finished her M.A. in Higher Education Studes at the University of Bath (UK) (14 October 2005). Eventually a long-finished paper was published in a review of Spain's High Council for Scientific Investigations: (2004), Bernd Baumgartl and Nina Kolybashkina. “Ethnic Clash Avoided: Crimea and the Crimean Tartars” in: Anales del Museo Nacional de Antropología, Vol. 10, No. 4/2004, Consejo Superior de Investigación Científica, Madrid. The article tries to come up with explanations why the potential powder-barrel Crimea did not fall into a civil war, but successfully manages to pursue integration policies for the 100+ ethnic minorities living in the Ukrainian peninsula (12 October 2005). A second version of a training course for Macedonian students of economics started recently in Skopje (MK). The course ("Through Training to Business Excellence" - TTBE), which had been implemented already in spring 2005, is offered by CAJTIG, the Macedonian nod of the navreme network, and focuses on management of small business. Trainers are Macedonian experts in business administration and economics. The course is organised by Ms Gabriela Krstevska, CAJTIG project manager in Skopje (11 October 2005). A draft final report was sent to UNESCO-CEPES in Bucharest for its project on Private Higher Education. The draft is based on a series of national case studies. Comparative analysis, together with a global reflection of trends and developments in private higher education have been undertaken for navreme by Anna Glass and Jochen Fried. One clear trend in European Higher Education is that the borders between Public and Private HE are increasingly blurred. All findings will be presented by Bernd Baumgartl and Anna Glass, at an International Conference in Warsaw, Poland: Private Higher Education in Europe: Its Role and Functioning in the Context of the Bologna Process on 3-5 November 2005 (10 October 2005). The Final Report of the UKIM Project found the approval of the University of Skopje, our formal contractor in this recently finished Austrian bilateral project (369,000 EUR): "In the Final Report we found a detailed account of the undertaken activities of the Consortium at the “SS. Cyril and Methodius” University during project implementation. All of the three components in the project: Quality Assurance, Procurement and Mobility have been accurately described after the accomplished activities, and their successful and complete implementation. navreme sent again an expression of interest for pre-selected consultants at the Delegation of the European Union to Turkey in Ankara. The Delegation will contact us in the future to provide administrative and technical assistance in several fields - Social Policy and employment; Education and training; Culture and audio-visual policy; General EC studies; and Audit & Evaluation (06 October 2004). The EU MINERVA-financed project named MultiCultural Diagnostics Information Profiling (MC-DIP) held its second workshop in Athens (GR) on 3-4 October 2005, at the premisses of our partner ERGON-KEK, a training provider. On behalf of navreme, Dr Bernd Baumgartl participated at the meeting, in order to discuss the transferability of the UK-developed tool to other European countries, and potential testing settings with e-learning service providers in Austria. A separate project web-site is now on-line as well: www.mc-dip.net (05 October 2005). UKIM is finished! Our 2 1/2 project with the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje (UKIM, MK) ended with the final payment of the PROcurement works, carried out by Makedonski Telekomunikacii (MT.com). The implementing consortium of this project - financed by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) consisted of navreme, the Salzburg Seminar, and DETRA from Skopje. The project consisted of QAE (quality assurance), PRO (procurement and installation of optic cables), and MOB (mobility) components, which were delayed by several months due to complication during the works under PRO, but successfully implemented eventually. navreme is now accepting final payment by the ADA (12 September 2005). 4 proposals with participation from the navreme network were submitted these days to the Leonardo Programme of the EU: under the lead of University Roma Tre (IT), "ASSET" aims "to create a framework of assessment for online education" (partner: navreme boheme); coordinated by Unione Italiana del Lavoro (Workers Union UIL, IT) "PERFECT", will try to develop "a semiautomatic web tool for self-assessment and guidelines for the personalization of courses" (partners: navreme vienna and navreme boheme); under the leadership of Institut für Pädagogik, München (DE), "SEQUAL" hopes to concentrate on quality of informal and non-formal learning validation at a systems level" (partner: navreme vienna); and promoted by IRRE PUGLIA, Bari (IT), the proposal "In.Co.N.Tr.O" which wants to give a contribution to define the strategies and the approaches for innovative actions of training of trainers and teachers through online learning communities (partner: navreme vienna and prague) - all propoals are in the field of vocational education and training (23 September 2005). Today navreme submitted a bid to the European Training Foundation (ETF), a EU agency in Torino (IT) for a study on Access to Education, Training and Employment of Ethnic Minorities in the Countries of the Western Balkans. Jointly with 6 national correspondents from the Western Balkans countries (AL, BA, HR, MK, SCG incl KO), Dr Bernd Baumgartl (AT), Prof Michael Daxner (DE) and Anna Glass M.A. (US/AT) are proposed as experts. A field trip and other data collection tools are planned for November and December 2005 (22 September 2005). Justus Henke started his Erasmus-financed study year at the University of Lisbon (PT). Michael Kummer, a graduate in economics of the Vienna University, will substitute him as the project manager in the navreme headquarters in Vienna - but cooperation on a number of project will continue also on-line from Portugal (19 September 2005). INTER, a 3-years EU Comenius project on Intercultural Education, held its final workshop in Oporto (PT), on 16-17 September. Key questions were the evaluation of the testing and piloting phase (2005) of the new curriculum and Guide, carried out by navreme, dissemination and the follow-up provisions: a conference on intercultural education is planned for March 2006 in Madrid; an ALFA proposal was submitted to the EU for expanding the project products to Latin America; and on 22 October, INTER will be awareded the Evens Award for Intercultural Education in Antwerpen (BE). In the words of the jury, it is "a very innovative and intercultural project which is capable of being transferred and implemented in schools, providing a practical tool for initial and in-service training of teachers". The final version of the INTER Guide is now available in English, Spanish, Czech, Latvia, Norvegian, and Portuguese. (18 September 2005). The Rector of the Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje (UKIM, MK) invited for a solemn cermony to put into operations the fibre-optic network installed via a navreme-run project. On 12 September, nobody less than Prime Minister Buchkovski will "turn the key", and thus perform the very last action of a 2+-years cooperation with Macedonia. Speeches by Prof Popovski of the national MARNet, Rector Martinoski, and Austrian Ambassador Dr Philip Hoyos will frame the event. The implementing consortium of this project - financed by the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) - will be represented by Dr Helmut Schramke (navreme) and Dr Cvetko Smilevski (DETRA). It concludes the delayed but successful implementation of QAE (quality assurance), PRO (procurement and installation of optic cables), and MOB (mobility) components (12 September 2005). After acceptance of the Interim Report for the impact evaluation of INTAS, a third participatory workshop was held with the European Commission in Brussels, on 9 September. It served as a discussion forum, and provided comments on the Interim Report. Participants were the Members of the Steering Group from DG RTD and other Commission services. Further inteviews were held with key stakeholders in the following days (09 September 2005). navreme was invited by the European Training Foundation (ETF) in Torino (IT) to submit a proposal for Labour Market Studies on "Access to Education, Training and Employment of Ethnic Minorities in the Countries of the Western Balkans". The proposal will be submitted on 22 September, and contains Organisation and Implementation, Methodology and Sources, Expertise and Experts, Comments and Suggestions for the activity. Considered are international and local experts from the target countries Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro (including Kosovo). If selected, the activity will last from October 2005 to January 2006 (04 September 2005). A proposal for a 2-year programme in Botswana, to be financed by the EU, was produced by navreme in August. The Vocational Education and Training project (2,3 MEUR) foresees systemic intervention and human capacity building at central and regional government institutions and schools. Helmut Schramke visited Botswana mid August, to agree local cooperation and for fact-finding. The proposal is handed over to hifab and their consortium partners from qplan in Greece. hifab, a consulting company in Sweden, who has been a cooperation partner of navreme over the past years (31 August 2005). Jointly with ZSI in Vienna as promotor, navreme boheme submitted a proposal for a Socrates project, on Private Higher Education. PHE Institutions are in need of a valid avenue toward legitimization in order to become acknowledged participants within the HE community. The project PRE-NEPU aims at the following: Analysis of specific QA needs within European “Private” (i.e. non-state) Universities; Adaptation and Development of existing QA tools for the target group; Preparation and pre-establishment of core network of private universities (NEPU) and experts from all European regions, to be expanded later. Partners are Academus (PT), CES (BG), Kaup&Wiegand (DE), Learning.Com (IT), and Nexus (IE) - (12 August 2005). INTER, the award-winning project with UNED and 10 European partners, is entering its final phase: results and feedback from the testing phase of the new curriculum and Guide have been processed by navremein Evaluation Brief No. 11. Most feedback concerned "instructions for use", and few amendments will be necessary in the Guide itself. In September, the final version of the INTER Guide will be available in English, Spanish, Czech, Latvia, Norvegian, and Portuguese. On 22 October, INTER will be awareded the Evens Award for Intercultural Education (01 August 2005). The Interim Report for the evaluation of INTAS has been finalised and sent to the European Commission. It contains results of the data collection phase, somewhat hampered by the holiday period, and logistic difficulties. However, a new electronic questionnaire device was first tested and used for this endeavour, developed by our Dutch partners Ray.Com: Eval-Act allows programming of text, format, reciepients, reminders, etc. and delivers data in easy spread-sheets format (30 July 2005). A coordination meeting took place in Vienna between navreme vienna and navreme boheme. It was agreed to distribute projects between the two nods, and to underscore boheme's expertise on the European Social Fund. A research into success of ESF projects in Austria and the Czech Republic will be carried out in autumn, in a EU-funded project lead by our Greek partners ERGON-KEK (28 July 2005). Bernd Baumgartl is a member of the Faculty - in a special session for professors only - of the International Study Programme (ISP 9) at the Salzburg Seminar. Under the direction of navreme associate Jochen Fried (Director), his day session "Intercultural Education - European Answers to Globalisation" introduced 70 US-American college teachers to the theory and method of the award-winning INTER project, and the political sociology of Europe beyond the EU. Other faculty members included navreme programme director Michael Daxner (former Rector of Oldenburg and Prishtina), Charles Hopkins (UNESCO Chair, York University in Toronto, Canada), Anthony Kennedy (Guest Speaker, Associate Justice, United States Supreme Court, Washington, D.C., USA) and Adnan Shihab-Eldin (Guest Speaker, Acting Secretary General, OPEC - Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, Vienna, Austria). The session lasts from 16-23 July (23 July 2005). A Leonardo Programme proposal was approved by the European Commission recently: under the lead of 3s in Vienna, "DEQU" will create a Central European network of practice oriented higher education institutions (which can be supported by research or consulting institutions), and quality assurance agencies and political decision makers (partner: navreme boheme). DEQU is excellent preparation for the planned European network of Private Universities, developed by navreme, and to be implemented as of autumn. More information available under nepu@navreme.net (21 July 2005). Final exams and graduation of a training course for 20 Macedonian students of economics took place in Vienna on 15 July, at the premisses of the European Institute for the furthering of Democracy (EID - www.eid.at). The course ("Through Training to Business Excellence" - TTBE) was offered by CAJTIG, the Macedonian nod of the navreme network, and focused on management of small business. Trainers were Macedonian experts in business administration and economics. The course was organised by Ms Gabriela Krstevska, cajtig project manager in Skopje. A coordination meeting was held to plan future cajtig activities. e.g. a new course on "Leadership" (15 July 2005). hifab, a consulting company in Sweden, has entrusted navreme to develop and prepare a proposal for action under a major EU project in Botswana. The 3-year programme in Vocational Education and Training (2,3 MEUR) foresees systemic intervention and human capacity building at central and regional government institutions and schools. Helmut Schramke will visit Botswana in early August, and end August the complete proposal will be handed over to hifab and their consortium partners from qplan in Greece (14 July 2005). Drafts of national case studies have arrived for the UNESCO project on Private Higher Education. The more specific objectives of this project are to: collect time series information on the development of the higher education private sector; make an analysis of the relationships between such a development and the approaches and mechanisms specific to the existing national quality assurance and accreditation systems; formulate policy recommendations on the ways of increasing the role of private higher education institutions in the implementation of the Bologna Process. The drafts of the national case studies and comparative analysis, together with a global reflection of trends and developments in private higher education will be presented at an International Conference. This will be attended by the authors of the case studies (Jochen Fried, Anna Glass, Bernd Baumgartl of navreme) and of the comparative analysis, as well as invited experts, leaders of private higher education institutions and representatives of international organizations. The conference will be organized by LKAEM and UNESCO-CEPES, in collaboration with The World Bank, in November 2005 in Warsaw, Poland: International Conference on Private Higher Education in Europe: Its Role and Functioning in the Context of the Bologna Process, organized by “Leon Koźmiński” Academy of Entrepreneurship and Management (LKAEM) and UNESCO-CEPES [co-sponsored by The World Bank], Warsaw, Poland, on 3-5 November 2005 (12 July 2005). Within the Regional Training and Consultancy Programme on Public Administration for the Mediterranean Partners (EuroMed Training of Public Administrations), Helmut Schramke from navreme was in charge of 3 sessions: "Building a Budget", "How to get Your Project Selected: Application Forms and Procedures under MEDA", and "The Project Cycle: From Project Development to Project Management". This high-level training is organised jointly with the Barcelona Antenna and Maastricht headquarter of the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA), and aims to provide training on European affairs to Civil Servants from the Southern Mediterranean and the Middle East, while also envisaging the creation of a network of training centres in public administration between the Euro-Mediterranean Partners. The first seminar took place in Brussels on 4-8 July (09 July 2005). A further evaluation is starting in the framework of TEEC - of European newsletters and Europe-wide publications by the European Commission. Gregor Razumovsky is the navreme communication expert involved in this exercise, and provides content input to our English partners from "The Evaluation Partnership". A first meeting with the European Commission is happening on 14 July (07 July 2005). Expressions of Interest were submitted with supporting documents for 3 EU-funded projects in Croatia (VET Centres of Excellence), Macedonia (Human Resources Development), and Serbia (Public Administration). 3 partners are proposed in each consortium with navreme, whereby the lead is with InBit, from Paderborn, DE (06 July 2005). navreme programme director Prof Michael Daxner has been contracted by the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture to prepare and organise 2 conferences during the upcoming Austrian EU presidency (first semester 2006). Both conferences will re-direct EU foreign policy towards the Balkans, Europe's sore zone, and centre of navreme's attention. The focus of Daxner's activity will be on soft sector policies, and in particular, on higher education and research (04 July 2005). On 30 June, in Wels (AT), navreme's Jochen Fried and Bernd Baumgartl met Dr Paul Rübig, MEP, Chair of the South-East Europe Committee of the European Parliament, to present AManTra, the navreme project of an Academy for the West Balkans. AManTra is meant to help the EU rapprochement of former Yugoslavia and Albania, by training local administration, and increasing absorption capacity for international aid. The honorable Rübig praised the project in an ensuing letter to Croatian Prime Minister Sanader as "well-thought and mature endeavour which addresses a dear need in the whole Balkan region". Moreover, Mr Rübig will support provision of a financial gurantee by the European Investment Fund (01 July 2005). Evens Price – European Award for Intercultural Education awarded to INTER project! The INTER Project has been awarded the 1st prize of the Evens Price by the Evens Foundation in Antwerps for our work in the promotion of intercultural education, out of the 16 finalists which had passed the first selection process. This European Prize is awarded to a project or organization deemed to have made an outstanding contribution to European social integration in the field of intercultural education, and who have demonstrated determination and creativity. Intercultural education is understood in a broader sense, as active learning to deal with racism, social and cultural diversity. Issues of ethnicity are only one dimension of the way in which "intercultural" is being used. In our focus on the schools and the school environment, we like to emphasize initiatives and processes that enhance inclusive education. As a substitute for health-impeded Mr Baumgartl, Martin Steinmeyer from particip in Freiburg (DE) undertook interviews in Ukraine and Russia, for the INTAS evaluation. The Interim Report will be submitted to the European Commission at the end of July (28 June 2005). In order to speed up the INTAS evaluation, Bernd Baumgartl met with DG RTD officials of the European Commission in Brussels. The Inception Report was finally approved, and green light for further evaluative steps was given: interviews, field trips (to Russia and Ukraine), and the electronic questionnaire for major stakeholders. In response, the evaluation team sent a second Input Paper to DG RTD, as a contribution to Commission-internal discussions on the future European Research Council (ERC) for "frontier research" under the 7th Frameowrk Programme, and the INTAS programme itself (25 May 2005). A new MINERVA project started recently, and held its first workshop. The project is named MultiCultural Diagnostics Information Profiling (MC-DIP), and will support the development of culturally sensitive Learner Management System’s (LMS) is based on a need to directly support ethnic minorities and immigrants through e-learning. Justus Henke participated in the workshop in Manchester (UK) from 15-17 May, on behalf of navreme (16 May 2005). In the context of the INTAS Evaluation for the European Commission, Mr Baumgartl undertook a field visit to Central Asia from 5 to 13 May. In Tashkent (UZ), he met with INTAS stakeholders and the Director of the Centre for Science and Technology (with Minister rank), Mr Khabibullaev. In Bishkek (KG) he held a focus group with the Academy of Sciences, and met Mr Ormonbekov, presidential adviser for education, science and culture (15 May 2005). The first volume of the navreme|publications series was published: "Project Manager's Handbook for Evaluation". The volume was edited by Jenny Hughes and Bernd Baumgartl, and contains one of the deliverables of the CERN project, which navreme was a partner to in 2002-2004. The Handbook can be ordered from the Vienna office at publications@navreme.net (13 May 2005). As a guest lecturer, on 10 May Dr Bernd Baumgartl gave a seminar at the OSCE Academy in Bishkek. His lecture on "International Project Management and Evaluation" addressed theory and practical examples from the project world, and focussed particularly on the current evaluation of INTAS in Kyrgyzstan. As a follow-up, navreme has been invited by Deputy Prime Minister Sihin-Gul Bolgzurova to contribute to the first national strategy for science and technology in Kyrgyzstan (12 May 2005). Together with particip's main consultant Oskar Marlyne, Jenny Hughes on behalf of navreme conducted a new series of workshops on project management and result based budgeting for the Council of Europe. The focus was on identifying the difficulties for the project managers in the completion of logframes, i.e. formulation of objectives, indicators, progress review and reporting. These workshops were held in Strasbourg (FR), and took place 2-10 May (11 May 2005). Justus Henke from navreme took part in the second meeting of EVAL4 Test-Scan, the Leonardo project which started in late 2004, in Pireus (GR) on 4-6 May. Most project partners are members of the evaluation network CERN EEIG, registered in Ireland. The project's full name is Electronic Evaluation 4, and it will deal with Testing Evaluation Systems and Tools: Stakeholder Collaboration and Networking. One of the tools is navreme's game ludovaluate (6 May 2005). The ILO (International Labour Office of the UN) at its training centre in Turin, Italy, offers a Master Course in International Development, jointly with the University of Torino. Dr Bernd Baumgartl was invited to run a two-day session on a project case, on the successful (and price-winning) UNDP project within Serbian Public Administration Reform in late 2002. On the second day he presented evaluation theory and tools, and play navreme's evaluation game: ludovaluate. Working Groups and open discussions took place in an open manner, and were evaluated positively by the students (4 May 2005). Session No. 6 of the Salzburg Seminar and its International Study Programme (ISP) took place 23-29 April 2005, in the castle of Schloss Leopoldskron near Salzburg. Again, the session had the title "Global Citizenship: America and the World", participants were 50 college students from New Yorker Community Colleges (US). Bernd Baumgartl held a seminar on "Xenophobia and Inclusion", and the session director was Jochen Fried, another navreme expert (29 April 2005). navreme was called for a Project Review Meeting with the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI), on the UKIM Project, financed by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. ADA as the contract awarding authority and ZSI as monitoring institution were pleased to hear about the successful implementation of QAE (Quality Assurance) and MOB (Mobility), and expressed concern on the delay of the PRO component (procurement and installation of optic cables). Several options were discussed how to bring PRO implementation at the University of Skopje (MK) to a an end soon. On behalf of the implementing consortium (navreme, Salzburg Seminar and DETRA from Skopje), Bernd Baumgartl and Justus Henke presented a draft final report and a draft final financial documentation (22 April 2005). The second joint workshop of the INTAS Evaluation with the European Commission (DG RES, N2 - International Research) took place in Brussels on 20 April. It resulted in an approval of the Inception Report presented from particip and navreme, by the newly appointed Steering Group of Commission officials. After the meeting, also the new Director for International Research, Mr Siegler, was informed by Dr Baumgartl on the outcome of the evaluation exercise so far (21 April 2005). A visitor from the Belgian Evens Foundation visited UNED recently, the Spanish national distance university in Madrid, and coordinator of our project INTER. The visitor was collecting more information on the pre-selected projects for the Evens Award on Intercultural Education, by means of face to face meetings to collect impressions on the work done and the "spirit" of the project. There were 92 projects applying for the prize and, after the first round, there are only 16 left, and one of them is ours! So keep fingers crossed for INTER... (18 April 2005). Prof Michael Daxner, former Rector of Oldenburg (DE) and Prishtina (KO) Universities, and navreme programme director, held lectures at the University of Skopje within the the UKIM Project, financed by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on 13 - 17 April. He gave a seminar with students on "The Access to the EU - Measures on the Level of Society"; a workshop on "Real-time implementation of Bologna Process" for faculty and staff; and a Public Lecture: "The Accession of Macedonia to the EU - a Soft Sector Perspective" (17 April 2005). The pre-final Workshop of the INTER project on Intercultural Education took place in Austria from 13-16 April 2005: in Schlaining, Burgenland, at the Hungarian border. Planned is a review of the testing phase in 10 countries, evaluation, and discussion of the final shape of the curriculum and guide materials. The meeting was organised by navreme, and foresees amongst others, a dialogue with the European Peace University, EPU (16 April 2005). CAJTIG, the Macedonian nod of the navreme network, is organising a course for advanced students on "Management of Small Business". Sessions will last from April to June, a final assessment event will be held in Vienna in July. The course is organised by Gabriela Krstevska, CAJTIG's programme director, and teachers of higher education institutions in Macedonia (05 April 2005). The testing phase of the INTER project on Intercultural Education, under the Comenius Programme of the EU, continues. At the CSIC, the Spanish equivalent of the Academy of Sciences, a pilot course under the lead of Margarita del Olmo in Madrid, included a session on "Evaluation and Assessment", chaired by Dr Bernd Baumgartl. On 1 April, a final evaluation session of the entire pilot course took place with representatives of UNED, the project coordinator (03 April 2005). A new project by navreme has been developed and mooted over the past weeks: Amantra - Advanced Management and Training Academy in Dalmatia (HR). Contacts have been underway with the Council of Europe's Development Bank, the Croatian Ministry of Finance, and Austrian commercial banks. The project foresees three pillars to the Academy: a project and workshop implementation venue, a research centre on Western Balkans and the EU, and a development foundation for local and regional projects (02 April 2005). In the context of the INTAS Evaluation for the European Commission, Mr Baumgartl held an interview with the Spanish representative to INTAS, Don Armando Albert at the Consejo Superior de Investigación Cientifica in Madrid (01 April 2005). Dr Bernd Baumgartl was invited to give a guest lecture at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM), at the Faculty of Education. The lecture with the title "Teoria y Practica de la evaluación en proyectos educativos europeos" was targeted at some 30 professors and teaching staff (01 April 2005). navreme boheme is partner in the proposal valor-IST (IST-Programme, FP6), recently submitted for a EU research project about the valorisation of results achieved from EU-funded projects dealing with the process of teaching and learning by the use of open platforms/tools and the collaborative use of learning objects and resources especially in Higher Education (projects from the V and VI Framework Programme, the eLearning programme and the Socrates-Minerva Action line). On the basis of 2-3 existing open source products and other existing tools/courses, several models of good practice will then be validated and adapted according to the needs in the NMS institutions. Emphasis will be given to organisational (collaborative use of eLearning objects and resources) and pedagogical scenarios (collaborative learning, progressive enquiry, informal learning context) for eLearning in Higher Education. The proposal is coordinated by the University Saarland (DE), and unites 13 partners - mostly universities - from 10 countries. Courses will be implemented in all 5 New Member States (NMS) Higher Education partner institutions and verified acccording to their effectiveness for teaching and learning (25 March 2005). For a monitoring and revision meeting of the PROcurement component of the major bilateral project with the University of Skopje, Dr Bernd Baumgartl spent 3 days in Skopje (Macedonia). He also met the Rector of UKIM, and was ensured by all partners that recent delays will not retard the project finalisation (23 March 2005). Dr Robert Dimitrovski, Professor at the European University in Skopje, and past collaborator of navreme, recently published a new textbook for his and other students: "Manadzment na mal buzines (Small Business Management)" (21 March 2005). A new Minerva project financed by the EU ("MultiCultural Diagnostics Information Profiling" - MC-DIP), to which navreme is a partner, started recently. The proposed creation of multicultural diagnostics tool kit (MC-DIP) to support the development of culturally sensitive Learner Management System's (LMS) is based on a need to directly support ethnic minorities and immigrants through e-learning and as a consequence enabling both information and knowledge transfer. This directly supports a core challenge of helping to combat racism and xenophobia and to offset the effects of socio-economic disadvantages. The project in particular is directly supporting: 1) Social situation and policies to integrate immigrants and ethnic minorities; 2) links between illiteracy and social exclusion; 3) links between access to culture and promoting social inclusion; and 4) fostering of a rights based approach to social inclusion. Partners are specialist organisations on minorities a and software developers from Denmark, Greece and the United Kingdom (18 March 2005). A new proposal was sent today to the European Monitoring Centre on Xenophobia and Racism (EUMC) of the EU, based in Vienna, for further evaluation of national reports from the EUMC's Focal Points (17 March 2005). Jochen Fried, as the main author, together with Anna Glas from the University of Bath, and Bernd Baumgartl submitted for navreme the Inception Report of their study on "Private Higher Education in Europe" to UNESCO-CEPES in Bucharest. The study will be finalised until next summer with input from 10 country studies, at the International Conference on the same theme, in Bucharest (16 March 2005). Another session of the Salzburg Seminar and its International Study Programme (ISP) took place 5-11 March 2005, in the castle of Schloss Leopoldskron near Salzburg. The session had the title "Global Citizenship: America and the World", participants were 50 college students from Miami/Florida (US). Bernd Baumgartl held a seminar on "Xenophobia and Inclusion", navreme associate Nina Kolybashkina on "Civil Society and Ukraine", navreme programme director Michael Daxner on "Citizenship and Migration. The session director was Jochen Fried, another navreme expert (11 March 2005). After submission of the last evaluation document to the Vienna-based European Monitoring Centre on Xenophobia and Racism (EUMC), navreme also sent the final invoice for nearly a year of work. The national reports by 5 RAXEN (the Racism and Xenophobia network of the EUMC) were evaluated, this year from DK, HU, LV, PL and SI (i.e. Denmark, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Slovenia - 10 March 2005). In the context of the INTAS Evaluation for the European Commission, Mr Baumgartl undertook a first field visit to the NIS from 27 February to 4 March. In Minsk (BY) he met with representatives of the State Committee for Science and Technology, the Academy of Sciences, the State University of Belarus, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (05 March 2005). Together with our partner The Evaluation Partnership (TEP, UK), navreme participated in a Call for Proposals for a framework contract on impact assessment with DG Information Society of the European Commission. If the bid were successful, the work would be on the research and technology investments made in the FP5 and FP6 programmes with DG Information Society (24 February 2005). A virtual conference was held today within the INTER project on Intercultural Education, under the Comenius Programme of the EU. Under the lead of UNED in Madrid, the Spanish National University for Distance Education, the cooperation focused on first experiences on the testing of the guide in teacher training institutions in CZ, ES, LV, NO, PO, and UK, which will continue for the rest of the third project year, until summer 2005 (22 February 2005). The last Evaluation Brief was sent to the project Paper in Water under the Leonardo Programme. It contains evaluations of the last pilot courses held by project partners in London, Vienna, Berlin and Stuttgart in late 2004 and early 2005. The project is coming to an end soon with the final report sent by the coordinator, the Stuttgarter Akademie der Bildenden Künste (SABK) to the National Agency in Germany (21 February 2005). Several Austrian professors are in Skopje these days under the MOBility component of our major project with the University of Skopje (MK), financed by the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Most of them are natural scientists or medical doctors, thus reflecting the prioritisation undertaken by UKIM in the second phase of the project: Univ. Prof. Dr. Narodoslawsky (Technische Universität Graz - Technology & Metallurgy - "Sustainable Development"), Univ. Prof. Dr. Steiner (Technische Universität Graz - Technology & Metallurgy - "Waste Water"), Prof. Dr. Graf (Allgemeines und Orthopädisches Krankenhaus Stolzalpe - Medicine - "Ultrasonography", Univ. Prof. Dr. Lexer and Univ. Prof. Dr. Vacik (Universität für Bodenkultur Wien - Forestry - "Sustainable Forestry 1+2"), Univ. Prof. Dr. Doytchinov (Technische Universität Graz - Architecture - "Innovative teaching and learning", and Prof. Dr. Walter Klepetko (Allgemeines Krankenhaus Wien - Medicine - "Digestive surgery") - (20 February 2005). The INTER Project coordinated by UNED (Universidad Nacional de Education a Distancia in Madrid) and to which navreme is partner, has been accepted as a candidate for the Evens Prize on Intercultural Education 2005. The Evens Prize is awarded by the Evens Foundation in Antwerp (NL) to "remarkable contributions in the field of intercultural education". Congratulations! (19 February 2005). Today navreme's web-site was completely re-launched, after roughly 5 years of existence! Graphic designer Camilla Torna from Florence, web-designer Justus Henke from Berlin, and partners Petra Jedlickova (navreme boheme in Prague) and Gabriela Krstevska (cajtig in Skopje) provided further advise. Comments in the guestbook (now top right margin) are very welcome! (17 February 2005). The second supervision of procurement in Macedonia by the Supervision Team resulted in a positive opinion on the progress of work. A second instalment of 43,750 EUR was thus paid to the contractor, Makedonski Telekomunikatsii (16 February 2005). Together with particip's main consultant Oskar Marlyne, Dr Bernd Baumgartl conducted the third and last pilot workshop on project management and result based budgeting for the Council of Europe. The focus was on identifying the difficulties for the project managers in the completion of logframes, i.e. formulation of objectives, indicators, progress review and reporting. Oscar Marleyn and Jenny Hughes on behalf of navreme had held a similar pilot course 2 weeks earlier (15 February 2005). 3 proposals with participation from the navreme network were submitted these days to the Leonardo Programme: under the lead of 3s in Vienna, "DEQU" will create a Central European network of practice oriented higher education institutions (which can be supported by research or consulting institutions), and quality assurance agencies and political decision makers (partner: navreme boheme); „FILIPPIDE“ (coordinated by Learning.Com in Rome), stands for "Fondi Interprofessionali: Laboratorio Integrato per la Personalizzazione dei Percorsi di Istruzione nella Didattica dell’E-learning“, and aims at 1) to analyse the most important European experiences about online learning and evaluation; 2) to produce and develop researches, reports, inquiries; 3) to define an European model of assessment for e-learning; finally, "PrassiTele" (Practice Webs), launched by the Università di Roma 3, foresees 1) to analyse the most important European experiences about online learning and evaluation; 2) to produce and develop researches, reports, inquiries; and 3) to define a European model of assessment for e-learning (10 February 2005). Jenny Hughes from CRED in Wales undertook first field research for the impact evaluation of INTAS - in Armenia and Georgia. Her findings will be completed by further trips and an electronic questionnaire, which is being produced via the Internet-based tool Eval.Act by our Dutch partners Ray.Com (06 February 2005). In the framework of the INTER project, there will be a pilot course in Madrid. Together with Margarita del Olmo, Bernd Baumgartl will participate in a couple of sessions between 29 March and 1 April. The course is approved and announced at the Department of Anthropology at the Spanish CONSEJO SUPERIOR DE INVESTIGACIONES CIENTÍFICAS (CSIC) (04 February 2005). A dissemination framework was adapted and sent by navreme to partners in 2 Leonardo projects: INTER and PaperInWater. It suggests to partners a variety of dissemination channels, methods and tools, and collects dissemination and capitalisation efforts. The navreme dissemination framework is another of the project management and evaluation tools, shortly to be collated in a brochure with the title "navremetools" (27 January 2005). In Prague Dr Bernd Baumgartl and Petra Jedlickova finalised discussions and proceeded to registration of a new member of the navreme network: navreme boheme! navreme boheme is a Czech "sro" (society with limited responsibility), founded in December 2004, will be focusing on advising Czech and other institutions and organisations at governmental, regional and municipal level on the application, implementation and evaluation of European funding instruments, such as EQUAL, Regional Funds, Strucutral Funds, Cross-Border Cooperation and others (24 January 2005). Today a formal network cooperation agreement was signed between navreme and the Center of Educational Strategies (CES) in Sofia, Bulgaria. CES President Professor Anna-Maria Totomanova and Dr Bernd Baumgartl as the Executive of navreme signed, amongst other intentions, to "apply in their cooperation the spirit of the "navreme network nature", cooperate closely in the acquisition and implementation and evaluation of all programmes and projects they may have, and treat each other as preferential partners during the proposal stage of requests and assignments". Similar agreements may be concluded with other network partners (22 January 2005). With colleagues Jenny Hughes from CRED in Wales, and Martin Steinmeyr from particip in Germany, Dr Bernd Baumgartl conducted the first workshop of the evaluation of the INTAS programme (see below) with our clients at the European Commission, DG Research. In a cooperative atmosphere, the objectives, tools and desired outcomes of this major evaluation exercise were agreed. A meeting with the management of the INTAS association took place as well, and INTAS ensured the evaluation team of full cooperation. Trips will include the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus, Armeina and Central Asia (21 January 2005). The joint website of the CERN and EVAL networks has been re-launched recently under the location www.evaluate-europe.net. The site contains a library of evaluation reports, the jointly developed evaluation handbook, evalutation tools, and additional information and experiences in the evaluation field at European level (20 January 2005). On the last day on his stay in Rome, Dr Baumgartl reinforced links with our Roman partners from Learning Community srl (Prof Marco Guspini, Eleonora Guglielman, Francesco Oman). Fine-tuning of two ongoing Leonardo proposals in the field of e-learning was undertaken, to submit full proposals in February (19 January 2005). The final workshop of the Leonardo project Water in Paper took place in Rome on 17-18 January at the premisses of ICCROM, a UN agency on conservation of cultural heritage in Rome. Navreme in this project was the co-evaluator, and produced a series of evaluation briefs to keep the project on track. The project successfully delivered training materials for paper conservators in Europe, assembling the latest state of knowledge in the field. High-level training materials include slides, animations, video-clips, and sophisticated graphics - to explain the damagining or beneificial effect of water on paper - between wetting and drying (18 January 2005). Mr Justus Henke has joined navreme as a project manager. Mr Henke has work experience from economic research in Germany, and is at present an advanced student of Economics in Vienna. He is also a skilled and price-awarded web-designer - see www.numedia.de (14 January 2005). In Sevilla, Dr Bernd Baumgartl prepared the navreme engagement in the EWNE network, which currently comprises 40 organisations. Spanish partners expressed interest to cooperate with navreme in projects in South-East Europe, where they can deploy relevant expertise, especially in tourism and regional development (12 January 2005). Dr Bernd Baumgartl was a member of the Faculty at the International Study Programme (ISP) of the Salzburg Seminar. Under the direction of Prof Michael Daxner (former Rector of Oldenburg and Prishtina) and Dr Jochen Fried (Director), his day session "The Other Europe - a Cruise on the Danube River" introduced 60 US-American college students to the geographic and political sociology of Europe beyond the EU (07 January 2005).
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