Tunisia works to modernise R&D systems

Improving the competitiveness of the Tunisian economy and achieving its integration in the world economy and, in particular, in the European area. With this objective, the European Union is financing and the FIIAPP is managing the twinning project “Institutional support to improve the capabilities of the Tunisian research and innovation system”.

To achieve its objective, the project has had to adapt its work to the emergence of COVID 19.  To do this, Spanish specialists have accompanied Tunisian officials for several months in ten meetings to work on issues such as the review of practices in the management of research and innovation based on the EU standard or the proposal of improvements to the mechanisms for directing the strategy and governance of the Tunisian research and innovation system.

The objective has been to design a training plan to improve the capabilities of R&D managers in Tunisia, especially in Tunisia’s  Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MESRS from its initials in French).

The objective of defining a training plan on R&D management is explained based on the intense professionalisation process that this sector has undergone in the last 20 years. This field has been driven by its growing international expansion and by its implications for economic growth, effects derived from the increased complexity of R&D programmes and projects.

Likewise, this training plan serves to give continuity and coherence to the set of workshops that will be developed within the twinning project, as well as laying the foundations in the MESRS for the future development of its own training plans.