Ashgabat, Turkmenistan – The Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan hosted an international conference “Possibilities of Turkmenistan’s participation in the Horizon Europe Programme, prospects and potential for the development of international cooperation”. The event was attended by representatives of universities, government agencies and the European Union (EU) to deepen cooperation with the EU in the field of research and innovation.

Horizon Europe is the EU’s flagship EUR 95.5 billion initiative to support research and innovation. During the conference, Kremena Mileva, International Relations Officer of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation and International Cooperation at the European Commission, spoke about the opportunities for enhancing research and innovation cooperation with Central Asian countries. Gulnabat Gurdova, Horizon Europe National Contact Point in Turkmenistan, representing the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan, shared about the current development of international cooperation within the programme. SECCA project experts Ilze Purina and Natalia Shatirishvili presented practical information on participation support, rules, network of national contact points, as well as recommendations on how to find partners in the EU countries to participate in joint projects, in particular under Cluster 5: “Climate, Energy and Mobility”.

The event was organised by the EU-funded SECCA project with the support of the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan. The conference was the third event in Turkmenistan fully dedicated to the Horizon Europe programme.

At the end of the conference, the participants took part in a roundtable discussion where further steps to increase Turkmenistan’s participation were outlined. The conference was an important step towards the integration of Turkmenistan into the European research community.