TIRANA, July 20 – Switzerland is supporting Albania with a Euro 2 million project to fund social science research in Albania.
Swiss Ambassador to Albania Christoph Graf said the PERFORM program will help provide solid basis for decisions made by governments or public institutions.
“There cannot be progress in our societies if scientists and researchers do not contribute. Scientific research can feed policies and provide solid basis for decisions made by governments or public institutions. Social scientists in Albania need to become more credible and more known to the public, media and government. I am glad to state that PERFORM will be contributing towards this,” said Ambassador Graf.
Albanian Education Minister Lindita Nikolla said “this agreement places us before the obligation to listen to and to cooperate with researchers and academics to develop ideas, analysis and to orient our interventions.”
PERFORM will be implemented in Albania and Serbia and will fund research and studies that can add value to decisions made on public issues. Links between policies and social sciences are weak whereas evidence and recommendations by social science experts would be beneficial for decisions made by authorities and public institutions.
Just like previous programmes financed by Switzerland before PERFORM will aim to make studies and findings by researchers available and offer them as evidence in policies and decision-making. In addition, public debates on various issues will be informed from research carried out in several fields of social sciences.
The main beneficiaries of this programme will be universities, research institutes, non-profit organisations and academics. Swiss support in Albania has focused on democratisation, decentralization and local governance, economic development, urban Infrastructure and energy as well as health.
The foreseen financial commitments for the period 2014-2017 amount to 88.3 million Swiss francs (€81 mln).
