NATO SfP-982063

NATO Project SFP-982063

Мanagement of Security Related R&D in Support of Defence Industrial Transformation

Visit the SfP-982063 web site.

The project required close cooperation of five institutions in four countries: the University of National and World Economy, UNWE in Sofia, the Institute for Parallel Processing of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, IPP-BAS in Sofia, the National Defence College of Romania, NDC in Bucharest, the European University in Skopje and the Institute for Techniques of Intelligent Systems at the University of the Bundeswehr, ITIS in Munich, the latter in purely supportive role. In addition, manifold information channels were established with the respective MODs, defence industries, institutes and academies.

The overall objective of the project was to study the actually fragmented R&D knowledge, skills and capabilities in Bulgaria, Romania and FYROM as well as best practices concerning defence R&D in experienced NATO nations and to establish the academic as well as informational prerequisites for giving permanently practical recommendations and support for the transformation of security related R&D management to end-users in MODs and industries in the subregion in order to assist the integration of national defence industries into the NATO Defence Industrial Base.

Project co-directors

1. Dipl. Pol. Heinrich Buch, NATO country Project Director (NPD)
2. Prof. Dr. Tilcho Ivanov, Partner country Project Director (PPD)
3. State Secretary Iulian Fota, Romanian Co-director
4. Prof. DSc. Stoian Markov, Bulgarian Co-director
5. Prof. Dr. Zoran Ivanovski, Macedonian Co-director

Objectives

From there the following objectives of the project were derived forming criteria for success and each supported by a specific coordinator from UNWE, Sofia:

1. Formulation of a R&D concept and model, R&DCM, coordinator Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tsvetan Tsetkov.
2. Development of an integrated Policy Framework for coordinating R&D policy, coordinator Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov.
3. Creation of a Network for Scientific Cooperation, NfSC, and initiation of a database, coordinator Assoc. Prof. Dr. Georgy Pavlov.
4. Establishment and operation of a Centre of Excellence, CoE, integrating IT and multi-point video conferencing via the EVO system of CERN, coordinator Prof. Dr. Stefan Hristov.

The creation of a permanently updated MS-project plan allowed continuous progress and production control of all deliverables as well as their timely finalization including quality control. The co-operation was intensified by the project management as well as by members’ participations in a series of conferences at different level, their documentation, evaluation and publication, field and research studies as well as individual and team contributions to conferences, project publications, preparations for academic graduations and joint academic training in four nations via video-conferencing coor dinated and controlled by the Center of Excellence in Sofia.

Conferences

After the kick-off meeting a total of five international project conferences were held, four out of them with UNWE-DNRS in Bulgaria:

• in June 2007 in Sofia;
• in May 2008 in Varna;
• in May 2009 and in December 2009 in Sofia;
• and one with NDC Romania in Bucharest in November 2007 with high level political and military as well as American participation.

Additionally, an essential international coordination meeting of co-directors and staff took place in November 2008 in the European University in Skopje and Ohrid. In December 2009 in Sofia during the closing conference of the project and in the presence of representatives of the mass media, the Bulgarian MOD, the Ministry of Economy and Energy, leading representatives of UNWE as well as project co-directors and all Bulgarian participants, both, NPD and PPD, offered their very positive overall conclusions concerning the most successful completion of this very productive multilateral project, stressing that it had been enabled by NATO-SPS funding.

In this setting the four coordinators of the joint work on the project’s objectives presented the findings and final reports on their sectors
of responsibility of the project’s results – a public event with media coverage was followed by an address of the project’s leaders to the
graduation ceremony at UNWE, where the project had reached outstanding reputation and visibility.

Publications
The following publications report about proceedings, research and conferences of the project:

1. “Public-Private Partnership in Defence and Security Sector – National Practices“, Annual International Conference on Economics and Management of Security and Defence, Sofia, October 13-14, 2006, which was used for the kick-off of SfP project 982063 and was published in Sofia 2007 by: University of National and World Economy, Department “National and Regional Security”.
2. “Policy and Models for R&D Management in Support of Defence Industrial Transformation”; International Conference, 28-29 June 2007 in Sofia, published in Sofia, 2008.
3. Comparative Observations of Developed Countries Regulations and Practices: “United States of America, Study Regarding the Country’s Regulation and Practices on Research and Development Policy for Defence Industry”, by Elena Lacatus (ed.), published in Bucharest, 2008.
4. “Security and Defence R&D Management: Policy, Concept and Models”, International Conference in Varna, 29-31 May (2008), published in Sofia, 2009.
5. “European Defence Agency as a Defence Industry Catalyst” and International Conference in Bucharest in November 2007 “Research and Development Strategies in Support on Dual Industrial Transformation”, by Elena Lacatus (Project Contribution of National Defence College of Bucharest), published in Bucharest, 2009.
6. “Business and Science for Security and Defence Industrial R&D”, International Conference 14-15 May 2009, Sofia, published in Sofia, 2009.
7. “Planning, Programming, Budgeting, and Acquisition in the Romanian Armed Forces, Case Studies”, by Doina Muresan (ed.), published in Bucharest, 2009.

Academic and additional achievements

Making best use of 20 stipends, granted under the project, and due to minimal fluctuation of participants, the following graduations were undertaken:

• 2 habilitations – all UNWE
• 8 defended doctoral dissertations – 2 EUS, 2 IPP, 4 UNWE
• 11 doctoral dissertations “in the making” – 2 EUS, 2 IPP, 2 NDC, 5 UNWE
• 8 Masters of Science (MSc) – 2 EUS, 1 IPP, 5 UNWE
• 5 MSc “in the making” – 1 EUS, 2 NDC, 2 UNWE
• 13 Bachelors – 13 UNWE
• 8 Bachelors in “in the making” – 8 UNWE

Total:

• 31 academic graduations achieved
• 24 academic graduations “in the making”

The excellent academic achievements of the project are the result of intense work by students of all levels, good guidance as well as continuous care by the professors in this project and by the cooperative spirit of all participants. Several graduates were employed at responsible positions in their respective MODs.

An additional achievement of the Project, which could not be anticipated, was the network of good relationships, that could be built in just three years due to intense cooperation, joint research and conference participation, which led to mutual confidence and a spirit of trust and reliability, that would outlast the duration of the project, especially for those employed in government offices.

Careers

The high visibility of the project in participating nations within governments, academia and in the media due to the co-directors
reflect their partially new functions. Other careers contribute to this effect.

1. The Romanian co-director, Mr. Iulian Fota, was nominated State Secretary in January 2009 with functions as National Security Advisor to the President of Romania.
2. The PPD and Bulgarian project-director, Professor Dr. Tilcho Ivanov, serves as advisor to the Bulgarian Minister of Defence, the MOD as well as the Ministry of the Interior. He became lecturer at the Free University of Varna.
3. The Macedonian co-director, Professor Dr. Zoran Ivanovski has been promoted to Rector of European University and has functions as advisor to several ministers and the Macedonian Chief of Defence Staff.
4. Mrs Aleksandra Stankovska, Macedonian team, graduated PhD and became Assistant Professor at the faculty of Economics of the EUS.
5. Lieutenant-Colonel Adrian Morariu, Romanian team, became Director of the Romanian Government‘s Construction Oversight Agency.
6. Associate Professor Dr. Doina Muresan, Deputy Director NDC of Romania, was promoted to the rank of Colonel.
7. Associate Professor Dr. Elena Lacatus, Romanian team, became Romanian member in the evaluation team of EU – FP-7 projects.
8. Associate Professor Dr. Dimitar Dimitrov followed Prof. Dr. Ivanov and became Head of the Department National and Regional Security (DNRS) at UNWE.
9. Professors Dr. Stefan Hristov and Dr. Georgi Pavlov acquired full professorates after their habilitation.
10. After their graduation, a number of participants advanced to R&D related ministerial and academic occupations as well as to NATO staff occupations.

General final observations

The demanding task to manage this very busy multinational project could be accomplished by the excellent cooperation of NPD and PPD as well as all co-directors, clear and qualified academic guidance by the PPD and intensive good work in cooperative spirit by the coordinators as well as all students. Special merits are deserved by coordinator Associate Professor Dr. Dimitrov for outstanding assistance to the PPD and leadership of all international CoE video-conferences as well as Associate Professor Dr. Elena Lacatus for outstanding research and publications.
Mutually supporting roles of the project directors were:

• NPD: Policy advisor and main link to NATO-SfP, manager-coordinator, multinational integration, financial controller, military simulation expert and door-opener to Western companies and for giving selective conference contributions, such as key study results for new EU procurement rules in article 296 EU-Treaty.
• PPD: Academic direction and coordination as well as academic procedural leader giving key note presentations at each conference, integration of MOD and business as well as management of conferences, publications and Bulgarian academic graduations.

All four institutes of the three Balkan partners in the project were proactive, highly productive, very cooperative and “hungry” for progress as well as integration into Western structures. They deserve support and encouragement to promote specific initiatives.

The developed coordinated policy framework should be followed up by efforts for policy coordination at the political level, for which a subregional political framework exists (“Regional Cooperation Council”).

The time shares planned for the free-of-cost contributors to the project were not sufficient. In order to meet the planned objectives, the average time-overruns were about 100% or more for all co-directors and all personnel involved in IT integration and operations; the average time-overrun for project objective coordinators was about 50%. As a whole, the national contributions to the project were significantly higher than initially planned.

The Network for Scientific Cooperation (NfSC), the Database and the Centre of Excellence (CoE) are “living in stitutions”. They are actually fully operational, appropriately equipped and can meet many actual needs. Their future value will depend on the extent to which they are used, and continue to be developed and adapted to new and additional requirements. The academic, industrial and governmental actors of the participating nations are invited to make use of these assets and the valuable human network.

The publications resulting from the project and in reference to the project as well as technical reports and selected presentations resulting from the project will be forwarded in printed form.