Three fellows Ana Stojilovska, Mentor Vrajolli and Miroslava Jelacic have completed the Fellowship Programme for Policy Researchers. Within the framework of the Programme, from November 2011 to June 2012, they have spent up to three months in their host organisation, according to their field of interest.
Ana Stojilovska from Analytica (Macedonia) spent a month as a fellow in the Association for International Affairs, Prague, Czech Republic, where she researched European Issues and Instrument for Pre-Accession. Mentor Vrajolli from Kosovar Centre for Security Studies (Kosovo) researched NATO Integration Processes in Kosovo at the International Centre for Democratic Transition, Hungary, and Miroslava Jelacic from Group 484 , Serbia, spent two months with the European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE) in Brussels , Belgium, dealing with the issue of Asylum Refugee.
Fellowship Programme for Policy Researchers from the Western Balkans Region aims to contribute to further capacity building and professional development of policy researchers from the region of Western Balkans, allowing them to build networks across Europe through paid visits to other policy research institutions and think-tanks in the EU and other countries of the Western Balkans (WB). This programme is developed by expanding the existing support to networking, with an opportunity to create links to EU and WB-based think-tanks and policy organisations.
Ana Stojilovska – ‘The value of the Fellowship is in its uniqueness that offers practical experience to young policy researchers in a think- tank and on a topic of their choosing. This is a valuable contribution to building up the human capacities of the think-tanks in the Western Balkans since they are double-challenged: on one hand, there are the experienced companies, consulting firms and technical institutes competing with them in terms of drafting solid and concrete solutions for the pressing policy matters. On the other hand, in terms of financial suitability, the Western Balkans countries’ think-tanks are facing difficulties in preparing excellent project proposals for the EU funds, and thus compete with their European counter-parts. In addition, there are two more aspects which I appreciate about this Fellowship. The first is that there are not many policy-focused courses at universities, therefore this Fellowship complements for this lack of formal education on policy analysis. The second characteristic is that not many young professionals get the opportunity to challenge themselves in a new think-tank environment.’
Mentor Vrajolli – ‘The fellowship has been a productive experience that allowed me to gain extensive knowledge and professionalism from an established institute, making it possible to me to transfer such knowledge into my personal career, but also into the institute where I work, as an effort to increase the internal professional capacities.’
Miroslava Jelacic – ‘Apart from the chance to learn from some of the most prominent researchers in this field, the Research Fellowship Programme provided me with the opportunity to spent time in Brussels, which itself presents probably one of the most challenging places in the world when it comes to migration.’
The programme is a joint undertaking of the European Fund for the Balkans (EFB) and the Think Tank Fund (TTF) of the Open Society Foundations based in Budapest. Initiated in 2010, it already has nine Fellows able to transfer accumulated experience to their home organisations. These 3 Fellows have been selected to participate in the third round of the Programme and will continue to share the obtained experience from host countries with their colleagues. After finishing the Fellowship Programme, they become part of the EFB Community network, which will offer further networking opportunities with other researchers in the region.
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