Specific Support to Latvia

During the kick-off meeting the Latvian authorities presented the rationale behind their request for the specific support and discussed with the PSF panel of experts the main bottlenecks in regards the funding allocation systems and the main challenges in relation to the governance and the organisational structure of Latvian public funding. In addition main decisions were taken for the implementation of the specific support: scope, expected outcome, timetables, work plan, distribution of work.

The PSF expert panel visited Riga on 27-29 March 2017 to meet Latvian authorities and a wide range of relevant stakeholders from institutions, industry and academia. They discussed the main challenges facing the Latvian public funding system for research and innovation. This allowed the experts to gather further information on the current funding allocation processes and governance, and will help them perform their analyses and propose recommendations tailored to the country’s needs.

The expert panel met in Brussels to discuss their findings from the first country visit and the first draft report – including an overview and analysis of research and innovation organisations, structures and funding in Latvia, and some potential recommendations. These discussions, covering both publicly funded research and industrial R&D, set the basis for a second draft report and define the focus for the second country visit.

Based on the outcomes of the first visit discussions, and the background information the panel of experts had at their disposal, the experts have worked on their findings and formulated their first reflections and recommendations. During their second visit to Latvia from 19 to 21 June 2017 they discussed these findings with a select group of actors in the Latvian research and innovation system and explored topics that merit further investigation, such as performance-related funding, peer review and internationalisation in the research and innovation system.

In this final event of the PSF Specific Support to Latvia, the expert panel presented their findings and guidance to further reform the Latvian research funding system. Latvian research and innovation stakeholders joined the panel in discussing their recommendations and conclusions, such as increasing national R&I funding in general, and competitive-funding in particular, as well as streamlining the structure and governance of state organisations in research, innovation and higher education in order to better meet national needs.