Weekend Public Lectures with MA students in Albania – 16 April 2011

IDM Research & Innovation Initiative, in partnership with Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and OSI Think Tank Fund, has launched the series of Weekend public lectures with MA students of public and private universities in Albania. The first lecture was held on 16 April 2011, with Mr. Arbjan Mazniku (Agenda Institute) and Mr. Gjergji Vurmo (IDM) introducing theoretical and practical aspects of the civil society sector and think tanks in Albania.
This initiative is designed as a series of practical lectures related to applied research tools & methodologies in the following areas of IDM’s expertise – good hovernance, policy (making & monitoring) processes, EU policies & enlargement process.

“Weekend public lectures strive to build the capacities of the young research community in Albania and to bring them closer to the think tank sector, as an opportunity for professional engagement and also as resource for their academic and research work. A carefully selected group of 20 postgraduate students (political sciences, economics, social sciences etc.) will be introduced with the experience and highlights of think tanks’ work, thematic approaches and practical knowledge in a number of areas such as good governance, the policy cycle, EU / European integration, security etc. Particular attention in the course of these lectures will be devoted to practical aspects of think tanks’ activities – internal organization and management, relations with interest groups, public stakeholders and other target audiences, media(tisation), project development and implementation, program monitoring and assessment etc.

The first phase of Weekend Public Lectures will take place from April – June 2011 while the second round will be carried out from late September – early December 2011 (twice a month).