Project team produces ranking of CEEC animal science organisations

Brussels, 29 Apr 2005

An EU funded project cataloguing animal science research capacities and activities in the Central and Eastern European Countries (CEECs) has published an initial report on its findings, and called for feedback from the scientific community.

'Support to animal science organisations from Central European candidate countries' (also known as CEC Animal Science) has the ultimate aim of better integrating animal science organisations from the CEECs into the EU research community. An initial step in this process is raising awareness of what these countries are doing in the area of animal science.

As the project partners note, the value of the report is dependent upon the number of organisations that have contributed information. While the response rate to a questionnaire sent to various research organisations was good, the consortium expects to expand its database by holding a consultation, which will be open until 15 May. The countries addressed by the survey are: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Turkey.

The project has already collected a raft of information focusing on performance over the past three years in six key areas:
- number of international publications per sector and per animal species;
- number of lecturers invited to international congresses per sector;
- number of prizes and awards;
- number of patents per sector;
- number of tools and methods elaborated per sector;
- number of standards written per sector.

These indicators, along with information on the size of various organisations, have enabled the partners to rank CEEC organisations according to specific criteria, and to create an overall ranking based on aggregate scores.

The top organisation according to this ranking is Poland's National Research Institute of Animal Production. This is followed by the Slovak Research Institute of Animal Production and then the University of South Bohemia, Faculty of Agriculture, in the Czech Republic.

In the list of the top 45 research organisations, Poland, the Czech Republic and Turkey have the most entries, with eight from each country featuring. Turkey is, however, the only one of the eight countries studies not to feature in the top ten.

In terms of scientific disciplines, the highest percentage of publications (35 per cent) related to two sectors: genetics and breeding, and nutrition and feed.

According to the project partners, the rankings illustrate which organisations have the best animal science competencies. 'This could help the European Commission to decode on the orientation of future community support,' they conclude.

For further information and to access the project's online questionnaire, please visit:
http://www.animal-science.net
Remarks: The consultation is open until 15 May

CORDIS RTD-NEWS / © European Communities
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