The project "Scenarios for a co-ordinated approach to sustainable S/T co-operation with the Eastern Neighbours of the EU (SCOPE-EAST)" intends to take sustainable steps in view of enhanced coordination of the R&D co-operation of the interested EU Member States and Associated Candidate States with Russia and Eastern Europe.

The Strategy Workshop for Policy Makers, hosted by the National Technical University of Ukraine "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute", will take place on 15 May 2008 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

This event is the continuation of a policy makers forum organised within the framework of the SCOPE-EAST conference in Moscow in December 2007, in order to discuss questions related to the framework conditions of S&T cooperation with Russia and Ukraine.

The policy makers forum within the SCOPE-EAST conference launched a discussion on crucial policy issues regarding EU-Russia and EU-Ukraine S/T cooperation involving stakeholders from the EU Member States and Associated Countries, Russia, Ukraine and the European Commission. The policy makers forum addressed in particular the following areas:

• joint policy objectives
• necessary constituents of the joint framework for S&T cooperation
• opportunities of the EU community instruments and linkage to Russian and Ukrainian instruments

The policy makers forum of the SCOPE-EAST conference represented the kick-off and first milestone of a policy dialogue which will be continued in the current event.

This Strategy Workshop will be dedicated to the discussion and development of recommendations regarding in particular:

• thematic and strategic input for future approaches to assure optimal coordination of bilateral activities of the Member States, Associated Candidate States, Russia, Ukraine and other East European countries
• contributions to foster coherence between national cooperation strategies and the EU R&D cooperation policy
• possible scenarios and instruments to establish cooperation in R&D as a major pillar for implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy.

Based on the outcomes of this workshop a strategy paper on "Scenarios for a co-ordinated approach to sustainable S/T cooperation with the Eastern neighbours of the EU" will be prepared. The recommendations developed within the framework of the SCOPE-EAST project will provide input for the consultations between MS/AC and Russia/Ukraine as well as between the European Commission and Russia/Ukraine. Of particular importance are the consultations of EU-Russia and EU-Ukraine working groups.

International Bureau (IB) of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); project co-ordinator, Germany	Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France	National Information Center for Ukraine-EC S&&T co-operation (NIP-UKR), Ukraine	State University — Higher School of Economics (HSE), Russia