Achievements of the University of Ljubljana in the mandate period 2013-2017
Strategic area: Creating knowledge and art for sustainable social and individual development

Goals by 2020

• Formation of three large interdisciplinary research groups 
• Increase the number and value of international and domestic projects by one quarter 
• Increase the number of publications and citations 

We have set up a new, interdisciplinary research infrastructure centre, the »Centre for language resources and technologies« in which the following University of Ljubljana Members are actively participate: Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Faculty for Computer and Information Science and Faculty of Social Sciences. We observed that mere internal measures without changes in the funding policy of the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS) are too weak. 

In this period, we identified research areas with the greatest development potential and thus encouraged interdisciplinary cooperation, especially regarding applications to tenders for smart specialization projects. We established nine networks in these priority areas. 

We increased the number of international projects by nine percent and their value by just under twenty percent. We also obtained the first two ERC Advanced Grants. We increased the number of publications by just under four percent and citations by fifty percent. The number and value of domestic projects have not increased, as the financing of research activities by the ARRS has decreased by more than twenty percent. The mentioned funds for research activities and the decrease in the number of young researchers have strongly affected the number of publications.

Implemented activities

Promoting the formation of three large interdisciplinary research groups 

• Formation of a consortium of Central European Universities and KU Leuven to facilitate application of projects to EU funding programmes
• Identification of research areas with the highest development potential
• Inclusion of the University of Ljubljana in the association of the best European univer-sities GUILD

Strengthening the doctoral school as an international environment and strengthening post-doctoral projects

• Signing a cooperation agreement between the doctoral school and the University of Rijeka
• Inclusion of the University of Ljubljana in the platform Western Balkans with the goal of common activities in doctoral studies
• Collaboration with the University of Graz in the area of doctoral studies
• Application to the tender for financing researchers at the beginning of their career – post-doctoral graduates 

Formation of internal finance mechanisms and incentives for research work 

• Creation of a development financial fund for the promotion of international projects and young researchers
• Organization of specific training programmes for applying to various projects of EU funds, with emphasis on Marie Currie, ERC and Widening participation