Horizon Europe Grant Office was opened at Kutaisi International University within the framework "Full Involvement of Georgia in the Horizon Europe Program" conference, which was opened by the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, Mikheil Chkhenkeli.

As Mikheil Chkhenkeli noted, on March 3, Georgia officially submitted its application for EU membership, which is the most important stage in our country's European integration and this process will be crowned with Georgia's return to the European family.

With the direct involvement of the Prime Minister of Georgia, Irakli Gharibashvili, Georgia became a member of the new EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation, Horizon Europe, and established the Horizon Europe National Office in Georgia. Consequently, this event is an extremely important step forward for the return of our country to the European family and the development of science in the country.

According to the Minister, it is extremely important that under this agreement, the representatives of Georgia in the competitions of the Horizon Europe program will enjoy the same conditions and rights as the representatives of the field of science and innovation of the EU countries.

The Minister emphasized that the Hadron Therapy Centre of Kutaisi International University plays an important role in the development of science in Georgia. According to Mikheil Chkhenkeli, the author of the idea and concept of Kutaisi International University belongs to Mr. Bidzina Ivanishvili. It was because of his and his family's extremely important contribution that a world-wide academic and scientific-research space emerged in the country. The Hadron Therapy Center is fully funded by the Cartu Foundation. The centre will house two cyclotrons manufactured by one of the world's leading companies (IBA). One cyclotron of the Hadron Therapy Center will be used to treat the tumour, while the other will be used for research in medical and nuclear physics. Many well-known foreign scientists have already expressed a desire to get involved in the research process together with their Georgian colleagues.

Additionally, Mikheil Chkhenkeli emphasized that the research topics of the Hadron Therapy Center are exactly in line with the goals of Horizon Europe 2030, the priority of which is to finance projects to fight cancer.

It should be noted that the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia is actively working to improve the success rate of Georgian universities and research institutes in the new EU framework program Horizon Europe grant competitions. Several steps have already been taken in this direction - the creation of a network of university scientific grant offices, which will gradually cover all universities.

Horizon Europe grant offices have already been set up in public higher education institutions: Tbilisi State University, Kutaisi Akaki Tsereteli, Batumi, Samtskhe-Javakheti, Zugdidi and Telavi universities. Grant offices were also opened at Gori State Teaching University, Sokhumi State University and Georgian Technical University.

The main goal of grant offices is to assist Georgian research teams in preparing and subsequently managing competitive project applications.