Strengthening the educational and scientific collaboration among Faculties of Economics within V4 and countries of South Eastern Europe (No. 30810004 - IVF) was a project realized by an international consortium of partners, co-financed by International Visegrad Fund. Project was commenced on the 1st of September 2008 and lasted 22 months with coordinator Assoc. Prof. Renáta Vokorokosová, PhD from Technical University of Kosice including following universities:

      Project was aimed at joining educational institutions of Economics for establishing and strengthening mutual educational and scientific network of teachers and researchers from corresponding V4 countries and neighbouring countries. This project reached the priority Sharing V4 know- how with neighbouring regions. A network established within this project coordinated the mobility of Faculties´ project personnel; prepared workshops on best practices in educational area within Investment, Banking and Business oriented study programmes. Moreover it coped with presentation of new teaching methods and know-how within distance and e-learning educational approaches. V4 practical abilities and skills in project targeting areas were further on spread out to neighbouring regions via workshops and conferences with expert participation from praxis, leading industries and educational institutions besides the Visegrad Countries. Hence the Visual collaboration (videoconferences) between V4 and neighbouring countries accelerated the exchange of research results, comments and ideas for starting further common project collaboration in near future.

      In compliance with events planned, in the first phase of the project there was a meeting held in Bratislava in September 2008 attended by each partner institution. The aim of this meeting was to enable the representatives from partner institutions to meet and to discuss in details all the issues concerning the project collaboration.
      Second event was organized by the project partner Czestochowa University of Technology in Poland in March 2009. This workshop devoted to the presentation of study programmes and teaching methods was held at the premises of the Faculty of Management in Czestochowa, Poland.
      Following meeting in June 2009 (third one) took place in Miškolc, at the University of Miškolc, Faculty of Economics. Participants presented their experiences with distance and e-learning educational approaches, and the research results on SMEs performances.
      In the second phase of the project two meetings were organized. During the first one participants discussed the topic about SMEs performance, financing and relating issues. This meeting was hosted by the project partner The Silesian University in Opava, School of Business Administration in Karviná in the end of October 2009.
      Second meeting - workshop organized by BBA (Belgrade Banking Academy) along with all partner institutions and the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Economics, was held in Belgrade in April 2010. It coped with the following matter: Economic Prospects in the Second Decade of the 21st Century- How to Get Out of the Crisis".
      The closing event was held in Košice in June 2010. Participants discussed their project cooperation and set forth the aims for further collaboration in science and education within the established network of V4 researchers and researchers of South Eastern Europe.
      Goals and expected contribution set in the project were within the project cooperation successfully fulfilled. From eight project institutions there was a reliable network of researchers and academicians created among the faculties of Economics of V4 countries and countries of South Eastern Europe. The events, workshops, conferences, discussions organized within project collaboration promoted the main goal of the project, to exchange know - how and to share knowledge with neighbouring countries. Majority of mutually prepared and issued publications confirm the strong collaboration on SMEs, distance and e-learning issues.
      Publication activities of the consortium involves: papers published in the Journal of Scientific Works, Faculty of Management Czestochowa, Technical University; Acta academica karviniensia - Journal of The Silesian University in Opava, School of Business Administration in Karviná; Journal of Women´s Entrepreneurship and Education published by the Institute of Economic Sciences, Belgrade; Economic Analysis journal of the Institute of Economic Sciences in Belgrade and in two monographs. One Enterprise - Constituent Element of National Competitiveness touches upon many topics concerning the management and the business environment of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and special attention is paid to the contemporary forms of distance learning, and their advantages and disadvantages in the V4 countries and Serbia.
Second monograph Influence of Global Economic Crisis on CEE Region - Possible Way Out was prepared and published by the Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Economics in cooperation with Belgrade Banking Academy and Institute of Economic Sciences.
      The collaboration among partners was outstanding. The outputs are: new contacts and partnerships, network of experts, consultants, reviewers, and high interest in further collaboration. Bilateral projects collaboration proposals between Slovakia - Poland and Slovakia - Serbia were prepared. And what more there was a scientific KEGA project submitted by the Faculty of National Economics in Bratislava, Faculty of Economics in Košice involving foreign partners from the established V4 network.

      From all these results we can see that the IVF project brought together a well-balanced mixture of partners, each one bringing into the project a different experiences and a different perspective of emphasis.

Compiled by
Jakub Tej
Department of Banking and Investment
Faculty of Economics, Technical University Košice
E-mail: jakub.tej@tuke.sk