ORCA: Open(ing) Research in Central Asia

Start Date: 1 March 2025

End Date: 28 February 2029

 

Project description

A new approach to boosting research in Central Asia

Central Asian universities are under growing pressure to improve their rankings in an increasingly competitive academic landscape. This pressure often focuses on hard sciences, leaving research in economics and the social sciences lagging. Despite a strong tradition in engineering, many institutions struggle to develop effective research policies and practices. The lack of training opportunities in these fields exacerbates the issue. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the ORCA project has been launched, targeting Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. This pilot programme aims to improve science performance and management by fostering expertise in research policy. ORCA brings together leading institutions to enhance collaboration, influence regional science policies, and build a strong community of researchers.

 

Objective

With a focus on five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), ORCA is a pilot programme dealing with science performance and science management with a specific focus on economics and social sciences. Across the world, the academic ranking business has turned into a multi-million industry with dozens of surveys implemented to rank universities, bringing with it pressure to improve performance on these same rankings. As a result, most universities have been attempting to improve their performance measured against the metrics and criteria used. While debates advance within the EU and high-performing countries, training paths to increased research performance remain limitedly available. Central Asia is a good starting point to address this gap, given the excellent tradition it has in hard sciences (especially engineering) that has resulted in continued international collaborations, while research in the economic and social sciences has remained largely under-developed. ORCA will produce a generation of experts in research policy with focus on the region as a pilot attempt to a) contribute to informing EU (and member state) policies and attitudes towards the region, and how to enhance excellent and open science, and b) act as multipliers and contribute to the formation of further specialists that will then be able to explore and operate in other regions. ORCA brings together 18 leading institutions and organisations across Eurasia, with experience on science excellence and sufficient links with national governments to influence the development of science in the region, including policies on ethics, integrity, open access and data management. The effects of ORCA will live on through the formation of a dense network based on secondments and knowledge exchange, building a vibrant community of researchers interested in enhancing collaboration, knowledge exchange, co-authorship, seminars, presentations and future projects.