08/01/2019 magda

Competency through Cooperation: Advancing knowledge on Georgia’s strategic path (GEOPATH)

Project Duration: 01.2019 || 11.2022

Status: Ongoing

Donor: Research Council of Norway, NORRUSS PLUSS

Budget: 789,000 NOK

GEOPATH revolves around a research project that will produce cutting-edge, well-informed research on the crucial question of Georgia’s future strategic path.  In a climate increasingly defined by rapidly deteriorating Russia-West relations, the project will study how key actors – Georgia, the breakaway Abkhazia, the EU and Russia– perceive their own roles and how it affects conflict resolutions in Georgia. The project will include a tightly integrated research team consisting of scholars from the Georgian Institute of Politics (GIP), Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), and two Georgian ‘expat’ scholars who work abroad.

Project objectives:

  • The project will contribute to strengthening the Georgian research sector through an integrated research project that brings together Georgian and Norwegian scholars.
  • The project aspires to leave a lasting footprint in Georgia by funding a PhD scholarship and organizing annual publishing seminars for PhD students and junior researchers from across Georgia.

The project will directly contribute to strengthening its Georgian partner institution as well as similar institutes around the country. Importantly the project aims to reach these goals through genuine research collaboration and joint work on a topic that is of great significance for the academic community as well as Georgian society as a whole.

About NUPI

Founded by the Norwegian parliament in 1959, NUPI has 60 years of experience engaging the Norwegian foreign policy community and informing the Norwegian public about international affairs. NUPI also has a strong track record of producing academic papers and a work culture geared towards academic excellence. For the last two decades, the institute has systematically prioritized developing Norwegian expertise on Russia and the post-Soviet space.