Nelly Datukishvili

Ilia State University (ISU) is a flagship public research and comprehensive higher education institution in Georgia that was established in 2006 as a merger of six different institutions, each having a long history and a diverse institutional profile. Its schools offer distinctive training in their respective direction and in-depth research opportunity in social sciences, humanities, life sciences, earth sciences, and hard sciences. The leadership remains open to innovative teaching and learning programs and supports research initiatives to finance research activities (significant allocation for research as part of its annual budget), justly occupying the top research citation index in Georgia. With the highest competition rate for PhD programs in the nation, approximately 17,700 students, 988 highly qualified academic staff, and with renovated research infrastructure in several Georgia’s regions (including 30 large and small scale research institutes, centers and stations), ISU has become one of the most desirable universities to study and work for in the country over the last 10 years. Ilia State University is actively involved in international cooperation projects and priorities of these international projects and programs range from infrastructure and new programs development, improvement of academic and scientific potential and sharing international experience with the leading universities, research organizations, and institutions. Ilia State University has an extensive experience of participating and leading EU-funded capacity building and mobility projects, including Jean Monnet scheme, FP7, Horizon 2020. ISU is the first grant holder recipient Georgian Higher Education Institution of the Tempus and Erasmus+ CBHE programs from Georgia. In a nutshell, ISU has been partner of 27 Tempus, and 20 Erasmus + CBHE international consortia projects, Jean Monnet (3), FP7 (2), Horizon 2020 (3), Horizon Europe (1), 2 International Doctoral Joint Programs by Volkswagen Foundation (University of Gottingen, University of Munster in Germany), more than 85 current international cooperation programmes income generating more than 45 Million GEL (14 Million EUR).