Modernizing Uzbekistan National Innovation System Project

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The objective of the Modernizing Uzbekistan National Innovation System (MUNIS) Project for Uzbekistan is to enable the development of a market-oriented National Innovation System. The project has four components. (1) Improving research excellence and commercialization component will improve the capacity of public research to achieve international standards of research quality and enable the commercialization of research results. (2) Promoting innovation in the private sector component will increase private sector innovation in Uzbekistan. It comprises two subcomponents reflecting the dual needs of Uzbekistan at the current stage of development, namely enabling technology adoption by firms and diffusion and supporting the initial growth of R&D-driven innovation, as well as the expansion of a knowledge-based startup sector in Uzbekistan. (3) Supporting STI policy-making and reforms component will address the lack of adequate information about good policies and the weak capacity of policy-making organizations. Importantly, in addition to the support of enabling reforms for project activities, it will also support coordination and consensus building for the implementation of reforms aiming at the development and implementation of new Science Technology and Innovation Strategy of Uzbekistan. The component will finance (i) advisory work for the preparation of studies or draft regulations and policies; (ii) training (e.g., mini-courses) and study tours; and, (iii) consensus-building workshops. MID will encourage women’s participation in these events. (4) Project management, and monitoring and evaluation component will support project implementation activities. It will finance the operational costs of the PMU and other related operational costs, including those incurred in the administration of the programs. The PMU will be responsible for the day-to-day implementation of project activities, and for fiduciary activities (including procurement, financial management, environmental and social compliance, reporting citizen engagement, project audits, and other functions).