Abkhazia Institute

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Abkhazia Institute for Social and Economic Research
Motto: Dulcius Ex Asperis (Latin)
Established: 2007
Type: Private
President: Irakli Gagua
Location: Flag of the United States Los Angeles, CA
Colors: white and red         
Nickname: AISER
Website: www.abkhazia.com

The Abkhazia Institute for Social and Economic Research is an organization that supports the Abkhazia region of the country of Georgia.

Abkhazia
Province of Georgia		 Logo of AISER
Created by Andrew Andersen
Booklet june.jpg
Monthly Magazine

Abkhazia Institute for Social and Economic Research (AISER) is founded by Mr. Irakli Gagua and Dr. Ramaz Mitaisvili to enhance interdisciplinary social science research using intellectual potential of refugees from Abkhazia, South Ossetia (Georgia). Since AISER is established, Institute has built an organizational foundation to meet this challenge and achieve its mission and objectives. Our core mission is to catalyze and produce pioneering research and to shape public policy by integrating knowledge and methods across the social sciences to find ways for peaceful resolution of conflicts in the Georgian separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia by joint project in social and economical spheres with mutual interests, including education, diseases prevention and control. AISER specializes in working on issues related to conflict, human rights, social transformation and social justice, and is managed by a board of directors drawn from the community, voluntary and academic sectors.

Contents

[edit] Mission and Strategic Plan

The Abkhazia Institute for Social and Economic Research (AISER) is the interdisciplinary social science research institute. Our core mission is to catalyze and produce pioneering social science research and to shape public policy by integrating knowledge and methods across the social sciences. While it is not possible to define ex ante the exact shape of a new social science and policy signature, our goal is to generate innovative analyses of theoretical and substantive puzzles that cannot be defined by the usual disciplinary divides. Our approach to writing this new signature is to foster high-risk, high-return research by inducing, supporting and extending inventive ideas.

AISER has built an infrastructure that develops intellectual density by engendering and supporting collaborative research initiatives across the social sciences and with the health, natural, environmental and engineering sciences. Through fiscal and administrative assistance, AISER invests heavily in developing investigator-initiated, externally-funded research projects, and will support the training of the next generation of promising young people. AISER assists social sciences departments in recruiting and retaining key faculty.

And finally, through seminars, workshops, conferences, working papers and other avenues, AISER disseminates research and policy analyses and promotes the work of the social sciences in Georgia and worldwide.

AISER is a public faculty-based institute. Investigator-initiated, externally supported research and public policy projects, faculty work groups, and other organized research clusters. The institute supports seminars, conferences and workshops, and faculty are provided with grant and related research support. These centers arose from clusters of faculty working on problems in historical social science, the decision sciences, wealth and inequality, emergent economic structures, computation and complexity, and urban research and policy. The centers are invested in creating new research and policy initiatives, in running seminars, workshops, conferences and other forums for collaboration and exchange and in taking a lead role in different trainings.

[edit] We achieve our mission by:

  • providing international relief, support and assistance to refuges from Abkhazia in any country where they are currently residing;
  • developing intellectual density through broad faculty participation and cross-disciplinary

collaboration among and beyond the disciplinary ambits of the social sciences;

  • investing in research development by fiscally, substantively and administratively fostering innovative externally funded research;
  • supporting the training of the next generation of promising young scholars;
  • disseminating research and policy analyses and promoting the work of the social sciences;
  • improving quality of life through international health programs that focus on all kind of disease control and prevention;
  • offering solutions and programs for a constructive change for refuges from Abkhazia and worldwide to improve their living standards;
  • sharing God's love with our community by promoting healing and wellness for the whole person;
  • helping people around the world create balanced lifestyles
  • attaining optimal physical, mental and social health and well-being for all infants, children, adolescents and young adults;
  • educating and influencing parents on prevention of youth drug use;
  • establishing a comprehensive substance abuse program, employers can protect their companies, their workers and their customers from those who, through abuse of illegal drugs or prescription drugs and/or alcohol, endanger both personnel and profit in the workplace;
  • providing effective programs and services to support those recovering from addictions through special educational programs and different job opportunities.

[edit] Strategic Plan

We have put into place core programs for creating a cross-disciplinary intellectual community, fostering externally funded research, supporting research training, and disseminating research results. The primary elements of this infrastructure include:

  • a Faculty Fellows program to incorporate faculty across the social sciences;
  • research and policy centers to cluster faculty together around shared intellectual themes;
  • research development investments, e.g., seed grant programs, to support innovative work;
  • a Graduate Fellows program for dissertation-level students to foster high-quality young scholars;
  • seminars and workshops, a working paper series, an email newsletter, and other instruments to disseminate research and policy activities;
  • administrative structures to facilitate grant application, grant administration, crossdisciplinary linkage, and other organizational operations;
  • expanding our core of active faculty participants through a junior faculty-in-residence program; strategic use of our expanded office and research space; and better integration of post-doctoral fellows and visiting scholars;
  • promoting research collaboration among faculty fellows by encouraging centers to incorporate additional faculty and by supporting “working groups” of researchers with linked or overlapping projects;
  • broadening participation in AISER by developing new communications materials and through continued outreach to the community via seminars, workshops and conferences and the individual and small-group meetings initiated in creating this plan.

We will enhance our research development initiatives by:

  • supporting faculty research through an expanded grants development and administration office;
  • providing short courses for researchers that build methodological and research expertise;
  • using our seed grants programs and other instruments to build clusters of related research projects in order to attain more substantial, longer-term funding;
  • promoting research projects in high-priority areas that build on existing faculty strength and exploit areas of significant intellectual and fund-raising potential, such as population health, spatial analysis, environmental science, and the intersection of information technology and social science methods;

As our research development initiatives increasingly yield books, articles and findings that engage public policy debates, we expect greater participation in development efforts to raise funds from individual donors in order to build an endowment.

[edit] Departments

  • History - Director Andrew Andersen, PhD
  • Public Relation and Cultural Diplomacy - Director Ushangi Rezhinashvili, PhD

Our faculty includes some of the most distinguished senior scientists, along with junior and mid-career faculty who have been extremely active in research and publication. To generate innovative research by enhancing the nature and density of cross-disciplinary work, AISER seeks to create clusters of intellectual activity that cut across the usual disciplinary divides. We anticipate that such clusters will not only generate pioneering research but will also foster the development of externally funded research grants. We recognize these two goals are not always compatible, but believe it crucial to create structures and an environment that develop both as much as is feasible.

Ramaz Mitaishvili (talk) 10:11, 14 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] External links

Supported sites:

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