VU SR Institutional Strengthening Fund
📖 The Institutional Strengthening Fund (ISF)...
is one of the structures of the VU SR, which acts as a structure for competence development and quality assurance of human resources management. The ISF is subordinated to the President of VU SR, but acts independently in making decisions related to the development of members and strengthening of the organisation. The ISF is composed of 5-7 members for a term of one year, who are approved by the VU SR Board on the recommendation of the President.
The aim of the ISF is to provide the conditions for the consistent development of the organisation's competences and the strengthening of its institutional memory and operational tools. The ISF's tasks include: promoting the development of the members of the organisation; coordinating activities to develop general and specific competences; identifying operational needs based on documents, studies or proposals from the VU SR units; and targeting the allocation of funds for institutional strengthening initiatives.
Nature of operation. The ISF decision-making is based on a collective basis, with its members meeting at least once a month. Meetings may be convened at the initiative of any member and may be conducted both physically and remotely.
The meetings of the Fund shall assess applications for institutional strengthening projects, decide on the allocation of funds, draw conclusions on the appropriateness and quality of the projects, and monitor the implementation of the projects and the reports on a consistent basis. The ISF also ensures the collection of methodological and training materials and the provision of self-development tools.
In 2025, the ISF not only took care of the evaluation of applications and the decision-making process for the funding of competence development activities, but also implemented strategic initiatives. Throughout the year, the ISF's statutes, the application form, the mapping of competences, the coordination of the transfer of experience process, the development of a culture of reflection and the implementation of a community survey were updated at the ISF meetings.
It also contributed to the development of the new VU SR Strategic Plan 2025-2028, updated the database of lecturers, and initiated the alumni engagement process. Regular meetings were held with the HR coordinators to discuss relevant issues of attracting, training, planning and empowering members of the organisation.