This presentation documents the kick-off meeting of the ARISE project (Advancing Research Assessment in Serbia: A Pilot project for the Institute of Economic Sciences), implemented at the Institute of Economic Sciences, Belgrade, Serbia. The kick-off meeting marked the formal launch of the project and introduced its objectives, work plan, governance structure, and implementation timeline. It also included the presentation of the project rationale, alignment with the CoARA agreement, and the initial establishment of the Advisory Board. This output was produced with the support of the Horizon Europe CoARA Boost programme (Cascade Funding).