In 2020, the Innovative Education Research Center of Ilia State University became a member of the Association for Values and Knowledge Education (AVaKE), an international organization that unites academics from Austria, Australia, Bulgaria, France, Georgia, Greece, Israel, Ireland, Norway and Portugal. The aim of the association is to promote the concept of VaKE through the training of educators to use VaKE in general and higher teaching as well as in extra-curricular education, and through research and publications, and to create and implement educational publications for both general and higher education.

VaKE was created by Professor Jean-Luc Patry of the Paris-Lodron University Salzburg (Austria) and working groups from various universities.

The association is led by a board consisting of of representatives from different countries working on the VaKE. Ekaterine Shaverdashvili, a professor at Ilia State University and the executive director of the Research Center for Innovative Education, was elected to lead the organization from 2023 to 2024. Young researchers of the center, Tamar Mosiashvili and Magda Gogrichiani, who attended the general assembly and participated in the elections, are also members of the association.

Since 2018, the course “Knowledge and Value Education” has been taught at Ilia State University by Ekaterine Shaverdashvili and Tamar Mosiashvili, as part of the teacher training programs. Study materials in Georgian have been prepared and published, helping both students and working teachers pass the subject exams organized by the National Examination Center. In addition, the association collaborates with other universities to carry out values education research with the intention of producing doctoral theses and academic publications.