www.europe-innova.eu
European Commission Enterprise and Industry
Year 5 - Issue 18 - June 2010
Partnerships for better innovation support
The newsletter of the Europe INNOVA initiative
Innovation and Europe’s new 2020 Strategy 14 -16 June 2010, Copenhagen
Services Innovation as a Catalyst for the Europe 2020 Strategy
Services Innovation acting as a Catalyst for Europe’s 2020 Strategy > Page 2
Services Innovation as a Driver of Growth > Pages 6-7
Joint event of the EPISIS INNO-Net and the Europe INNOVA Annual Partnering Event
The new Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth has singled out innovation as one of the key drivers that can get Europe out of the current crisis and also prepare its economy for the next decade. The overall strategy has been prepared by the Commission following a public consultation, launched in November 2009 and builds on both the achievements of, and the lessons from, the Lisbon Strategy. The Commission’s proposal on Europe 2020 was presented on 3 March 2010 and endorsed by the March European Council, although the Commission has to work out further details. The June European Council will take the final decisions on the Strategy, setting concrete targets for employment, R&D investments, reducing poverty, climate change and education.
Europe INNOVA Conference: Reshaping Europe > Pages 10-11
In order to meet these targets, the Commission has proposed a series of seven flagship initiatives in the Europe 2020 agenda. The seven flagship initiatives are: innovation, youth, the digital agenda, resource efficiency,
industrial policy, skills and jobs and the fight against poverty. The Innovation Union flagship initiative intends to focus research and innovation efforts on the major societal challenges facing Europe and the world, including climate change, energy security, food security, health and an ageing population. Once it is adopted, the European Council will hold regular debates dedicated to economic development and the main priorities of the Strategy. A special debate on research and development will take place in the European Council during October 2010 focusing on how to boost Europe's innovation potential. The European Commission will monitor the process and also publish an annual report on the delivery of the Europe 2020 Strategy.
More information at : http://ec.europa.eu/eu2020
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Services Innovation acting as a Catalyst for Europe’s 2020 Strategy 14 -16 June 2010, Copenhagen
Services Innovation
Joint event of the EPISIS INNO-Net and the Europe INNOVA Annual Partnering Event
as a Catalyst for the Europe 2020 Strategy
While Danish students are busy sitting their exams, innovation stakeholders will be invading their top of the range, modern Copenhagen IT University. The reason for this intrusion is that this year's Europe INNOVA Annual Partnering Event will be held on the university’s premises between 14 and 16 June 2010.
The IT University of Copenhagen is the youngest university in Denmark and is completely dedicated to the digital world.
The EPISIS INNO-Net focuses on facilitating transnational cooperation between policy-makers and innovation agencies in the field of services innovation through parallel policy, strategic and operational level activities. EPISIS has also established a ‘European Services Innovation Think Tank’ which is engaged in policy and strategic level discussion.
www.proinno-europe.eu/episis
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This Copenhagen meeting is organised in conjunction with the EPISIS INNO-Net and will bring together some 200 innovation stakeholders, notably national and regional policy-makers, representatives of service industries and innovation support providers. Given this wide span of interests, the topic of using services innovation as a catalyst for the new Europe 2020 Strategy will be addressed from a policy perspective, as well as from the perspective of the practitioners. The event promises to provide three days of high-level discussions and many opportunities for networking. The Danish Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, Charlotte Sahl-Madsen, will be among the keynote speakers who will discuss the main challenges of the European economies and how services innovation policies can support
sound public finances, stable macroeconomic conditions, employment growth and European competitiveness. Five high-level representatives of national ministries from Denmark, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal will each present their preferences for investing a fictitious 250 million euro per annum for five years to promote services innovation in Europe. Following their explanations, the audience will cast their votes to select the best option. Which new business support services are needed to promote services innovation in support of Europe 2020 and what are the framework conditions required for services innovation to flourish? These are the topics to be debated on the second day of the conference, with the kick-off speech delivered by Mette Koefoed Quinn, Support for Innovation Unit, DG Enterprise and Industry, European Commission. Participants are to split into three roundtable discussions and discuss new support services in the field of eco-innovation, cluster initiatives and what services can be provided by them and finally new forms of financing innovation in services. Concrete case-studies will be presented by some of Europe INNOVA's sectoral partnerships. More information at : www.europe-innova.eu/copenhagen2010 > Programme
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Boosting KIS companies
Highlighting the power of the region The KISPLATFORM is holding four regional events during 2010 and the first of these took place in Tartu, Estonia, on 11 May. The events are designed to promote services innovation in selected European regions, by showcasing their successful knowledge intensive service (KIS) companies, and to present the regional measures that are available to support the emergence and growth of such companies. The KIS 100 Regional Event in Tartu was organised by the Baltic Innovation Agency, from Estonia, together with Ventspils University, from Latvia. Approximately 70 participants joined in discussion sessions on ‘Ways to foster and enhance services innovation in the Estonian/Latvian region’ and ‘Means of supporting SMEs in knowledge intensive service industries.’ The audience also watched video presentations of five Estonian and four Latvian SMEs from relevant knowledge intensive service sectors. These videos featured the novel services of the companies and explained how they were aiming to attract clients and new business partners in an innovative way. Discussion panelists agreed that knowledge intensive services are of great value, as they create high-income employment and are relatively crisis resistant. Thus, they should be the main focus of Estonia’s and Latvia’s exports. Tea Danilov, of the Estonian Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, argued that services innovations do not always add value on their own, but can contribute a lot to other sectors such as manufacturing industries. It is also possible for local authorities to help in establishing KIS SMEs by providing a first client base.
Karin Jaanson from the Tartu City Government felt that Estonia and Latvia lack the capacity to market their ideas in the KIS sectors. There are many innovative service ideas and funds, but the SMEs involved are not adopting a successful approach to international marketing. Public authorities should find methods or channels to promote the regions internationally, as service providers. SMEs do not only need a good idea, but must also have the right entrepreneurial spirit. Maxim Vlasenko of Agents And Advisors (Latvia) underlined the importance of teams creating a competitive advantage. Toomas Kuuda from the Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry also argued that there are not enough real leaders in Estonian SMEs. Mr Vlasenko also emphasized that globalisation of service business is very challenging and needs to be done in a well-structured way with sufficient scale. The ways of doing business differs from one market to another and the competition is always hard. However, also public tools and assistance for companies are worth utilizing. Many KIS companies are micro-companies and so they should combine with other initiatives and use the grants that are available in the regions to be successful in such a launching exercise. The second regional KIS 100 event was organised in Stuttgart, Germany on 18 May 2010 and hosted by MFG Baden-Württemberg in parallel with the ESA Investment Forum. The series of regional KIS 100 events will continue in Paris, on 30 September 2010, and in Athens, on a date to be confirmed.
More information at : www.europe-innova.eu > Innovation in Services > KIS 100 Regional Events
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Towards a European Partnership supporting Satellite-Enabled Downstream Services Around 50 experts, policy makers, representatives of companies and other stakeholders gathered in Stuttgart for a workshop on 17 and 18 May 2010 that focused on the fast moving sector of downstream satellite services. This event was organised by DG Enterprise and Industry in cooperation with Baden-Württemberg’s Ministry of Economics of and MFG-Baden-Württemberg. The workshop was essentially a forum in which perceptions about new market trends and patterns were shared and the policy actions and measures that might be promoted by a new ‘European Partnership’ were explored.
Klaus Haasis, Mette Quinn, Günther Leßnerkraus
Günther Leßnerkraus
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The first session highlighted the trends in the main satellite-based technologies and their impact on new downstream service industries. Günther Leßnerkraus, from the Ministry of Economics of the Land Baden-Württemberg believed that “The European satellite navigation system Galileo will give rise to new and wide ranging potentials. It is up to us to make full use of this in the best interest of society, the economy and science. Interaction and cooperation between stakeholders in Europe will serve to strengthen our entire economic and scientific areas.” The experts concurred that the main barriers that are still faced by downstream service industries in their innovation processes are: unreliability of technology; poor networking; market introduction gaps; lack of financing and lack of human resources. It was suggested that some of these gaps could be addressed through an improved use of existing technologies, in a cheaper, sustainable and reliable way. However, a better coordinated approach to encouraging regional support for local companies was also seen as an important step forward.
In terms of financing, Florence Ghiron, Capital High Tech CEO said that “On the one hand there is the segment, which meets the strategic needs of public interest, like security, environment monitoring, meteorological and basic services. The investments are still governed by very long decision making processes, as we can see with Galileo – it takes more or less 10 years – and the time to market is very long. On the other hand there is the mass market business where there are thousands of SMEs striving to develop innovative services. The application segment is regulated by much shorter lifecycles – less than one year sometimes.” Frank M. Salzgeber, Head of ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office explained how ESA is already investing in the Earth Observation sector through public calls for the development of applications for Galileo. This is enhanced by policy action on the diffusion of applications, shaping demand for innovative services through public procurement and public policies for infrastructures and funding. The ESA Technology Transfer Programme is already very active in the spinning-off of space technology and in business incubation and has recently launched the Open Sky Technologies Fund (OSTF) - a venture fund to support ESA start-up companies, managed by Triangle Venture Capital Group. Frank Salzgeber proposed that activities in Europe
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should be better coordinated to avoid overlaps. He felt that “as every business is local – let’s avoid duplication and empower the existing regional tools.” ESA has local activities like its Business Incubation Centres, the TTP Broker’s network and ESINET. Bernd Geiger, Triangle VC, emphasised the importance of human capital to successful ventures. He also addressed the need to improve the framework for venture capital in Europe, especially in three respects recognising the special needs of start-ups, creating VC eco-systems and improving exit conditions. The workshop participants then discussed the question of ‘What business support is needed?’ Voucher schemes for SMEs were often cited as strategic tools that could be used to foster networks and partnerships. Jacques Gautray, from OSEO in France, explained how OSEO has selected a sector specific approach for companies in highly qualified clusters that need more tailored support. In fact, the needs of high-tech start-ups can be addressed through R&D platforms, existing generic programmes, incubation and innovation support measures and existing networks like EBN. The example of Living Labs that brings structured support to the sector highlighted the potential of testing and creating demand. It was agreed that creating a true European market for services not only involved “outbound” assistance for the promotion
of local companies in international markets, but “inbound” assistance to help external companies to enter local markets. Winning solutions include local measures for direct support to companies, the commitment of regions to the sector and a willingness to join efforts with other actors in this field. “We need to coordinate better regionally and deliver locally” explained Robert Sanders from EBN. In concluding the workshop, Mette Koefoed Quinn, from DG Enterprise presented the main objectives and potential impact of a new pan-European initiative or European Partnership.’ The drivers behind this initiative are the needs to consolidate support for services innovation and to provide new business opportunities to a larger number of European regions. This new initiative aims to develop a strategic approach for satellite-enabled services, by better prioritisation and mobilisation of European and local support, via horizontal or specific programmes. The aim is to generate more dynamic synergies between support actions at regional, national and European level. The new partnership will guide service companies towards existing support measures and explore new or better support mechanisms for satellite-enabled services. The initiative will also facilitate the testing of innovation vouchers in support of new services in Galileo. A related Call for Proposals is expected before the end of 2010.
European Space agency (ESA):
www.esa.int
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Services Innovation as a Driver of Growth As the European economy recovers from the worst recession for 80 years, it faces a range of challenges that require ambitious policy responses and novel types of European collaboration. Services innovation can be a critical driver for growth and can also support new responses to the wider societal challenges. The launch of the ‘Europe 2020 - A European Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth,’ in March 2010, was a very important milestone. This strategy is a dynamic response to the challenges facing Europe and it defines a number of headline targets to be met by 2020. First meeting of the Expert Panel on Services Innovation on 25-26 March 2010 in Brussels
To help the Commission exploit the potential of services innovation and its contribution to the implementation of the Europe 2020 growth priorities, DG Enterprise and Industry has appointed an Expert Panel on Services Innovation. Its mandate is to advise the European Commission on how services innovation can best be supported, notably through entrepreneurship and industrial policies, and to look at the policy measures required to maximise its contribution. The Expert Panel comprises 20 innovation experts drawn from across industry, academia and public authorities and coming from 15 Member States. The Panel met for the first time on 25 and 26 March 2010 and will hold three similar workshops before announcing the results of its work at a more public event during January 2011.
What drives services innovation? Services and services innovation play a vital role in the European economy. Services account for more than 70% of the EU’s GDP, according the latest Eurostat figures so there is an inevitable, growing need to design polices that support further innovation in
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existing and new services, and policies that improve the structural frameworks for their businesses. Innovation in services, as in almost all forms of innovation, is largely market driven and pioneered by private enterprises. Thus, innovation support should be based on a clear policy rationale, for example counteracting specific market or systemic failures, or determining a political goal that would justify public intervention. Until recently, services innovation has been overlooked in terms of policy development. There have been some improvements in recent years but the links between public policy and services innovation have largely been unexplored and under-exploited. One of the reasons for this is the lack of hard facts and information on the barriers to services innovation. There are many market and systemic failures that can potentially hamper services innovation and also justify policy intervention, but there is little empirical evidence of their effects. This makes it difficult to formulate meaningful policy conclusions and is the reason why most policy recommendations on services innovation only reflect generalities and are not specific enough to generate real and meaningful change. The Expert Panel will engage in a critical reflection on these issues and develop concrete policy responses. A key task of its members and its Secretariat, led by the Danish Technological Institute, will be to collect evidence of what hinders and what drives services innovation. This will involve the identification of examples of innovative services and possible business models for companies delivering such services. As a second step, the experts will analyse policy measures and schemes that exist in different EU Member States to promote services innovation, in order to discover the factors that have guaranteed their success.
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Members of the Expert Panel on Services Innovation
The March workshop focused on establishing a common understanding of the role of the Expert Panel alongside the European Commission’s other services innovation initiatives and on aligning the work of the Expert Panel with the new "Europe 2020 Strategy". The experts also discussed the contribution of services innovation to smart, inclusive and sustainable growth.
supply, driven and that the viewpoints of consumers were assuming an ever more important role.
For instance, it was agreed that smart growth in services innovation involved increasing R&D, improving education and training and moving towards a digital society. The Expert Panel also found that potential examples of innovation in services should include networking services and platforms and also partnering services. The panel also saw the design of communities, which network to achieve economies of scale not normally available to small firms, as being innovations that create new markets.
The overall goal for the Expert Panel, when its work ends in 2011, is to have produced a large evidence base to support the Europe 2020 Strategy. This evidence base will be a collection of inspiring and stimulating examples of services and policies drawn from all the EU Member States. In addition, it will present around 15 recommendations, a services innovation policy roadmap and a substantive report providing new knowledge and information on services innovation.
These initial discussions highlighted how many of the innovative services combine knowledge, technology and new business models to generate innovations and smart growth that can make important transformations along the entire value chain. Many of these were dependent on the integration of networking, location and semantic technologies. Other new aspects of the services were that they were increasingly demand, rather than
The next meeting of the Expert Panel will take place in Copenhagen on 14 and 15 June 2010 in conjunction with the conference on ‘Services Innovation as a catalyst for the Europe 2020 Strategy.’
The policy roadmap is intended to guide policy makers in establishing or developing support schemes, frameworks and infrastructures that will further the promotion of innovation and the sharing of knowledge. More information at : www.europe-innova.eu > Innovation in Services > Expert panel
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Regional and national specialisation patterns
European Cluster Observatory
European Cluster Observatory
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Sectoral Innovation Watch
Sectoral Innovation Watch
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Innovation scholars, industry representatives and policy makers met in Brussels on 11 and 12 May 2010 to analyse and discuss regional and national specialisation patterns and the role of the regional business environment. This workshop was jointly organised by the Sectoral Innovation Watch (SIW) and the European Cluster Observatory (ECO).
extent it is always favourable? Sometimes, it can result in inflexibility and lock-ins or become an obstacle that hinders the switch to more promising technologies. More diversity within a region could be favourable, but to what extent do industries have to be related and complementary, and would regions benefit more from generic enabling technologies such as ICT?
Opening the event, Daniel Klein, Thomas Heinemeier and Kincsö Izsak, who are all Policy Officers at DG Enterprise and Industry, stressed the growing importance for emerging technologies of cooperation at regional level and also of cooperation in clusters. Such cooperation is vital for innovative industries and also offers opportunities for regional and national economic growth.
The experts present argued that further research was needed to study the contribution of specialisation to new growth areas. Franco Malerba, from the University of Bocconi, stated that more knowledge was needed about the relationship between horizontal policies applied to different sectors and the sectoral specialisation patterns. He welcomed the idea of a closer focus on how sectors shift to new niches and new technologies, alongside policy support for these dynamics in specialisation patterns.
The workshop explored which specialisation patterns, framework conditions and competitiveness drivers are conducive to the growth of tomorrow’s innovative industries. The SIW studies national specialisation patterns in different sectors, whilst the ECO will address the issue of regional business environment benchmarking related to cluster development. Studies show that specialisation clearly matters. However, the question is to what
The second day of the workshop addressed issues related to the development of the regional business environment analysis within the European Cluster Observatory. The ECO will collect regional competitiveness indicators in categories related to ‘outcomes,’ ‘drivers’ and ‘fundamentals’ and will analyse the relationships between them. The discussions held during the workshop were in response to the following questions: What are the key success factors of regional business environments? How can they be measured and benchmarked? Which factors are specifically important for the development of specific clusters? The experts concentrated on the need to be innovative in addressing the harder-to measure, softer elements within each category. These include key aspects of the regional business environment related to cooperation, trust, entrepreneurship, human capital and institutional quality, along with outcome variables related to the quality of life.
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European Responses
to the Challenges for Innovation On 27-28 April 2010, the ‘European Challenges for Innovation’ conference took place in Bilbao in the Spanish Basque country. It was held under the auspices of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union and organised by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation in conjunction with the European Commission. The conference aimed to address the impact of the recent economic crisis, and the growing pressure of the challenges that are facing Europe today such as security, the ageing population, environmental issues and growing competition.These challenges were discussed in the light of the new "Europe 2020 Strategy." Françoise Le Bail, Deputy Director General of DG Enterprise and Industry, pointed out that “a real single market on innovation should be introduced by mapping and removing the existing barriers in regulations and standards, funding and mobility.” Christina Garmendia, the Spanish Minister of Science and Innovation, and Riina Nevamäki, the Finnish Secretary of State for Innovation, expressed support for the "Europe 2020 Strategy" and presented national-level strategic developments, such as the recent Spanish strategy ‘e2i’ which aims to double the size of the innovative economy, and improve the national innovation performance and technological balance by 2015. The first business session of the conference on Stimulating innovation through public procurement, was led by Simon Edmonds from the UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills with speakers from the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. Together they promoted the Small Business Research Initiative (SBIR), which supports the development and purchasing of new services and products for the public sector.
The second session covered an acute and almost permanent issue for innovation policy - Financing of innovation. The European Investment Bank, the European Investment Fund and the European Venture Capital Association addressed the need for a further diversification of research and innovation funding instruments, and the potential role and ideology of the planned EU Venture Capital Fund. In the next session on Innovation in regions, various examples were used to illustrate the roles of regions and Member States in implementing innovation policies. The session was introduced by an inspirational speech from John Kao of the Institute for Large Scale Innovation (San Francisco), on the contribution of innovation to the transformation of our economies. The final session focused on empowering people for innovation. The common opinion of the stakeholders was that the private sector should invest continuously in the development of human resources as the main source of added value, creativity and innovation. The closing panel discussion was led by Juan Tomas Hernani, the Spanish Secretary General for Innovation and Anneli Pauli, the Deputy Director General of DG Research. They called for further optimisation and maximisation of innovation investments and the development of human skills and talents, and also highlighted the role of regions as the places where innovation really happens.
More information at : www.challenges4innovation.es
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Reshaping Europe
Addressing Societal Challenges through Entrepreneurship and Innovation This year, on 27-29 October 2010, the metropolitan city of Liège will host the 3rd Europe INNOVA Conference entitled ‘Reshaping Europe – Addressing Societal Challenges through Entrepreneurship and Innovation.’ The conference is being organised by the Region of Wallonia within the framework of the Belgian Presidency of the European Union, and in close collaboration with the European Commission’s DG Enterprise and Industry.
Supporting Innovative Entrepreneurship
The Europe INNOVA community, together with key innovation stakeholders from the worlds of politics, academia and business will consider how innovation policy and innovation support can help Europe and its enterprises face these challenges. The discussions will focus on three areas of particular importance for addressing the societal challenges Europe is facing:
The parallel sessions on 28 October will address these three key themes of the conference, in two rounds of thematic discussions. The first round sessions will look at what is at stake for SMEs in Europe and the need for innovation support to improve the competitiveness of enterprises in order to better address societal challenges.
Unlocking Europe’s Creative Potential Creativity is a key ingredient in innovation and entrepreneurship, but creative ideas often fail to reach the market. Creativity needs to be stimulated and diffused in all sectors of the economy through services that strengthen the innovation chain and offer access to all forms of innovation support. Greening Industries One of the key objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy is to address climate change and to promote resource efficiency by decoupling economic growth from resource and energy use. In order to maintain and increase Europe’s competitiveness, enterprises need support to become greener and more resource and energy efficient. This can, in particular, be achieved through eco-innovation embracing all types of ‘greening measures’ from introducing new products and services to enhancing processes and organisational settings.
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In the specific context of the recent crisis, enterprises and especially SMEs need to adapt, and sometimes even rethink, their entire approach to their business strategies. This requires a framework that supports and guides SMEs, improves their access to affordable finance, extends their innovation management capacities and develops their innovative and entrepreneurial cultures.
The second round will discuss how new emerging sectors such as creative industries and eco-innovation can stimulate other industries to become more innovative and greener, how a single market for innovation support can strengthen the innovation chain and how this can contribute to achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in Europe.
Useful Links Belgian Presidency of the European Union www.eu2010.be Gateway of the Walloon Region www.wallonie.be City of Liège www.liege.be
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WED 27/10
Agenda Official opening and Innovation tours TWIST cluster: Technologies for Image, Sound and Text SKYWIN cluster: Space industry and space-based services MECATECH cluster: E co-innovation in the metallurgic sector
Opening plenary
PARALLEL SESSIONS Parallel sessions will take place over two rounds: “How can innovation help reshape Europe’s social and economic model?” and “How can innovation contribute to making Europe 2020 happen?”
Award ceremony An Award will be presented to recognize the best Europe INNOVA partnership. The award ceremony will take place during the Gala dinner.
FRI 29/10
Innovation quiz The quiz will give the audience an opportunity to discover the range of innovation activities and tools developed by the Europe INNOVA partnerships and projects.
Innovation discussion
INNOVATION EXHIBITION 28 - 29 October
THU 28/10
A plenary session will set the scene for the conference with policy and keynote addresses related to the three main themes of the Conference and a Roundtable discussion on ‘Getting innovation right.’
Innovation Exhibition An innovation exhibition will offer conference delegates the opportunity to experience innovation in action. The exhibition area will also be the meeting place for informal discussions and networking.
Policy addresses followed by a Roundtable will spotlight support actions to foster the innovation capacities of SMEs, notably in the framework of the European Research and Innovation Plan.
Registration Europe INNOVA Conference 2010 : www.europe-innova.eu/liege2010 For more information, please contact: liege2010@europe-innova.eu
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COMING EVENTS:
17 - 18 June 2010, Barcelona, Spain MediaKIS Mobile Apps Forum Partnerships for better innovation support Europe INNOVA is an initiative of the European Commission’s Directorate General Enterprise and Industry which aspires to become the laboratory for the development and testing of new tools and instruments in support of innovation with a view to help innovative enterprises innovate faster and better. It brings together public and private innovation support providers such as innovation agencies, technology transfer offices, business incubators, financing intermediaries, cluster organisations and others. The newsletter of the Europe INNOVA initiative © European Commission - Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. To subscribe: www.europe-innova.eu/newsletter Editorial contact: newsletter@europe-innova.eu Published by: Sparks and all other elements of the Europe INNOVA communications project are performed by a consortium of companies headed by Logotech SA (Greece). Legal notice: This publication has been produced as part of the Europe INNOVA initiative. The views expressed in this report, as well as the information included in it, do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the European Commission and in no way commit the institution. This newsletter is financed under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) which aims to encourage the competitiveness of European enterprises.
The ImMediaTe Consortium presents the MediaKIS Mobile Apps Forum, the first of a series of events that will focus on digital media applications and services. The aim of the Forum is to support the creation and development of entrepreneurial activities in the Media sector For more information please visit : by helping entrepreneurs and companies to attract finance from different sources. www.europe-innova.eu/immediate Companies will be coached to become ‘investment-ready’ and investors to become more ‘sector-aware.’
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30 June - 2 July 2010, Burgos, Spain EBN Annual Congress The global recession affecting European economies requires macroeconomic reforms together with policies which create conducive environments for wealth and job creation. These reforms and policies should develop sustainable territories and adapt Europe to a multi-polar world, without jeopardising its social model. During these two days, 25 smart innovative entrepreneurs will showcase their models and innovations. There will also be a focus on inspiring non-European practices For more information please visit : from Israel and Québec. The discussions at www.ebnburgos2010.com this congress will be organised around the five topics of business, collaborative, digital, socially-responsible and total services models.
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Contacts :
Silvia De Pasquale, EBN Events Manager: sdp@ebn.eu
Emmanuelle Pastor, EBN Events Assistant: epa@ebn.eu
29 September - 1st October 2010, Brussels, Belgium European Cluster Conference This conference will address the role of world-class clusters in renewing European industry in the light of the Europe 2020 strategy. It will gather key policy-makers from the European Commission, Member States, regional authorities and high-level speakers from academia and industry. Together they will For more information please visit : discuss how better policies can be formulated www.proinno-europe.eu/ to make full use of the economic potential of clusterconference2010 excellent clusters. The event is being organised by DG Enterprise and Industry under the Chair of the Belgian EU Presidency.
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27 - 29 October 2010, Liège, Belgium Europe INNOVA Conference This conference is entitled: ‘Reshaping Europe – Addressing Societal Challenges through Entrepreneurships and Innovation’ and registration is now open. Please see pages 10 and 11 of this edition of Sparks for further details.
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Printed on recycled paper with vegetable-based ink.
Registration :
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