Zoltán Cséfalvay mentioned among these measures that the concept of research & development and innovation had been legally defined, the application of EU and domestic funding had been coordinated and a breakthrough had been achieved regarding the financing of innovative start-ups via venture capital.

The Minister of State signalled that the Hungarian Government is about to adopt the country’s innovation strategy in coming weeks following a broad social coordination process.

He pointed out that the share of products with high added value within Hungarian exports is significant, and in order to improve this position it is necessary to have an innovation policy which can boost competitiveness. He stressed that the number of innovative enterprises must be significantly increased, and in his opinion the increase of investments by venture capital firms in Hungary signals that this is indeed taking place. He also underlined that while in 2011 Hungary was ranked 5th in Europe with regard to venture capital investments as a percentage of GDP, in 2012 the country advanced to first place in the ranking.

Zoltán Cséfalvay said that one of the innovation strategy cornerstones had been determined as being that expenditures on R&D&I should be increased to 1.8 percent of GDP. In 2014-2020, he added, 60 percent or HUF400bn of available resources from cohesion and structural funds shall be spent directly on R&D&I within the framework of the economic operative programme, but there will also be substantial additional financial means available for these fields within other operative programmes.

At the press conference, Her Excellency the Ambassador of Sweden to Hungary Karin Olofsdotter emphasised: Europe must stay innovative in a competitive global market, and the exchange of experiences on innovation strategies may stimulate the growth of global competitiveness. As she added, as a highly innovative country, Hungary has been a key partner to Sweden.

Senior Advisor for European and International Research and Innovation of Sweden’s Ministry for Enterprise, Energy and Communications Michael Jacob said at the press conference that after the innovation strategy for Sweden had been formulated, a law on research and innovation activities was adopted. The Senior Advisor stressed the significance of promoting cooperation between enterprises and the academic community, of knowledge-based development, international cooperation and free markets, along with the importance of solving the challenge posed by an aging society, of improving public administration and establishing innovative regions.

Member of Board of the Swedish Chamber of Trade and Deputy CEO of Ericsson Hungary Roland Jakab spoke about the significance of his company’s relations with Hungarian universities. Ericsson, which spends USD5bn annually on R&D&I, has one of Europe’s largest research centres in Hungary, which includes four R&D facilities.

“Problems and perspectives of innovative entrepreneurship

in Greece within the international environment”

Project Goals: The link of production and academic research through innovation. It is addressed to the academic (Universities) and business researchers (R & D).

Date: 13-14/09/2013

Location: T.E.I. of Epirus, Kostakioi Campus, Arta

Registration Fees: No fees. The participation is free.

Conference Topics:

1.      Informatics

2.      Economics (especially in financial-accounting)

3.      Administrative sciences (especially in tourist business and applied foreign languages in management & commerce)

4.      Agricultural Bio-Sciences (especially in crop science, animal production, aquaculture & fisheries, and floriculture & landscape architecture), renewable energy.

5.      Health Sciences (especially in nursing, speech & language therapy, and early childhood care)

6.      Music (especially folk and traditional music)

Website: innovation-conference-epirus.blogspot.com

This report summarises the findings of a team of experts in support of the preparation smart specialisation strategies (S3) as a basis for the 2014-20 programming of the Structural Funds. The experts were asked to provide policy advice and methodological recommendations in order to ensure the following seven key points are addressed by the Greek authorities:

·         an appropriate stakeholder involvement and the organisation of the entrepreneurial discovery process of testing possible new areas,

·         an identification of areas of current and potential strength,

·         that innovation and knowledge-based development priorities are set,

·         an identification of the optimum policy mix,

·         an outward looking of the strategy and the promotion of critical mass,

·         the strategy produces synergies between different policies and funding sources

·         appropriate governance and administrative set-ups and capacities to ensure efficient and effective implementation of the strategies in a coherent multi-level governance system.

One of the meetings held was the 14th Steering Platform on Research for the Western Balkan Countries. The Steering Platform was co-chaired by Montenegro – who hosted the event on behalf of the Western Balkan Countries, Irish Presidency of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission.

The Steering Platform facilitates the interaction between the Western Balkan Countries, the EU member states, the candidate and potential candidate countries and other states associated to the Framework Programmes for RTD and the European Commission. Its main objective is to support the enhanced integration of the WBCs in the European Research Area. It is a strategic body to deal with European, multilateral and regional issues of Science and Technology policies in and with the WBCs. It acts as an information exchange centre, clearing house for joint ideas and activities, and coordination forum for needs, suggestions and proposals of the WBCs to the European Commission, the EU27, candidate and potential candidate countries and the countries associated to FP7 (AC) and vice versa.

The discussion of the Steering Platform was centered on latest developments, novelties and support in view of Horizon 2020. Besides that, also progresses of other regional cooperation initiatives and strategies were debated.

On this page you can find progress reports on recent developments regarding S&T cooperation in/with/for the Western Balkan Countries for download from the 14th Steering Platform:

http://wbc-inco.net/object/document/12146.

Addressing 72 young talents in the program, Letta said, “we in government are also start-uppers in the end, we have your same enthusiasm and determination.”

For the President of the Autonomous Province of Trento Alberto Pacher “Trentino aims at excellence and uses its autonomy to serve the country.”

Fausto Giunchiglia, President of Trento RISE (the hub of ICT innovation and promoter of TechPeaks) added: “TechPeaks will allows us to create innovative businesses that will improve society for our children.”

Source: www.trentorise.eu

The new formed Agency for Digital Italia which assumed the activities of the now ex Italian National Agency for Innovation had an important role during FORUM PA as an Agency responsible to bring forward the objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe. The Agency for Digital Italy took part in a rich and extensive program of conferences and services on topics ranging from European Digital Agenda Open Government, the Digital Administration Code to Human Smart Cities, and Data Center Public Procurement.

During the three-day Fair on the stand of the Agency several projects were presented among which the FINNO project of the South East Europe Transnational Cooperation Programme, co-funded by the European Union. The coordinator of the project for Italy, as a lead partner for communication met representatives from the Piedmont Region and was introduced with the ONE – Observatory Network to Enhance ICT Structural Funds Absorption project. The coordinator of the FINNO project for Italy established an interest for the ONE results, discussions about further developments of synergies among the two projects, and the Piedmont Region whose projects are of special interest for the development of an improved mechanism for innovation in Italy and South East Europe.

FORUM PA fosters meetings and debates among public administration, companies and citizens about innovation themes through the creation of communities, studies researches, multimedia communication, events, meetings and training.

The main activity of FORUM PA is the expo: from 24 years, FORUM PA is the point of reference for innovation and modernization in public administration.

The first group of participants who qualified for the 2nd round of the competition will have first training series 28.05.2013 aimed at training participants NTI2013, while the other groups have training 30.05.2013.

Training should help innovators to understand and define their novelty and innovation to help them find buyers for their innovations. This training aims to enable innovators to realize the difference between own and the buyer’s observation / understanding of innovation, develop new and existing markets for their innovative products / services that know how to reach their customers, find out what they really want in order to gain their confidence in their product, and thus created the right way to market.

This training is designed for all innovators who want to live on their innovations.

Source: www.pks.rs

Apart from the institutions that offer financial support for innovations, such as SEIPA, USAID, GIZ, in the course of the training, other sources of institutionalized financing, sources of information through various international networks, such as EEN, the system of chambers, NAPP as well as other sources of information that can be of assistance to SMEs have been presented.

Source: www.zis.gov.rs

• in Nis, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (3 June 2013)
• in Uzice Uzice cooperation with the ARRA, Regional Chamber of Commerce Uzice (4 June 2013)
• in Novi Sad, Faculty of Technical Sciences (5 June 2013)

Program for competitiveness and innovation (Competitiveness and Innovation Programme – CIP) at 14 May 2013^th  opened the sixth public call for financing eco-innovation projects. Projects that may be funded under this call should be innovative, have a positive impact on the environment, and market value added to European level. Priority sectors this year will be: recycling, food industry, construction industry and green business.

Info days will attend an expert in sustainable development and environmental protection in Slovenia, which will provide key information about the CIP call for ECO – innovative projects, as well as the presentation of the approved projects funded by the Eco-innovation.
The aim is that Serbian companies and institutions to gain information about conditions and how to apply for a public call CIP – Eco-Innovation, hear the experiences of companies that have received funding to future grant applicants prepare quality applications to participate in this call.

Contact person for all information about info days of the Ms. Stefania Djokic, e-mail: stefanija.djokic @ narr.gov.rs.

Source: www.een.rs