The 4th FP7 ICT call is supposed to be announced on November 19 with the deadline of April 7, 2009 and with the budget of 801 Meur (5th call expected in July 2009). The first opportunity to discuss the details and find project partners could be the traditional ICT conference held this time in Lyon on November 25-27.
Another pan-European event designed to help R&D partners to form FP7 consortia is the ICT Proposers Day to be held in Budapest and organised by The European Commission’s Information Society and Media Directorate-General, in cooperation with the Hungarian National Office for Research and Technology on January 22. As this event will be hosted by the Centrope country we may take a chance to join forces and network our SMEs within a special CITT session.
Continue reading ‘Lyon and Budapest: Towards 4th ICT call’
EU Commissioner, Viviane Redding, has made few friends among mobile operators. They now have another reason to grumble, according eTREND magazine.
After her successful campaign for cheaper mobile voice roaming charges in Europe, Redding is preparing for another crusade. Her goal is to lower the European mobile operator rates for roaming text messages, e-mails and Internet.
Continue reading ‘Mobile operators have another reason to hate Vivienne Redding’
A vital step has been taken forward in promoting R+D, for Hungary, for Central Europe and the entire European Union. Budapest has been chosen to host the European Institute for Technology and Innovation (EIT). Work on the project, backed by a budgeted €308.7 million ($483.5 million), is due to start later this year. It will be the European organization with the aim to make Europe competitive on the world market and to push EU on the economic growth track.
Continue reading ‘Budapest to host European Institute for Technology and Innovation’
EurActive writes that the Czechs intend to shine a spotlight on entrepreneurship during the upcoming presidency of the European Union in January-June 2009.
“In the Czech Republic we lack private money in support of entrepreneurship, incubators and research projects,” said Czech Education Minister Ondrej Liška, adding that the problem was the same in all other EU countries. He wants each government to analyse the barriers in their own countries and make the appropriate changes to overcome obstacles to enhanced business-education cooperation.
The Czechs don’t plan to pass any new legislature to promote entrepreneurship, but rather reduce the amount of bureaucratic red tape that is already hindering business owners. Now that makes sense!
Continue reading ‘The Czechs are taking over - and they mean business’
In order to promote business meetings between companies at interregional and international scale, the Chamber of Commerce of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, together with its Enterprise Europe Network partners from 15 different European Regions, have combined their efforts to organise the third edition of the professional B2B platform “SME Forum”.
This year’s edition will take place for the second time during the professional trade fair “CONTACT” at the LUXEXPO Exhibition Centre in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on 27th and 28th November 2008.
Continue reading ‘SME Forum 2008: Luxembourg’s B2B matchmaking platform’
Technology transfer goes beyond the mere handing-over of patent rights, and this especially the case with ICT technologies. I’d like to share my practical experiences transferring technology into developing countries – or emerging markets - through consortia-based implementation of joint projects.
In my experience, knowledge transfer achieves more sustainable results within consortia than merely doing business together. The challenge to fail or profit jointly definitely creates a better perception of the value that lies in both conveying knowledge and receiving it.
Continue reading ‘Consortial Cooperation - technology transfer towards emerging countries’
A concrete opportunity for hi-tech innovative companies in the Central Europe is arising from the semi-final of the European Venture Contest (EVC) that will be held in Prague in November. Three winners will be selected for the final in Barcelona (90,000 euros cash prize) and the top 10 presenting companies will receive a free ticket to present at the European Venture Summit in Düsseldorf on December 1-2.
Continue reading ‘Apply for the European Venture Contest semi-final’
My friend Steven Carlson is begging me to post to NowEurope. And if there is one thing I cannot stand to see, it’s a grown man begging. So, here is my long overdue first post to this wonderful resource.
This first post is actually a reprint of an article from Report 103, a twice monthly e-Journal on creativity, imagination, ideas and innovation. Since innovation is a key issue for NowEurope and Eastern Europe, I hope this will be relevant and of interest!
Continue reading ‘Eight Key Ingredients to Corporate Innovation’
In Vienna, ICT enterprises benefit from numerous location factors, especially with respect to the work of service providing companies and universities but also clients, contractors and competitors.
An analysis of the innovation processes of the enterprises shows that they strongly focus on development and introduction on the market. It is less important for companies to permanently carry out research activities themselves. This lack of science activity strongly influences their innovation power: more often enterprises try to improve already existing products than concentrating on a completely different innovation process.
The main obstacles within innovation processes are high costs, economic risk and a lack of financial aid.
Continue reading ‘Innovation and knowledge exchange in Vienna’
As described in earlier articles, brain drain exists, and it has a significant impact on local economies. There has been recently a detailed analysis on how to counter-act this phenomenon, or how to make use of it.
Basically, there are three ways to counteract brain drain: 1) Creating administrative barriers against migration 2) Charging emigrants for their direct cost to the state (e.g. cost of education) 3. Engaging with the diaspora, by building interactive and strong communication links with the migrants – e.g. invitations to conferences, shared research activity.
Continue reading ‘Brain drain – is it useful, at the end of the day?’
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