According to the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), multinationals have been the key driver of Central European business innovation in recent years. While this innovation has brought benefits, it has not helped local companies, nor has it prepared the region for the challenges ahead.
In fact, a dependence on multinational innovation has left Central Europe’s economies vulnerable, according the EIU report entitled ‘A Time For New Ideas: Innovation in Central Europe‘, sponsored by Oracle Corporation. While a handful of local SMEs have managed to innovate, the region faces a shortage of talent and a lack of support for innovation among local governments.
Continue reading ‘EIU: Multinational innovation in CEE is not enough’
We are still in the early phase of our publishing effort here at nowEurope connected with the Centrope ICT transfer project and keep identifying the main issues and common interests in our region of the Central Europe.
Technology transfer is a term widely used but it is often understood in quite different ways. Some people even take it just as another buzzword and so let’s take a closer look what it represents for us. For you. What are the topics or concrete questions interesting you and us the most?
Continue reading ‘What technology transfer questions interest you most?’
Gate2Start is a name of another Framework Programme project focused on the ICT sector and technology transfer. It is a part of the broader Europe Innova initiative addressing the exploitation of research-based innovation and bringing entrepreneurship and market expertise at the start of applied research.
Several coaching and networking events were run in several countries over last two years and there have been also developed some outputs the CITT and NowEurope community can benefit from.
Continue reading ‘Gate2Start help for ICT researchers’
The title of this post is a quotation from Meir Brand’s presentation, delivered at Innovation Thursday in Prague last week. The event attracted about 130 people and was organised in cooperation with our FIRST Innovation Park and the CITT project. Michael Novak and I also took part in the founding meeting of the Innovators Club where we talked to several key ICT innovation players in the Czech Republic.
I wrote down a few remarks that seem to me highly relevant to the technology transfer activities within CITT and thus I am offering them as the starting points for our cluster strategy development.
Continue reading ‘Some secrets are more valuable when shared’
Early this year I was invited to become a team member contributing to the Regional Innovation Strategy of Southern Moravia within the working group responsible for communication and international relations. One of the topics discussed was how to coordinate activities realized by a large number of institutions.
Continue reading ‘Is there an innovation calendar?’
Thursday afternoon I spent in Prague at an event dedicated to investments into technology start-ups. I was listening to a VC fund, two business angels and two incubators sharing their views with an audience of mostly ICT entrepreneurs.
The whole concept of Innovation Thursdays is focused on innovation in the Czech Republic and on bringing together innovators, investors and policy makers. Take a look at the opening event of the series held in the Senate hall (video archive and photos).
Continue reading ‘Can Central Europe follow Israeli innovation examples?’
I’d like to about hear your experiences with technology transfer. I’m addressing this request to the nowEurope contributors circle, many of whom I have only recently met. My experience has mainly been with small, entrepreneurial startups in Internet media.
However, I do recall that some fifteen years ago when I used a text interface to navigate the Internet through the Siemens Data-P network I discovered a Hungarian professor who had a working copy of Mosiac, the first primitive web browser. His student later told me the professor had refused to post a copy of Mosiac on the open university for others to use.
Continue reading ‘Confessions of a tech transfer newbie’
EurActive reports that the think tank ‘Lisbon Council for Economic Competitiveness and Social Renewal’ has released a study warning that continued growth in the new EU states of Central Europe should not be taken for granted.
“While central and eastern European countries have been “the engine of dynamism, mobility and flexibility” that was lacking the EU-15, the human capital issue in these new member states could have a negative effect on the EU economy as a whole if nothing is done to bridge the gap, warns the authors.”
Continue reading ‘Think tank: don’t take CEE growth for granted’
“While efforts to make it easier for Europeans to set up their own company are starting to pay off,” Euractiv reports, “a majority of EU citizens continue to hold back for fear of going bust. The Commission is now proposing taking action to reduce the stigma attached to business failure and encourage non-fraudulent bankrupts to make a fresh start.”
Small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) account for 99% of all businesses in the EU, employ 77 million people, create one in every two new jobs.
Continue reading ‘Removing the stigma of bankruptcy in Europe’
Launched in October 2005 by DG Enterprise and Industry, Europe INNOVA is an initiative for innovation professionals under the thematic “Structuring the European Research Area” of the 6th Framework Programme. It aims at providing policy makers, innovation intermediaries and enterprises with data and surveys on innovation. This project adopts a sector-based approach and tends to develop networking on innovation in the all Europe. More than 800 innovation professionals from 23 Member States are involved in this initiative.
Continue reading ‘Europe INNOVA has launched its website’
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