The ICARE project is a Collective Research project involving fourteen SMEs and seven research-centres as well as five European industrial association/groupings - representing 9200 SMEs - which will be responsible for training their members and disseminating the project’s outputs. ICARE received a financial support from the FP6 amounting to 2 million euros in a view (i) to develop a rapid and cost-effective analytical method that will enable SMEs to monitor Neo-Formed Contaminants (NFC) accumulation during the heat treatment of food and (ii) to perform pre-normative research, providing EU regulatory authorities with a fast method for NFC quantification.
Continue reading ‘ICARE: A research project intended to agro-food SMEs’
Priceminister is a website that allows private individuals or professionals to buy and to sell to each other cultural and entertainment products. At start, Priceminister was only targeting cultural products (books, CDs, DVDs) but is now offering wider ranges of products, especially multimedia hardware. The specificity of Priceminister is that they have a database of “product sheets” (including the bar code or SBN code) which are continuously created by users themselves.
The advantages of e-trade services are numerous (no stock, no logistics, and no requirement for working capital). Nevertheless, because they only charge 15% on each transaction, Priceminister has to deal a very large volume of products and, for this reason, had to make an initial investment in marketing. As they did not have any personal assets and had already hired people, Priceminister?s partners sought for business angels’ assistance. Luckily, business angels were reactive and knew the sector very well so that they understood the logic of entrepreneurship and of their business.
Continue reading ‘Priceminister only financed by business angels’
The Sheffield Hallam University was the coordinator of the two-year CRAFT project entitled “Low Voltage Accelerated Curing Systems for Concrete” (LOVACS), which involved 7 SMEs from United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Spain, Czech Republic and Poland. The project was awarded about a year ago.
Continue reading ‘Sheffield Hallam University: coordinating a project that should engage a complete supply chain of SMEs across the EU’
A Hungarian company has been claiming it has developed a vaccine against bird flu, however it has not sought regulatory approval from the EU. The Hungarian government has approved sale of the drug, however, the certification documentation is not public because it contains ‘protected information’.
The Hungarian government contributed $9.8m to develop the vaccine, but according to Bloomberg.com, opposition politicians are pushing for an inquiry, and scientists at Hungary’s National Epidemiology Center stated they might have been hasty in declaring it ready for market.
What’s more, the company that developed the drug is owned by an obscure company in Cyprus and the main sales representative is a dodgy Iraqi businessman with no experience selling pharmaceuticals who was previous investigated in connection with a missing shipment of medical aid to Iraq.
A clinical trial with 146 volunteers is now underway in Budapest, according to the article.
Around 1% of Polish Internet users have made a purchase online. Of those, 40% made their first purchase within the last six months. A third of Polish shoppers declared that they intend to increase their number of online purchases. These figures come from a 2005 survey of Polish eCommerce conducted by Polish web measurements company, Gemius, in association with Money.pl.
What struck me is that the most popular method of advertising among Polish emerchants is paid search. Here in Hungary, my impression is that local advertisers have been relatively slow to adopt search, however I haven’t seen any recent figures on the Hungarian market for paid search.
I enjoy living in Hungary, however I’ve spent much of the last ten years working on projects focused outside of Hungary. For example one recent employer, Indextools, has built a thriving business selling Web Analytics services in North America and Western Europe, but until recently they didn’t have ANY business here in Hungary. The local market simply wasn’t ready.
So is Hungary ready now? I’ve been talking to a few people in the local market in an attempt to find that out. The answer is significant, because Web Analytics is an essential part of realizing the commercial potential of the Internet medium.
Continue reading ‘Is Hungary ready for Web Analytics?’
A key roadblock for innovative new businesses in Hungary is the relative lack of capital for early stage startup companies. One way this gap is filled in other countries is the ‘business angel’ - a wealthy individual who brings not only his cash, but often his expertise, contacts and elbow grease.
Here in Hungary I know a handful of business angels, and I’ve met similar people in the Czech Republic. They seem to be few and far between - at least in comparison to places like the United States and Britain. Yesterday I came across this study which, for the first time, offers a formal snapshot of the angel phenomenon in Hungary.
So how many are there? The answer depends on how you define a business angel.
Continue reading ‘The elusive business angel’
The Invest in France Agency (AFII) has recently published a report in Franceon Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) which reveals that foreign investors have much more confidence in France?s economic potential than French actors have themselves!
With FDI amounting to 40 billion euros in 2005, France ranks as the fourth most attractive country for foreign investments, behind Great Britain - which enjoyed an exceptional score thanks to an important merger in the energy sector (Shell) - China and the United States. Since 2002, France has positioned itself around the third rank after the United States and China. According to the AFII, completed inward investment projects in France have increased by 12.4 % over 2004 with a record 664 projects creating or safeguarding 33,296 jobs.
Continue reading ‘France remains one of the most attractive countries for foreign investments’
One of my favorite resources is the Wikipedia - the world’s free encyclopedia, written by its readers. I suppose I must have discovered it about two years ago when I began to regularly notice it in the search results. You might well argue whether the Wikipedia is accurate (here’s the pro, here’s the con). Regardless, I find it incredibly useful and fun to browse.
One thing I like is that the Wikipedia is so comprehensive. While watching DVDs I will inevitably search for Wikipedia listings on the film, actors and so on. And to think it used to take so much effort to be a film buff.
This morning I discovered that the Hungarian-language version of the Wikipedia is also coming up to speed. Sitting at my favorite Buda-side cafe I got into a conversation with the waitress about the music she was playing. She wanted to know more about Dave Brubeck and I discovered a Hungarian-language page. Compare this to the English-language listing for Brubeck and you’ll see it’s not as detailed - but, hey, it will do for a start.
Last week Budapest played host to the 13th annual International Electronics Forum, which brings together senior executives from the global semiconductor industry. The theme of the conference was ‘the Third Digital Revolution’ and apparently Hungary - and this region - are playing a leading role.
According to conference organizer Malcolm Penn, quoted in EETimes, Central Europe has emerged as a hub for electronics design and development - a hopeful sign that the region is moving up the value chain.
Continue reading ‘Central Europe recognized as electronics design hub’
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