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Dear INSMEnews Readers,
it's that time again! Time for the INSME Annual Meeting to start and for us to meet with some of the INSME Members (we hope as many as possible) in Montevideo on April 24-26.
This is the key event for the INSME Association, but it is only one of the many events scheduled on innovation and SME related issues in the 3 months to come (as shown by this month's large selection of events).
A few features link them all:
- a persistence in stressing the importance of SMEs for development and competitiveness;
- a growing attention towards better defining innovation governance and policies at national and sub-national level;
- an improved awareness of expectations and challenges facing innovation players;
- a continuous trend in aggregation and networking among both public and private innovation actors, at regional and international level.
INSME is already tuned in to all these trends, and the proposals for collaboration and participation we receive every month mean we are going in the right direction. Of course, we know that we have to keep persisting, but we are firmly convinced that today's commitment of all public and private stakeholders is essential for tomorrow's innovation.
The future is now and innovation starts from each one of us!
Ms. Simona Marzetti
INSME Association Secretary General
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INSME Activities |
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News from the INSME Members |
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CEI Award for Innovative SMEs follow up |
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 The Central European Initiative (CEI, INSME Full Member) is pleased to announce the 5 winners of the CEI Award for Innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprises:
- ASW Engineering (Serbia and Montenegro)
- Eleks Software (Ukraine)
- Ekoloski Inzenjering (Croatia)
- Farmacija (Bosnia and Herzegovina)
- BULTEK 2000 ( Bulgaria)
Winners (all from non EU members) will be granted seed money as a contribution to finance their business ideas and related activities amounting to 20,000 euro each. The award ceremony will take place in Trieste (Italy) on June 23, 2006, on the occasion of the Conference on CEI Co-operation. Our heartiest congratulations to all the winners! To find out more about them, go to:
 http://www.ceinet.org/main.php?pageID=302 Ms. Simona Marzetti, INSME Secretary General, was part of the international Selection Committee. For more information, please read:
 http://www.insme.org/documents/CEI_Award2005_Terms_and_Conditions.doc |
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Fashion Net Conference concluded successfully |
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 The future of the textile industry and the achievements of two years of activities of the Fashion Net Project were at the heart of discussions at the Fashion Net International Conference, which took place at the beautiful location of Villa Medicea La Ferdinanda in Artimino (Prato), Italy, on March 30, 2006.
 235 representatives of SMEs, associations and organisations for enterprise support, universities, research centres and the media attended this event which addressed issues relating to innovative platforms and approaches in fashion and textile distribution and marketing and to advanced industrial applications of textile technology.
Success stories about well renowed brands such as Terranova, Zara, H&M, CP Company, Ermenegildo Zegna were presented and showed how the challenge of coping with incresingly faster change is feasible. A session dedicated to "smart textiles" highlighted the importance of technological innovation and new business strategies in this regard.
View the list of participants:
http://fashionnet.insme.org/upload/sub/docs/Lista.pdf
Presentations made at the Fahion Net Conference are available at:
http://fashionnet.insme.org/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&btitle=CE&mid=&ceid=59
This event has been co-financed by the the European Commission's 6th Framework Programme for R&D (FP6, 2002-2006) - Economic and Technological Intelligence activities - ETI) and represents a brigde between the Fashion Net Project and the Fashion-to-Future Project, preparing enterprises to the new strategy and opportunities of the 7th Framework Programme (2007-2013).
To learn more about this event, please visit Fashion Net website:
http://fashionnet.insme.org/
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Opportunities for INSME Members |
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Best Practices in Transfer of Science and Technology (Turku, 1-2 June 2006) |
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 INSME Members can benefit of a 10% discount on the participation fee for the conference on Best Practices in Transfer of Science and Technology (Turku, Finland, 1-2 June 2006), organised by the Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP).
The conference programme offers interactive sessions on the following topics:
- Plenary sessions on Open source" Biotech, Power Networking, Third world protection as a TTO (Technology Transfer Office) Strategy
- An Introductory Course on Patent Strategy
- Parallel sessions on Looking at TTO
- And a third track on Connecting to Industry
For further information and the complete programme, please refer to the ASTP website:
www.astp.net
For enquiries concerning the discount and to express your interest in participating, please contact the INSME Secretariat:
Mr. Mariano G. Cordone
 secretariat@insme.it
Phone: +39 06 80972.472
Additional opportunities are available for INSME Members by logging into the Members Area of the INSME portal:
http://www.insme.org/
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Tenders & Calls |
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Call for co-organising the INSME Annual Meeting 2007 |
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The INSME Annual Meeting is the main event in the life of the Association.
The INSME Secretariat invites organisations interested in co-organising and co-hosting the INSME Annual Meeting 2007 to present their candidatures:
 Call for co-hosting and co-organising the INSME Association Annual Meeting 2007
::: Co-organiser eligibility
Both INSME Members and non-Members are encouraged to present their candidatures, no matter where they are located.
::: Format for proposals
To assist you in the drafting of your proposal, please use the following template:
http://www.insme.org/documents/INSME2007_Meeting_Template.doc
You can send it either via e-mail or fax (contact details are specified in the document template).
::: Deadlines
Proposals should be submitted by July 15, 2006. All candidatures received will be evaluated by the INSME Board by September 2006.
Let's work together to achieve a high level of excellence in the organisation of the INSME Association key event! Contact us for any clarifications you might need:
Ms. Simona Marzetti
secretariat@insme.it
Phone: +39 06 80972.448
Fax: +39 06 80972.443
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CEI Award "From Research to Enterprise" |
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The Central European Initiative (CEI) has launched a call for proposals addressed to those researchers and scientists who have ideas on how to commercialise their scientific inventions.
Proposed projects must originate in one of the CEI Member States. Special attention will be given to proposals from non-EU CEI Member States (Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro and Ukraine). Details on how to apply are available from the CEI website:
 http://www.ceinet.org/main.php?pageID=319 Closing date: 16 June 2006. |
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Isfahan 2006 Conference on Science and Technology Parks |
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Submission of papers proposals for the Isfahan 2006 Conference on Science and Technology Parks (Isfahan, Iran, 17-19 September 2006) has been extended to May 5, 2006.
The conference will focus on the role of science parks in serving knowledge-based businesses to enhance economic development. Among its objectives: increasing the knowledge about world trends on science parks and incubators, fostering networking among experts of science parks and incubators and creating strategic alliance among science parks.
The Isfahan 2006 Conference on Science and Technology Parks is organised by the Asia Division of the International Association of Science Parks (IASP), the Asian Science Park Association (ASPA), the Isfahan Science & Technology Town (ISTT).
For detailed information about the conference themes and how to apply to this call, please visit:
www.iaspisfahan2006.com
www.aspaisfahan2006.com
or download the text of the updated call:
Call for papers for the Isfahan 2006 Conference on Science and Technology Parks (updated April 12)
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Projects and Initiatives |
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ERIK+ Network |
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 ERIK stands for European Regions Knowledge based Innovation Network. Co-funded by the European Commission, the network, involving more than 40 European regions, started in 2003 and, after a first two-year-implementation round, its activities have been extended onto 2006, thus opening the ERIK+ phase.
This phase will mainly focus on the collection of both qualitative an quantitative data on past and on-going Regional Programs of Innovative Actions (RPIAs) and related good practices. To this goal, a specific call will be launched on April 18, 2006:
ERIK+ first call for the collection of RPIA Programmes and Projects
Proposals must focus on one of the following themes:
- Industry and Science Relations;
- Support to Start-ups and Spin-offs.
Candidate initiatives will be widely promoted through the project promotional tools (website, newsletter, events) and might be showcased in the exhibition area of the ERIK+ Final Conference, to be held in Brussels at the beginning of 2007.
To learn more about Erik activities, please visit:
http://www.eriknetwork.net
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Publications |
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OECD Factbook 2006 |
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Edited by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Factbook 2006 is the second edition of a statistical annual that provides a global overview of world economic, social, and environmental statistics, bringing together more than 100 indicators.
 For the Science and Technology area, statistical indicators cover the following categories:
- Research and Development: Expenditure on R&D, Investment in Knowledge, Researchers, Patents;
- ICT: Size of the ICT Sector, Investment in ICT, Computer and Internet Access by Households;
- Communications: Exports of Information and Communications Equipment, Telephone Access.
Besides OECD countries, the 2006 edition includes also more data from Brazil, China, India, Russia, and South Africa in order to make a more meaningful comparison at a global level.
The print version of the OECD Factbook 2006 is available from the OECD On-line Bookshop. Forthcoming also an e-book pdf format.
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Events |
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Highlighted events |
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Future workshops, seminars, meetings |
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Upcoming
26-28 April 2006
Innovation in the 21st Century - Foresight, Technology, Globalisation
Annual General Meeting and Annual Conference of the European Association for the Transfer of Technologies, Innovation and Industrial Information (TII).
Newcastle, United Kingdom
30 April-03 May 2006
NBIA's 20th International Conference on Business Incubation - "Cultivating the Seeds of Innovation"
Organised by the National Business Incubation Association.
St. Louis, USA
03-04 May 2006
Conference and Award Ceremony of the European Inventor of the Year
Organised by the European Commission and the European Patent Office (EPO).
Brussels, Belgium
04-05 May 2006
"The role of Innovation Systems in Growing Competitive Clusters"
Organised by CzechInvest, the Investment and Business Development Agency.
Brno, Czech Republic
11-13 May 2006
14th Nordic Conference on Small Business Research
Jointly organised by ESBRI (Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research Institute) and FSF (Swedish Foundation for Small Business Research).
Stockholm, Sweden
18 May 2006
EIB Workshop on Science Parks and Innovation - Science Parks: A Tool for the Development of the Knowledge Economy? Scope for EIB Group Support
Organised by the European Investment Bank.
Luxembourg
25-26 May 2006
International Conference on Clustering
Organised by AB�GEM-EU-Turkey Business Centres, Fashion and Textile Cluster Project and GAP/GIDEM Project. Ms. Simona Marzetti, INSME Secretary General, will participate as a speaker in "Workshop 1: Cluster Theory" on May 25.
Istanbul, Turkey
30-31 May 2006
Networked Innovation - International Conference on Transnational Technology Transfer
Co-organised by INI-GraphicsNet Stiftung and INI-Novation.
Darmstadt, Germany
Future events
01-02 June 2006
"Best Practices in Transfer of Science and Technology"
The annual ASTP (Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals) conference will focus on the Tech Transfer Industry related aspects.
Turku, Finland
06-09 June 2006
XXIII IASP World Conference on Science and Technology Parks
Organised by the International Association of Science Parks.
Helsinki, Finland
06-08 June 2006
La Baule 2006 World Investment Conference - "Europe, Building a Hub for the World"
Organised by the Europe+ Foundation. INSME members will benefit from the special registration price of € 450 (VAT excluded). Contact the INSME Secretariat for further information about this opportunity.
La Baule, France
07-08 June 2006
European Technology Platform for the future of Textiles and Clothing - First public Conference
Organised by EURATEX - The European Apparel and Textile Organisation.
Brussels, Belgium
11-14 June 2006
17th ISPIM Annual Conference 2006 - "Networks for Innovation"
The annual ISPIM (International Society for Professional Innovation Management) conference on knowledge management and innovation networks.
Athens, Greece
13-14 June 2006
Conference on the European Charter for Small Enterprises
Jointly organised by the Enterprise and Industry Directorate-General of the European Commission and the Austrian EU Presidency.
Vienna, Austria
19-23 June 2006
First Iberoamerican Congress on Science, Technology, Society and Innovation (CTS+I) - "Science, Technology and Innovation for Iberoamerica Development"
Organised by the organisation of Iberoamerican Countries for Education Science and Culture (OEI), the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation (AECI) and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).
Mexico City, Mexico
23 June 2006
Conference on CEI Co-Operation 2006
Organised by the Central European Initiative (CEI).
Trieste, Italy
26-30 June 2006
UNIDO Training Workshop on "Measuring, Benchmarking and Managing of Industrial Enterprise with UNIDO Pharos Suite"
Organised by United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) in collaboration with GOLEM IMS GMBH, Austria.
Vienna, Austria
30 June 2006
Hill&Knowlton Conference: "Innovation - Driving European Competitiveness Forward"
Organised in view of the upcoming Finnish Presidency of the European Union.
Brussels, Belgium
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