Read the presentations now available on the WIPO Website made by the trainers of the 3^rd International Training Programme, focused on Financing your business with intellectual property, held in Geneva (Switzerland) at the WIPO Headquarters, on 1^st-2^nd December 2010.

Detailed information on the training at following websites :
 http://www.insme.org/
or
 http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/details.jsp?meeting_id=21663

Contact the INSME Secretariat for inquiries about the future INSME trainings:
 secretariat@insme.it

"Competitiveness, Culture and Cross-Border Co-operation: 
Assisting SMEs to Grow, Innovate and
Reach International Markets"

23^rd - 26^th May, 2011
Helsinki, Finland
Venue: Old Stock House

Register soon for the 7^th INSME Annual Meeting 2011 so as to take advantage of early bird fees:
Early bird registration is open till 27^th December 2010.
Registration is mandatory to confirm any participant.

 Please complete the electronic online registration at the Conference website.

To stay updated on the 7^th INSME Annual Meeting agenda, please visit the website at:
 www.annualmeeting2011.insme.org
or contact the INSME Secretariat at:
 insme2011@insme.it

Mr. Paolo Anselmo, INSME President, and Mr. Aleardo Furlani, INSME Board Member, joined the Medventures 2010 event as international jury members. The event, organised in Marseille (France) on December 3^rd by ANIMA Investment Network (INSME Member) in the framework of the EU co-funded Invest in Med programme, aimed to develop Euro-Med partnerships and accelerate the international development of the best high-growth start-ups in the Mediterranean. During this event 100 innovative start-ups have been sourced in 10 South Mediterranean partner countries by selected and pro-active entrepreneurship and innovation networks.

 Read more about the Medventures 2010 event.

Faro, the seed capital, development and orientation fund was launched in May 2010 to boost the development of innovation on both sides of the Mediterranean basin. The Faro initiative, implemented by ANIMA Investment Network in the context of the Union for the Mediterranean, associates also OSEO and has the following main objectives:
-to encourage the creation of businesses and promote employment,
-to support innovation in the countries on the southern shores of Mediterranean
-to develop North/South partnerships.

With a budget of 1 million euros, the fund enables promoters of small innovative projects  to undertake feasibility studies for their partnership project from various points of view:  technical, financial, legal, commercial or managerial. Each project backed by the Faro is  allocated a subsidy of 20,000 euros maximum, to finance up to 50% of the  total costs involved in the works.

Find out more at:
 http://www.faro-um.org/en/index.php.

Taking into account that the public procurement covers a wide range of supplies, services and works required by governments, local authorities and public organisations, utilities and agencies and that the size of such contracts varies hugely, the European Commission issued an analysis of SMEs' access to public procurement in order to evaluate the progress made since the previous study (2007), to assess the effectiveness of policies and practices introduced since and to explore the opportunities of eProcurement and innovative solutions in relation to SMEs' access to public contracts.

To find out more, please, consult:
 Full report 2010

 Read more here.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Environment's purpose is to define, develop and implement the development strategies and programs for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), cooperatives as well as domestic trade development and harmonisation strategies in Romania. In particular, the Ministry has the following functions:
- Regulating function: creating the legal and institutional framework required for achieving objectives and implementing programs in its sector of activity;
- Management function: managing state budget and non-budget funds and distributing such funds for the development of the SMEs, cooperatives and domestic trade sectors;
- Representation function: representing Romania nationally and internationally in its field of activity;
- State authority function: supervising the enforcement of legal provisions in its field of activity.

The Ministry is a full member of INSME Association and is represented in the INSME Board since 2004.

 Read more.

 Read the Romania Business Passport - 2010 edition.

Aim: to enable young students with a creative idea for a business innovative project to implement it at European level.

Participants: All European students individually or within the framework of their institution.

Award: 1^st prize: 3,000 Euros; 2^nd & 3^rd prize: 1,500 Euros.

Deadline: 24^th January 2011.

 Download the application form.

 For further information please contact Dahvia Ouadia (dahvia.ouadia@verbatim-communication.fr) or visit the Innovact website.

Call for proposals

Aim: Foster the competitive capacity of Europe's biotechnology industry by supporting research-intensive SMEs and their strategic partnerships

Participant Countries: Austria, Finland, Germany, Italy, Israel, The Netherlands
Participant Regions: Basque Country, Catalonia, Madrid, Navarra (Spain), Flanders and Wallonia (Belgium).

Consortia shall include SME partners from at least two countries / regions participating in ETB, and may include additional partners from research organizations or large industry.

Deadline: February 1^st, 2011

 Learn more about the 6^th Transnational EUROTRANSBIO.

Call for proposals

Title: INNET Trans-national Call for proposals for Technology Clusters and SMEs -2^nd INNET Innovation Express Pilot Call

Aim: To foster trans-national cooperation between European Technology Clusters, for the benefit of their SMEs, in accordance with the specific regional/national funding programmes of the INNET partners and with their organisations' rules. Some INNET partners give other than financial support (eg. in kind support). Please check the matrix of activities supported by each funding and supporting partner.

Participants: The applicant is a cluster or a representative of a group/consortium of companies. At least one other technology cluster is identified in the proposal and will participate in the action plan.

Deadline for proposal submission: 31^st March 2010.

 For further information on the call, on your INNET contact points and on activities supported, please download INNET Innovation Express Flyer.

EUREKA's Eurostars Programme is the first European funding and support programme dedicated to R&D performing SMEs. According to the EUREKA criteria, a Eurostars project includes any technological area finalised to the development of a new product, process or service. The Eurostars project involves at least two participants (legal entities) from two different Eurostars member countries. The main participant must be an R&D-performing SME from a Eurostars member Country.

Deadline: 24^th March 2011

For further information please contact the EUREKA NCPs (EUREKA National Contact Points) in the 33 Countries involved.

 Read more about the Eurostars Programme.

This public consultation, launched by the European Commission, is part of an impact assessment for the design of a possible successor programme to the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP 2007-2013), consisting of three operational programmes: the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme, the ICT - Policy Support Programme and the Intelligent Energy Europe programme. The consultation is being undertaken in order to provide the Commission with public views on what the future priority areas for an EU intervention in these areas should be, and what instruments should  be used.
     
 Complete the online survey here available till the 4^th February 2011. 
      
More information on this initiative at:
 http://ec.europa.eu/cip/public_consultation/index_en.htm

Launched in  2008, CReATE aims to link European players from research, business and the public sector and to develop a JOINT RESEARCH AGENDA (JRA) for promoting ICT-based innovations in Creative Industries. This main objective is to  promote the innovation potential of the creative industries and to provide strategic guidance to all regions.
With a special focus on SMEs, the CReATE project consortium has been developing strategies to enhance the innovative capabilities of the creative sector and to improve cooperation on the regional and European level.

 Find out more at:
 http://www.lets-create.eu/index.php?id=2144

The issue n�15 of the OECD Statistics Brief on Measuring Entrepreneurship presents some of the key entrepreneurship indicators developed by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD-Eurostat Entrepreneurship Indicators Programme, along with basic information on the methodologies for their collection, and explains the policy context for their use.

 Download the OECD Statistics Brief Measuring Entrepreneurship.

The IPTS Working Papers on Corporate R&D and Innovation, issued by the JRC-IPTS IRI Action, shed light on economic and policy questions related to industrial research and innovation and their contribution to the European competitiveness.

The Economics of Industrial Research & Innovation -IRI is a scientific action carried out within the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies -IPTS, one of the seven scientific institutes of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre -JRC.

Read the IPTS Working Papers at:
 http://iri.jrc.ec.europa.eu/papers.htm#2010

This working paper, published by the World Bank Development Research Group - Finance and Private Sector Development Team, collects data on the number of new firm registrations in 95 countries in order to study the impact of the business environment and of the 2008 financial crisis on new firm registration.

 Download the The Impact of Financial Crisis on New Firm Registration

This second report of the European Research Area Board - ERAB provides 10 policy proposals for developing a world-class research and innovation space in Europe 2030,  enriched with detailed operational recommendations.

 Download the report Realising the New Renaissance.

OpenAIRE - Open Access Infrastructure for Research in Europe - is an initiative, coordinated by the University of Athens in collaboration with several International partners, aimed to support the implementation of Open Access in Europe.

Starting from the 2nd December, it is aimed to provide a network of open repositories providing free online access to knowledge produced by scientists receiving grants from the 7th Framework programme (FP7) and European Research Council (ERC), especially in the fields of health, energy, environment, parts of ICT and research infrastructures, social sciences, humanities and science in society.

Find out more at:
 http://www.openaire.eu/

This monthly newsletter, issued by TCI Network, features news and events about competitive strategies and cluster policy on a global level from the TCI members in Africa, Asia - Middle East, Asia - Pacific, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania.

 To subscribe to the TCI Newsletter, please, click here.

Read the TCI Newsletter at:
 http://www.tci-network.org/newsletter/list

8^th -10^th January 2011
International Conference and Exhibition on Knowledge-Based Business,  Industry and Education, KBIE-2011
Organised by the University College of Bahrain (UCB)
Manama, Bahrain

9^th -11^th January 2011
10th International Entrepreneurship Forum (10^th IEF)
Organised by the Centre for Entrepreneurship Research (CER), Essex Business School  and University of Essex
Tamkeen, Bahrain

12^th -13^th January 2011 
Global investors' Summit 2011
Economic Development and Social Cohesion
Mahatma Mandir, Gandhinagar, India

14^th -15^th January 2011
ICCGC 2011 - International Conference on "Challenges of Globalization and  Strategy for Competitiveness"
Organised by AKGIM - Ajay Kumar Garg Institute of Management and NIESBUD -  National Institute for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development
Ghaziabad, India

17^th -21^st January 2011
World Future Energy Summit
Hosted by Masdar
Abu Dhabi, EAU

18^th -29^th January 2011
2011 World Leadership and Innovation Conference
San Jose, Costa Rica

23^rd -25^th January 2011
2011 International Conference on Asia Pacific
Business Innovation and Technology Management
Bali, Indonesia

23^rd -25^th January 2011
2011 Leadership Summit
Organised by the International Economic Development Council
San Diego, CA, USA

26^th January 2011
EUREKA Academy - Venture Capital in Europe: Are we willing to take the risk?
Organized by EUREKA
Brussels, Belgium

26^th -28^th January 2011
ProTon Europe Conference "Knowledge Transfer: Bridging Science and Business for a New Sustainable Economic Paradigm"
Organised by ProTon Europe
Lisbon, Portugal

2^nd February 2011
Policies in support of high-growth innovative SMEs
Organised by empirica GmbH in the context of PRO INNO Europe
Brussels, Belgium

2^nd - 3^rd February 2011
Sixth Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy
Organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization (INSME Member), INTERPOL and the World Customs Organization
Paris, France

7^th - 11^th February 2011
2^nd ICT Enterprise Forum "Converging strategies for technological sovereignty"
Organised by AVANTE Business Consultancy
Havana, Cuba

10^th February 2011
Techinnov 2011
Organized within the framework of European Enterprise Network
Paris, France

21^st - 22^nd February 2011
2011 EFMD Entrepreneurship Conference
"Does Entrepreneurship Matter? A view from Educators, Researchers, Policy makers and Entrepreneurs"
Tallin, Estonia

24^th February 2011
SciTech 2011
Innovation UK
London, UK