Issue N° 95 - January 2012

In this Issue:

INSMEnews!

Contact the editorial staff

Dear "INSMEnews" readers,

I hope you had all a great start in 2012. I take the opportunity of this edition of our monthly newsletter, with over 19,000 readers all over the globe, to inform you that on December 31 2011 I had to resign from my position as INSME Secretary general, a role which I have enjoyed since 2004, when the INSME Association was first set up.

My resignation after 8 years of dedication to this project is due to a formal change in my professional career, which makes my current job within the Italian Ministry for Economic Development incompatible with holding at the very same time the office of INSME Secretary general.

Of course this does not mean at all that my involvement with INSME is coming to an end after so much efforts and passion from my side to make this network real. On the contrary, I am still very actively involved in the life of the network in my new role as INSME Board Advisor, and I am already working closely with the new INSME Secretary general, Ms. Christin Pfeiffer, whom I warmly welcome.

I am sure that 2012 will mark even more for INSME, its international Members and Partners worldwide, the beginning of a new phase rich with additional business opportunities and connections, so as to help innovation stakeholders to make innovation happen in SMEs , and to make INSME grow stronger and faster, reaching new players and wider geographical areas.

So this is not a goodbye from my side, it is just an
"Arrivederci" to Daejeon!

With my best wishes

Simona Marzetti

Former INSME Secretary General

 

 

 

Stay tuned about INSME also on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Supporting organisations:

Updates on the life of the INSME Network

Changes in the INSME management

The INSME Secretariat announces that starting January 2012 Ms. Christin Pfeiffer is appointed new INSME Secretary General.

Ms. Simona Marzetti, former Secretary General, resigned last December and will be still actively involved in the Network as INSME Board Advisor.

Stay tuned on the INSME Portal to follow our new activities and initiatives.

Learn more about Ms. Christin Pfeiffer on our portal or contact her at pfeiffer@insme.it

8th INSME Annual Meeting

"Sustainable Growth with Innovation: Building Competitive SME Networks" is the main theme of the next INSME Annual Meeting to be held in Daejeon, Republic of Korea on May 21st -24th 2012.

The event is co-hosted by World Technopolis Association - WTA, Daejeon Metropolitan City, INNOBIZ Association and Daejeon Convention Center.

The INSME Annual Meeting 2012 will comprise the following international events:

  • 8th INSME Association General Assembly (INSME Members only)
  • 9th INSME Board meeting (INSME Board Members only)
  • International Thematic Roundtables
  • International Conference
  • INNOBIZ Global Forum (IGF), organized by the local partner INNOBIZ Association
  • 9th WTA Daejeon Hi-tech fair, organized by WTA
  • INSME International Training Program on "Managing the innovation-economy: challenges and opportunities for SMEs"

Stay updated about the 8th INSME Annual Meeting on the official website at: http://www.annualmeeting2012.insme.org as well as on the INSME Portal, INSME Twitterpage, and LinkedIn Profile.

For further details do not hesitate to contact the INSME Secretariat at: insme2012@insme.it

Download the presentation of the 8th INSME Annual Meeting here

New Members joined the Network

The INSME Association is pleased to welcome the following two organizations which recently joined our Network as Full Members:

Sverdlovsk Regional Small Business Support Foundation,
a private non profit organization based in Russia

PEGASO European Institute,
a private non profit organization based in Italy


At present, the International Network for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises-INSME comprises 83 organizations based in 33 countries in 4 continents.

For further details, please, visit the INSME Members’ dedicated webpage at:
http://www.insme.org/insme-members.

If you are interested to join INSME, please visit:
http://insme.it/join-insme/members-typologies-and-fees

Contact us at: secretariat@insme.it

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News from the INSME Members

EIF: Working Paper "The European Small Business Finance Outlook 2/2011"

The EIF -European Investment Fund published the second issue of the European Small Business Finance Outlook (ESBFO). The paper provides an overview of the main markets relevant to EIF (equity, securitisation, microfinance).

Download the paper at: http://www.eif.org/news_centre/publications/eif_wp_2011_12.pdf

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INSME's Picks in the News

EU Action Plan: helping SMEs access more financial resources

The European Commission released this action plan to improve access to finance for SMEs. It presents the various EU policies and measures to make access to finance easier for Europe's 23 million SMEs. The plan covers actions to improve the venture capital market and facilitate access to financial resources. It contains also financial products to ease access to bank lending, for an amount of at least € 20 billion allocated to SMEs from the new multiannual financial framework.

Download the Action Plan at:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/finance/files/com-2011-870_en.pdf

Read the Press Release at:
http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=
MEMO/11/879&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Creative Europe

Creative Europe is the new EU programme dedicated to the cultural and creative sectors, proposed by the European Commission that will run from 2014 to 2020. The programme aims to help the cultural and creative sectors to seize the opportunities of the ‘digital age’ and globalisation, to enable the sectors to reach their potential so that they can contribute to the Europe 2020 goals for sustainable growth, jobs and social cohesion, as well as to open up new international opportunities, markets and audiences. It builds on the success of the MEDIA and Culture programmes.

The proposal is now under discussion by the Council of EU Ministers and the European Parliament.

Stay tuned on http://ec.europa.eu/culture/creative-europe/

Focus on…INSME Members

CEFORM

CEFORM, the European Center for Training, is a non profit private intermediary organization established in Italy since 1994. Its purpose is to support universities, science parks, research centers and innovative SMEs and individual professionals to internationalize Italian technological excellence.

CEFORM collaborates also with the Association ASIA and EUPIC (EU Project Incubation Center) at Chengdu (P.R. China).

CEFORM joined INSME in December 2011

Find out more about CEFORM at: http://ceform.ilcannocchiale.it/ (only in Italian)

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Tenders & CallS

LLP Call for Proposals 2012- Key Activity 1 Policy Co-operation and Innovation

Organiser: European Commission

Applicants: Applicants must be established in one of the following countries: the 27 Member States of the European Union; the EEA/EFTA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland) and in a candidate countries (Croatia, Turkey). Please note that for Key Activity 1 (KA1) are eligible the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

Objective: "to contribute through lifelong learning to the development of the European Union as an advanced knowledge-based society, with sustainable economic development, more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, while ensuring good protection of the environment for future generations".
The Transversal Programme supports the implementation of transversal aspects of European policy in education and training, including making lifelong learning a reality by implementing lifelong learning strategies and by developing qualifications frameworks and measures to enable more flexible learning pathways.

Total Budget: 1,140 Meur

Deadline for the Transversal Programme - KA1 (Policy Co-operation and Innovation): 1st March 2012

Find out more at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/llp/doc848_en.htm

EU: EUREKA's Eurostars Programme 8th cut-off

Organiser: EUREKA’s Eurostars Programme

Applicants: SMEs based in Eurostars member states

Aim: Stimulate the R&D performing SMEs to lead international collaborative research and innovation project by easing access to support and funding.

Deadline: 1st March 2012

Find out more at: http://www.eurostars-eureka.eu

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Interesting Initiatives

EU: New scheme to help SMEs get loans for research and innovation

On December 2011 the European Commission, EIB - European Investment Bank and EIF - European Investment Fund (INSME Observer) launched a new scheme to help innovative SMEs access finance from banks. This new risk-sharing instrument for SMEs has built on the success of the Risk-Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF), launched in 2007, that has so far helped 75 companies benefit from over €7 billion in EIB loans to projects enhancing European growth and competitiveness.

Further details at: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/11/1505

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Publications

Kauffman Foundation: Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth through Legal Reform

The Kauffman Foundation has recently presented a publication on "Rules for Growth: Promoting Innovation and Growth Through Legal Reform" with the aim to promote innovation and accelerate U.S. economic growth.

The collective essays in the book propose a new way of thinking about the legal system.

It represents a comprehensive and groundbreaking volume of essays prescribing a new set of growth-promoting policies for policymakers, legal scholars, economists, and business men and women.

This volume provides a roadmap for key policymakers in the legislative, executive, and judicial branches to accomplish that objective. But it also has another important objective, and that is to help redirect and expand the "law and economics" field to refocus on the connections between law and growth.

Download the publication here.

Read more at: http://www.kauffman.org/research-and-policy/rules-for-growth.aspx.

IDB: Working Paper Series "Innovation and Productivity: Evidence from Six Latin American Countries"

This study of the Interamerican Development Bank -IDB (INSME Member) examines the determinants of technological innovation and its impact on firm labor productivity across six Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Uruguay) using micro data from innovation surveys.

The evidence shows that applying technological advances leads to a more effective use of productive resources, and that the transformation of new ideas into new economic solutions is the basis of sustainable competitive advantages for firms.

It focuses on the importance of knowledge for innovation and a very strong association between innovation and productivity. In all countries, firms that invest in knowledge are more able to introduce new technological advances, and those that innovate have higher labor productivity than firms that do not innovate.

The results in terms of productivity highlight the importance of innovation in enabling firms to improve economic performance and catch up.

To learn more, please click here.

EU: Industrial structure 2011-Trends and Performance

This publication, issued by the European Commission - DG Enterprise and Industry, aims to satisfy the increasing need for analysis of the competitiveness of the EU economy from a sectoral perspective. It analyses the industrial structure in the different EU Member States, differences in performance of different sectors within the EU, and differences in sector performance across Member States.
This approach provides insight into the relative performance of each industry, and contributes to explaining the competitiveness of the EU economy at large.
This publication follows the path laid by EU sectoral competitiveness indicators and shares with it the objective to elaborate and present information on sectoral competitiveness and performance.

It can be used by economists and policy makers in the EU and Member States or anyone outside the EU interested in the structure and performance of EU industries.

To download the publication, please click here.

To find out more click here.

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Recommended Website

SIE - Social Innovation Europe

The Social Innovation Europe (SIE) was launched on 16th -17th March 2011 in Brussels (Belgium). The initiative, funded by the European Commission, connects stakeholders across Europe to the insights and innovations emerging from the community.

It aims to create a space where the conversations between innovators are on-going, where outliers with great ideas can jump into the discussion at any time. This initiative represents a major effort to build and streamline the social innovation field in Europe.

The online hub (www.socialinnovationeurope.eu) aims to be an indispensable resource providing the latest information on European social innovation, a clearinghouse featuring interviews with prominent innovators, case studies of successful ventures, the latest research, and in-depth analysis from the leading thinkers in the field.

The site is a successful means to publicize ventures, research and causes. Valuable relationships have already begun to form across sectors as policy makers, academics, entrepreneurs and third-sector workers collaborate through SIE to create a common understanding of what social innovation is, and what it can do.

For further details, please click here.

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Recommended Newsletter

EIT Newsletter

The EIT Newsletter is a bimonthly communication from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology, published in cooperation with Science Business.
Its goal is to create a new European way to deliver essential economic growth through innovation and to increase European sustainable growth and competitiveness by reinforcing the innovation capacity of the EU.

To read the latest EIT Newsletter, please click here

To subscribe, please, fill in the online form here

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Events

Highlighted events

22nd - 23rd February 2012
Global Innovation Forum 2012
London, United Kingdom

The event, organized by Selectiva International, represents a dynamic meeting that brings together professionals with diverse backgrounds, great experience and knowledge.

It creates the perfect opportunity to build a strong professional network, obtain new insights and share business practices.

The INSME Association is among the Media Partners of the event.

To learn more about the event, please click here.

For INSME Members to benefit from the reduced fee, please contact: secretariat@insme.it

5th- 6th March 2012
SME Invest Exhibition & Conference "Invest Local, Grow Global"
Dubai, UAE

SME Invest is a specialist platform highlighting business opportunities for existing SMEs and entrepreneurs.

The event, co-organized by the Mohammed Bin Rashid Est. for SME Development (INSME Member) and by the Dubai World Trade Center, offers a centralized forum where UAE buyers and investors can come together for knowledge exchange, seminars, networking and business development.

To learn more, please click here.

Future International meetings, workshops, seminars selected by INSME

4th - 7th February 2012
Regional Innovation and Inventions Exhibition 2012
Organized by The National Elites Foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Vice-Presidency of Science & Technology
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

5th - 7th February 2012
NBIA's Sixth Summit for Advanced Incubation Professionals
Organized by the National Business Incubation Association (NBIA)
Tampa, Fla, United States

6th - 8th February 2012
14th Annual Corporate Venturing & Innovation Partnering
Organized by IBF-International Business Forum
Newport Beach, California, USA

7th - 9th February 2012
IMAGINA - The European 3D Simulation and Virtual Technology Event
Organized by Imagina / MONACO MEDIAX
Munich, Germany

9th February 2012
3rd Annual State of Entrepreneurship Address "A Roadmap for State Growth"
Organized by the Kauffman Foundation
Washington, D.C., United States

13th - 15th February 2012
WIC - World Investment Conference India
In collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)
India

17th February 2012
StartUp Turkey Etohum Camp
Organized by EBAN (INSME Member)
Antalya, Turkey

21st February 2012
"Start up! The European Entrepreneurship Summit"
Organized by EIT - European Institute of Innovation and Technology in cooperation with the Science|Business Innovation Board
Brussels, Belgium

26th -28th February 2012
Innovation Festival
Organised within the framework of INNO Action under PRO INNO Europe initiative
Milan, Italy

28th February 2012
FINANCING ECO INNOVATION FORUM "Brought to You by Chamber of Eco Commerce"
Organized by the Chamber of Eco Commerce
Atlanta, Georgia, United States

5th - 6th March 2012
2012 EFMD Entrepreneurship Conference "Entrepreneurial Value Creation in Businesses, Families and Institutions. A view from Educators, Researchers, Policy makers and Entrepreneurs"
Organized by EFMD-European Foundation for Management Development and Hosted by: Maastricht University, School of Business and Economics
Maastricht, The Netherlands

8th - 9th March 2012
Successful R&D in Europe: 4th European Networking Event
Under the Patronage of the Ministry of Innovation, Science and Research of the State North Rhine Westphalia
Düsseldorf, Germany

18th - 22nd March 2012
IAMOT 2012 - Managing Technology-Service Convergences in the Past-Industrialized Society
Organized by the International Association for Management of Technology (IAMOT)
Hsinchu, Taiwan

19th - 21st March 2012
7th European Annual Symposium - EU Funds 2012
In cooperation with the European Commission
Berlin, Germany

19th - 23rd March 2012
AURP Spring Training "Professional Development for Research Park Executives"
Organized by AURP - Association of University Research Parks
St. Petersburg, Florida,United States

1st - 3rd April 2012
2012 International Technology Transfer Beijing Conference (ITTC2012)
Organized by the International Technology Transfer Network (ITTN)
Beijing, P.R. China

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INSMEnews is edited by the INSME Secretariat. We welcome contributions as well as comments and suggestions.
For enquiries please contact the INSME Secretariat at secretariat@insme.it
Previous editions of INSMEnews are available at
http://www.insme.org/insme-newsletter

INSME Secretariat
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00186 Rome, Italy
Phone: +39 06-68806803

E-mail: secretariat@insme.it
Website: www.insme.org

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