Issue N° 133 - June 2015
Keep up to date on innovation matters worldwide with the INSME Association!
Dear INSMEnews Readers,
after an intense period of collaboration, networking and coming together at lovely Cape Town, let me share the following thought:
"It takes two to speak the truth - one to speak,
and another to hear."
(Henry David Thoreau)
I hope you confirm the positive trend our Network shows and you enjoyed meeting more than 175 delegates from 28 different countries to jointly discuss on "Technology and Innovation for Inclusive Growth".
Together with my colleagues at the Secretariat we are on your disposal to assist and facilitate networking and partnering activities and provide you - as usual - with information on latest initiatives and results for challenges.
...and now as usual enjoy your reading!
Ms. Christin Pfeiffer
INSME Secretary General
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Cape Town, the innovation hub of South Africa hosted the 11th INSME Annual Meeting on "Technology and Innovation for Inclusive Growth" from the 26th to the 28th of May 2015.
The three-days event gathered more than 175 delegates from 28 different countries including representatives both from public and private sectors, intermediaries, governments, academics and stakeholders committed in promoting innovation and technology transfer to SMEs which met to discuss knowledge, share ideas and build new business partnerships. High level speakers shared their expertise with the audience offering interesting points of view and stimulating the discussion among the participants. An inspiring innovation tour to key players of the South African innovation ecosystem, including the Stellenbosch Launch Lab and The Barn helped INSME Members to learn more about the local context and participants benefited from the precious insights shared by their South African counterparts. The International Training has been an additional occasion to confirm INSME's intent to discuss emerging trends and topics on a global scale. This year's topic was "Frugal Innovation in the Context of Social Entrepreneurship" and three trainers representing India, Sweden and South Africa contributed with their vast expertise and selected case studies.
Find out more here.
This year's event has been particularly important for the life of the Association since the election of the new Governance Bodies for the mandate 2015 - 2017 took place during the General Assembly on the 26th of May. Mr. Andrea Di Anselmo from META Group has been confirmed as INSME President and Ms. Christin Pfeiffer as Secretary General and the General Assembly expressed its appreciation for all the efforts done so far. Following the election which confirmed Mr. Ibrahim Al Mansoori from Khalifa Fund and Mr. Raimund Broechler from INTRASOFT as Vice Presidents, the Association can count on the support of a new Vice President from now onwards: Mr. Sergio Arzeni from the OECD (INSME Moral Sponsor). Other five newcomers joined the INSME Board to bring in some fresh air.
The composition of all INSME Governance Bodies can be found at the following link.
As a result of the brainstorming session carried out during the 11th INSME Annual Meeting and given the increasing importance of crowdfunding as a tool to provide different forms of funding to finance various types of projects, EURADA (INSME Member from Belgium) proposed a new initiative: Crowdfunding For Social And Local Entrepreneurship Support In South Africa in collaboration with INSME and OSIBA Management.
EURADA proposed to involve an ICT Faculty of one of the South African Universities or high schools in the creation of an ICT platform targeting local entrepreneurs. The crowdfunders will be members of the South African diaspora interested in investing back in the country as well as enterprises having a social corporate responsibility action plan.
INSME, EURADA and the OECD (INSME Moral Sponsor) will collaborate on the feasibility study and the start of the initiative, including the search of funding sponsorship.
On the 4th of June the OECD (INSME Moral Sponsor) hosted the B20 on Business Access to Global Value Chains and Financing SMEs. Conscious of the challenges faced by SMEs in accessing finance and due to the fact that SMEs represent the biggest employment force across the OECD countries, senior representatives from SME associations, financial actors, multinational companies, governments, international organizations and business federations met to discuss coordination measures to support SMEs in global value chains, in contribution to the G20 Leaders Summit taking place in November.
Ms. Christin Pfeiffer, INSME Secretary General, gave her contribution in the Section "Defining the issues: Global Value Chains and SME's financing". A dedicated publication has been released as a concrete follow up of the meeting including the articles and remarks of the speeches given by the experts.
More information about the B20 and download of the publication is available here.
From the 8th to the 12th of June INSME welcomed a delegation from the National Entrepreneurship Institute - Riyadah (INSME Member from Saudi Arabia) for a 5 Days Intensive Training on the Italian Entrepreneurial Model. 32 Saudi Branch Leaders had the opportunity to enhance their knowledge and discuss with speakers from LUISS Enlabs, LVenture, META Group and the OECD on relevant topics such as Creativity, Communication and Marketing strategies; Effective Financing and Effective Methodologies, How to grow a business to a medium sized company in a sustainable manner, Best practices on Entrepreneurs award/competition and model analysis of a business idea competition/award; Entrepreneurship clinics. La Sapienza University of Rome also hosted a Round Table to discuss how to commercialize research results and contributed together with the OECD to this fruitful training and study tour.
In addition selected experts and representatives from the Agency for the Promotion of European Research - APRE and the Italian Confederation of small and medium-sized industrial companies - CONFAPI shared their experiences in promoting research, innovation and support measures to SMEs.
This initiative - the first of its kind for INSME - will be followed up by careful evaluation and additional ideas on partnerships and collaborations for mutual benefit for both INSME and Riyadah Entrepreneurship Institute.
INNEON - Networking for Eco -Innovation Investment is a EU funded project having among its partners Business Angels Europe - BAE (INSME Member from Belgium), aiming at setting up a network for eco-innovation investment to extend public and private funding sources available for eco-innovation and social innovation in Europe. In addition it is providing a unique forum dedicated to the interaction between a selected cohort of innovators and relevant investors. INNEON offers innovators and entrepreneurs a range of self-help tools to support in turning innovative ideas into successful businesses. Entrepreneurs and Innovators are invited to compile an application form to propose their project plan. If the project plan is considered investor ready access to the dedicated coaching and matchmaking services is made available.
To find out more about the services provided by the INNEON Network please visit the dedicated website.
ZUBAIR SEC (INSME Member from Oman) recently organized a training for a group of students from Injaz Oman involved in the Project "The Company" focusing on the importance of social impact of the private sector and on how to manage SMEs in a sustainable manner. During the workshop held on the 12th of May students had the opportunity to deepen their knowledge on best practices in strategic corporate social responsibility and to work on concrete projects enhancing the understanding on how to manage their own projects successfully.
The training is part of a series of workshops organized by ZUBAIR SEC in May - June 2015 covering different entrepreneurship-related topics, with a particular attention to Business Entrepreneurship and Social Responsibility.
More information is available here.
The 10th General Assembly of the G-NEXID Network which took place on the 19th of May has been the occasion to point out the common commitment of both GNEXID (INSME Member from Switzerland) and UNCTAD (INSME Member) to work together to promote the understanding of South-South cooperation and the role of banks in financing development.
Both the outgoing G-NEXID President and the Director of the Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities of UNCTAD expressed the necessity to engage the two organizations in a more substantive way to reach together the development goals of developing and emerging economies by fostering South-to-South trade flows.
Read more here.
INTRASOFT International (INSME Board Member from Luxembourg) is actively involved as one of the partner of the ePlus project, an EU initiative set up to help Europe's web entrepreneurs grow, which has just launched the "alpha version" of the website and is open now for inputs to design its site and the entire project.
Like several 'StartUp Europe' projects, the basic idea is to link together various 'entrepreneur support ecosystems', each established to help local web entrepreneurs develop their start-ups. Entrepreneurs supported by one of these connected ecosystems can then access services offered by all participating ecosystems, taking their start-up to the next level: Europe.
ePlus has a range of services planned, from grant programs to matchmaking young researchers and web entrepreneurs. All web entrepreneurs, researchers, ecosystem managers, startup mentors, investors or similar are invited to take part in this survey. It is also possible to subscribe to the project's newsletter from within the survey.
Take part in the survey by clicking here.
With the common aim to strengthen economic ties, India and Japan recently signed an action agenda to promote investments, trade and Asia-Pacific economic integration.
The agenda is mainly based on the following five points:
The Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry and the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry which signed the agreement recognized its importance for the promotion of investments and trade between the two countries and they also expressed the intention to meet on a yearly basis to work closely together in order to boost the development and the prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region.
Read more here.
The OECD's (INSME Moral Sponsor) Annual Ministerial Meeting held in Paris at the beginning of June has been the occasion to launch the updated Policy Framework for Investment (PFI), a guideline to support national governments and regional groups to create the right conditions to attract domestic and foreign investments in order to contribute to the economic and social growth and to a sustainable development.
The PFI connects 12 policy areas: investment policy; investment promotion and facilitation; competition; trade; taxation; corporate governance; finance; infrastructure; developing human resources; policies to promote responsible business conduct and investment in support of green growth; and public governance.
Furthermore the updated version is particularly focused on infrastructures, SMEs, the role of global value chains, gender issues and policies to address investments in areas promoting green growth.
The preliminary version of the Policy Framework for Investment is available here.
Within its first 50 years as an independent city-state Singapore has placed itself as an innovation hub becoming - according to the World Bank - the easiest place in the world to do business.
At today, as declared by Mr. Damian Chan - International Director for the Americas at the Singapore Economic Development Board, Singapore is led by the so called "Home Strategy", that means "Home for Business. Home for Innovation. Home for Talent" and a vast entrepreneurial ecosystem has been developed aspiring to become the Silicon Valley of South Asia. Singapore is adopting innovation strategies and it is also steadily committed in creating a science and education system which might attract new talents from all over the world. Furthermore Singapore benefits from its geographic location close to the huge Chinese Market.
Finally Singapore's success has been influenced by - and will probably depend on - the forthcoming years, the ability to reinvent itself, to be ready to respond to the global market and to continue to be an active part in the innovation path.
Find out more here.
Mr. Guo Ping, Huawei's Deputy Chair of the Board, offers some guidelines to create a stimulating innovation ecosystem based on his experience in Huawei which has been developing an innovation environment over the last 26 years.
According to Mr. Ping the most important factors are:
Read more here.
A wide range of industries are now looking to Southeast Asia to tap into new consumer markets marked by a growing middle-class population. While these opportunities can lead to substantial returns for European businesses, both on the production and sales side, the less developed nature of business-related legislation means that the dangers of intellectual property (IP) infringement are around the corner.
In this article the Southeast Asia IPR SME Helpdesk gives some practical advices on the top 3 IPR mistakes to avoid: late registrations of trade mark; failing to register copyrights and giving away trade secrets.
Read the full article here.
The SEA - Sustainable Entrepreneurship Award is a European initiative looking for businesses/projects/initiatives that have recognized a social problem and solved it with an innovative, profitable business idea. Projects and initiatives from any company, irrespective of the size, industry or country from around the world can be submitted in eight different categories: Integration & Social; Climate, Environment & Energy; Knowledge & Education; Mobility & Technological Innovations; Development & Services; Lifestyle & Culture, Urban & Regional Development, and Health & Medicine.
The award will recognize:
The Best Project is awarded the jury prize of EUR 10,000. The best submissions in each category, as well as the Best Idea, are presented once a year as part of the grand SEA Gala, publicized in the media and integrated into the ongoing press work. With the applicant's consent, the organizers will also support suitable projects in searching for investors.
The deadline for submitting proposals is the 31st of August 2015.
Learn more here.
The Eurostars-2 - a joint programme among more than 30 EUREKA Member Countries and the European Union - application system is looking for research-performing small and medium sized enterprises to assist them in developing innovative products, processes and services by offering support and funding to help innovations to access regional, national and international markets. Proposals can address any technological area for any market and must have a civilian purpose by improving the daily lives of people around the world. Any type of organization can be part of a Eurostars project consortium, although the main partner must be an R&D - performing SME and the partnership must include organizations from at least two different Eurostars Countries.
Participants do not receive funding directly from the EUREKA Secretariat or other European institutions. All funding to approved projects is managed by the Eurostars Member Country according to national funding rules and procedures. Read the full list of participating countries here.
The deadline for submitting proposals is the 17th of September 2015.
Find out more about this call here.
The Creative Business Cup is an international competition organized by the Centre for Cultural and Experience Economy, an independent not-for-profit agency based in Denmark. The flagship initiative of the Centre aims at rewarding new business ideas from the creative industries and strengthening the business skills of creative entrepreneurs.
Start-ups interested in joining the competition have to contact the National Partner in their own country. Each year the National Partner hosts the National Creative Business Cup competition to award those start-ups who showed a high level of creativity and presented a business concept with great market potential. Winning startups in each country will compete as finalists in the Creative Business Cup that will be held in November at Copenhagen, Denmark.
To find out more about the national competitions, specific target sectors, deadlines and awards, please have a look at the full list of national hosts here.
Regarding the international competition, 2015 prizes have not been announced yet, but in the meantime it is possible to have a look at 2014 prizes at the following link.
Find out more here.
UNCTAD (INSME Member), the International Trade Centre (ITC) and the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe - UNECE (INSME Member) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen their support for developing countries as they implement the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement (WTO TFA), also known as the Bali Agreement. Cooperation among the agencies will concentrate on helping countries identify, categorize and implement the measures that they committed to under the WTO TFA.
Initial actions will focus on ensuring better and easier access to information for traders; facilitating greater predictability and reliability of procedures through simplified formalities, documentation and information flows using international standards; and the adoption of facilities such as single windows for trade - all of this in close collaboration with the WTO and the donor community.
Please click here for more information.
The European Commission has just released the European Innovation Scoreboards 2015, providing a comparative assessment of research and innovation performance in Europe. The measurement framework used in the Innovation Union Scoreboard distinguishes between 3 main types of indicators and 8 innovation dimensions, capturing in total 25 different indicators.
The Innovation Scoreboard demonstrates that the impact of the economic crisis has become visible for several Member States which showed a decreasing innovation performance compared to last year.
It is however worth mentioning the fact that differences among the Member States are becoming smaller and that innovation performance has continued to converge in 2014. By looking at innovation performance, Sweden confirmed itself as the best performing innovation system followed by Denmark, Finland and Germany. Generally speaking the performance group memberships (Innovation leaders, Innovation followers, Moderate innovators and Modest innovators) remained stable compared to the previous edition with the exception of Cyprus and Estonia, that changed position from Innovation followers to Moderate innovators.
Read the full Scoreboard here.
The African Economic Outlook on the theme "Regional Development and Spatial Inclusion" has just been launched to review past economic performance and medium term projections for the continent as a whole, regions and individual countries. The report is divided into 5 main chapters analyzing: Africa's macroeconomic prospects; external financial flows and tax revenues; trade policies and regional integration; human development and political and economic governance.
From a macroeconomic perspective, Africa's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to strengthen to 4.5% in 2015 and 5% in 2016 after subdued expansion in 2013 (3.5%) and 2014 (3.9%). 2014's growth was about one percentage point lower than expected, as the global economy remained weaker and some African countries saw severe domestic problems. But the world economy is improving and according to AEO 2015's predictions, Africa will soon be closing in on the impressive growth levels seen before the 2008-09 global economic crisis. From a regional point of view, West Africa achieved relatively high growth of 6% in 2014 despite its battle with the Ebola virus. Nigeria's growth of 6.3% came mainly from non-oil sectors showing that the economy is diversifying. But Southern Africa's growth fell below 3% as the key South African economy only grew by 1.5%.
Find out more here.
SINAPSE is a free online service of the European Commission which intends to become a repository of organizations and individuals who have the expertise to support policy making processes. The website in particular offers tools to promote a better use of expertise in EU policy making and governance by providing: networking of advisory bodies, support to expert groups, ad-hoc/public consultations and e-debates etc.
Additionally to animate the discussion, SINAPSE also allows the creation of "e-Communities" which enable groups of members and organisations with a common interest to share and exchange information in a dedicated environment which can be graphically personalized and linked to the initiator website.
Find out more here.
The JEUPISTE Project has just issued its second edition of the newsletter providing relevant information on what is happening in the Science, Technology and Innovation landscape in Europe and Japan, highlighting the achievements of the project, past and future thematic seminar, workshops, training courses, events and initiatives.
The project in particular aims at promoting EU-Japan cooperation in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) through supports to policy dialogues, deployment of bilateral information services, organisation of networking events focusing on specific technologies and/or societal challenges, operation of help desk services and contribution to the development of human resources for collaborative projects.
INSME contributes as a partner to this initiative coordinated by the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation (INSME Member from Japan).
Read the newsletter here.
2015 UNESCO-WTA International Training Workshop
22nd - 25th of September 2015 UNESCO (INSME Member), the World Technopolis Association (INSME Member from Korea) and Daejeon Metropolitan City are organizing the 2015 UNESCO-WTA International Training Workshop on "Science & Technology Park and Regional Innovation Platform" taking place from the 22nd to the 25th of September 2015 at Daejeon, Republic of Korea. The workshop intends to be a unique opportunity to provide strategic implications for regions that are already operating existing Science and Technology Parks/Technopolis and for regions that are planning to build STPs/Technopolis. In particular the Training Workshop will be focused on three main sessions on the topics: Establishment of an Innovation Ecosystem in Regional Innovation Platforms; Network for Active Academia-Industry-Government Collaboration STP and Technopolis and Best Practice & Country Presentation.
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10th - 11th of July 2015
Seminar: "EU-Japan Business Opportunities in Biotech and Agro-Food related Sectors" and B2B
Organized by the European Commission and the EU-Japan Centre for Industrial Cooperation (INSME Member)
Milan, Italy
21st - 23rd of August 2015
XIII Triple Helix International Conference 2015
Organized by the Triple Helix Association (INSME Member)
Beijing, China
27th of August 2015
Crowd Dialog Europe - United Knowledge
Organized by the German-Finnish Chamber of Commerce, the City of Helsinki, the EU Commission, the CrowdfundingHub and DIGILE.
Helsinki, Finland
9th - 10th of September 2015
The Arab Women in Leadership and Business Summit
Organized by MICE Quotient
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
21st - 22nd of September 2015
1st Latin American and Caribbean Forum for Innovation in SME Finance
Organized by IIC - Inter-American Investment Corporation
Medellin, Colombia
29th - 30th of September 2015
3rd UIA Associations Round Table Asia-Pacific
Organized by the Union of International Associations
Bangkok, Thailand
13th - 15th of October 2015
5th OECD World Forum on Statistics, Knowledge and Policy
Organized by the OECD (INSME Moral Sponsor)
Guadalajara, Mexico
14th - 16th of October 2015
CULTURALLIA 2015
Organized by Hainaut Developpement, the Chamber of Commerce and the Exporters' Club of Belgian Province of Luxembourg, SPI, BEP and in partnership with AWEX (INSME Member)
Mons, Belgium
20th - 22nd of October 2015
World Entrepreneurship Forum on "Global Entrepreneurship: Connected Continents, New Opportunities"
Organized with the World Entrepreneurship Forum and the Hanghzou City
Hangzhou, China
27th - 29th of October 2015
iOT 360
Organized by the European Alliance for Innovation (INSME Member) in partnership with INSME, IBM, Sapienza University, Industrial Internet Consortium, Create-Net and with the patronage of the European Commission Representation in Italy
Rome, Italy
27th - 29th of October 2015
The Global Trade Development Week
Organized by KW Group under the patronage of H.E. Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, Minister of Economy, United Arab Emirates
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
2nd - 5th of November 2015
BIN@PORTO 2015 on "Responsible Research & Innovation: a collective, sustainable, inclusive and system-wide approach"
Organized by Business & Innovation Network
Porto, Portugal
3rd - 6th of November 2015
TCI Global Conference on "Clusters in the Creative Economy. New Agendas for Companies and Policy Makers"
Organized by TCI Network
Daegu, Korea
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