January 2003

March 2003

May 2003

Publications &
Conferences

P U B L I C A T I O N S  

uropean entrepreneurship training curriculums

ISBN 92-894-3967-X, NB-NA-17047-EN-C

This Innovation policy study, published by the Commission’s Enterprise DG, explores a wide range of entrepreneurship training courses across Europe, identifying good practice and current deficiencies in European training programmes. The lack of managerial and financial know-how has been identified as one of the key factors hindering communication between technologically focused entrepreneurs and the investment community. The development of appropriate training opportunities could therefore make a significant contribution to fostering the creation of more technology-based firms.

The study suggests that training which responds best to the needs of entrepreneurs is practical, flexible and intensive, and focuses on specific topics, such as business-plan preparation.

Contact
Innovation Helpdesk
Tl. +352 4301 33161
Fx. +352 4301 32084
innovation@ec.europa.eu

o-operation between the research system and industry to promote innovative firms

ISBN 92-894-3929-7, KI-NA-17042-EN-C

This Innovation policy study, published by the Commission’s Enterprise DG, looks at the conditions in which industry and research institutes co-operate. Based on a survey of 1800 European actors, it explores the context in which these relationships are based, and the barriers which hinder co-operation. It concludes with an overview of four areas in which the R&D system, government and industry can work together to encourage the creation of innovative firms – infrastructure support, creating an environment for networking, financing spin-off firms, and training advice and support.

Contact
Innovation Helpdesk
Tl. +352 4301 33161
Fx. +352 4301 32084
innovation@ec.europa.eu

nnovation policy in Europe 2002

ISBN 92-894-1787-0, NB-NA-17044-EN-C

Annual report summarising developments in innovation policy and innovation-support measures recently introduced across 30 European countries. The report is a publication from the European Trend Chart on Innovation which is the focus of European benchmarking in the innovation field. It looks at progress towards the five goals set in the Commission’s 2000 Communication on innovation policy.

Contact
Download free in English, French or German, from: http://trendchart.cordis.europa.eu/Reports/annual_home.html

hird European forum for innovative enterprises - proceedings

ISBN 92-894-4147-X, KI-NA-17050-EN-C

Collects together some 17 papers presented at the third European forum for innovative enterprises, held in Stockholm in April 2002. These represent a valuable source of experience regarding policies used to generate high-tech business. In particular, papers look at different regional initiatives, where policies centred around different catalysts, including academia, companies or technology fields. A six-minute video on CD-ROM is included in the proceedings.

Contact
Innovation Helpdesk
Tl. +352 4301 33161
Fx. +352 4301 32084
innovation@ec.europa.eu

apital IT - venture capital meeting for entrepreneurs

1 April, Paris (France)

Co-organised by IRC Paris/Île-de-France, this event aims to bring together entrepreneurs with innovative technologies – in particular in the information technologies, biotech and environmental protection fields – and investors. Around 450 investors and intermediary services relevant to the innovation process will attend, offering considerable opportunities to innovative small firms looking for assistance in growing their business.

Contact
http://www.capital-it.com/

usiness-plan writing course

6-12 April, and 1-7 June, Hamburg (Germany)

TRAIN-IT, an IST project, offers week-long training courses in writing business plans, including practical advice as participants work on their own plans during the course. The training is open to all, but IST project participants may pay a reduced fee.

Contact
http://www.train-it.org/

limate change our business - conference and partnering forum

8-9 April, Birmingham (United Kingdom)

This partnering forum, open to anyone attending at least one session of the conference, will help small companies find partners for co-operation in environmental technologies. In particular, the event is focused on low-carbon solutions for construction, renewable and alternative energy sources, and energy saving.

Contact
R. Riches, IRC Midlands
Tl. +44 797 498 4196
r.riches@coventry.ac.uk
http://www.mirc.org.uk/

olz Innovativ - timber technology brokerage meeting

8-10 April, Rosenheim (Germany)

This brokerage event is organised by IRC Bavaria, in partnership with other IRCs in the wood thematic group. In addition to pre-arranged one-to-one meetings, allowing companies active in the timber sector to explore opportunities for co-operation, there will be a symposium and exhibition covering a wide range of topics, in particular those relevant to the use of timber in the building industry.

Contact
IRC Bavaria
Tl. +49 911 206 71 146
matt@bayern-innovativ.de
http://www.bayern-innovativ.de/projekte/detail/874_0

anover Industrial Fair - IRC brokerage event

10-11 April, Hanover (Germany)

This brokerage event, organised by the materials thematic group of the Innovation Relay Centres network, is linked to the Hanover Fair, one of the biggest annual events devoted to industrial production. The IRC event will focus on new materials technologies.

Contact
S. Austermann, IRC Lower Saxony/Saxony-Anhalt
Tl. +49 511 935 7491
Fx. +49 511 935 7439
austermann@nati.de
http://www.nati.de/irc/

NSS 2003 - European navigation conference

22-25 April, Graz (Austria)

The annual Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) conference will cover GNSS, GPS and Galileo, the integration of navigation procedures and systems (EGNOS, Loran-C), integration with communication technologies (GSM, UMTS), and applications.

Contact
G. Abwerzger
Tl. +43 316 873 6834
Fx. +43 316 873 8888
office@gnss2003.com
http://www.gnss2003.com/

ood and vegetable processing – technology transfer event

28 April, Murcia (Spain)

In parallel with the international symposium on the food and canning industry, IRC Cenemes, from east and south-east Spain, is organising a technology transfer event to bring together companies interested in working together in the food technologies field. Additional input comes from the IRC network’s thematic group on agrofoods.

Contact
F. Gallego, IRC Cenemes
Tl. +34 968 366 180
Fx. +34 968 362 835
franciscod.gallego@info.carm.es
http://www.ifrm-murcia.es/

eafood technology transfer days

6-8 May, Brussels (Belgium)

The European Seafood Exhibition sees a transnational technology transfer meeting organised in parallel by IRC Brussels and its partners in the fish thematic group. Pre-arranged meetings will enable companies interested in any aspect of seafood processing, storage, transport, packaging and marketing to meet with potential partners at the world’s largest seafood exhibition.

Contact
R. Bourgeois, IRC Brussels
Tl. +32 2 422 0023
Fx. +32 2 422 0043
rbo@technopol.be

utomotive industry brokerage event

29 May, Nitra (Slovakia)

Taking place alongside the tenth international engineering trade fair for machinery, tools, devices and technologies, this brokerage event organised by IRC Slovakia will cover a number of fields in the automotive industry. It will be of interest to firms keen to collaborate in areas such as tools, information technology, computer-aided design and total quality management in the automotive industry.

Contact
http://www.irc-slovakia.sk/auto/

reativity and technological innovation – training seminar on TRIZ methodology

29-30 May, Guimarães (Portugal)

This seminar, organised by Tecminho, one of the partners in IRC Portugal, aims to introduce participants to the principles of the TRIZ methodology. TRIZ has been developed through the analysis of thousands of technological innovations, and presents an algorithmic solution to technical problems. It consists of a set of 40 principles which may be used to solve problems.

Contact
M. Catarino, Tecminho
Tl. +351 253 510 590
Fx. +351 253 510 591
mcatarino@tecminho.uminho.pt