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Building the will for excellence |
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The region of Central Macedonia in northern Greece is an active participant in regional innovation initiatives and networks – starting with a Regional Technology Plan project a decade ago. Today, a growing innovation culture is visible in the region, particularly at the grass roots, in both enterprises and research centres. |
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Under the spotlight |
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Nine regional projects received the first-ever European Regional Innovation Awards at a ceremony in Brussels in April 2004. The event aimed to give more visibility to the regional programmes of Innovative Actions co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund. |
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All money is not the same |
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The nature and availability of growth finance for innovative start-ups and small firms varies considerably across Europe. Crescendo – an IRE thematic network – has been giving partners a practical insight into the range of solutions on offer elsewhere. |
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Slovenia embarks on action plan |
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Slovenia has recently completed its project to develop a regional innovation strategy. The country, now a full Member State of the European Union, has launched an action plan to implement this strategy, and now aims to reach the top half of the ranking of knowledge-based societies in the EU. |
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Building momentum |
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More than 100 regional innovation strategies have already been formulated with EU support, and a further 16 are nearing completion in the new Member States. It is clear that the importance of regional innovation policy is now widely understood across Europe. A recent workshop looked at the transition to implementation of these strategies and considered the monitoring tools that are critical to successfully doing so. |
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Industrial regions share innovation |
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Members of the IRE network’s Industrial Regions Group have found great benefit in sharing their experiences to improve innovation practice. The IRG has been self-funding for three years and is now passing on its ideas on benchmarking and good practice to regions in the new Member States. |
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January 2004
