Best IRC 2005 awarded at the Innovation Relay Centre network's tenth anniversary
Date: July 2005

The world’s largest network building technology partnerships celebrated its tenth anniversary on 27-29 June in Brussels. In the decade since it was launched, the EU-supported Innovation Relay Centre (IRC) network has helped more than 110,000 clients across Europe, most of them small businesses. read more

Best Good Practice 2005 awarded at the Innovation Relay Centre network's tenth anniversary
Date: July 2005

The world’s largest network building technology partnerships celebrated its tenth anniversary on 27-29 June in Brussels. In the decade since it was launched, the EU-supported Innovation Relay Centre (IRC) network has helped more than 110,000 clients across Europe, most of them small businesses. read more

IRC network's award to most successful industrial technology transfer
Date: July 2005

Italian SME, Raytec Vision, and Spanish-based multinational, Chupa Chups, were presented on 29.6. with the Innovation Relay Centre network’s award for most successful technology transfer from industry. read more

IRC network award to most successful exploitation of research results
Date: July 2005

Simtech Systems, a spin-off firm from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland, and XC Engineering, an Italian SME, were presented on 29.6. with the Innovation Relay Centre network’s award for most successful technology transfer exploiting research results. read more

Innovation Relay Centre network marked tenth anniversary
Date: July 2005

The world's largest network building technology partnerships celebrated its tenth anniversary on 29 June in Brussels. In the decade since it was launched, the EU-supported Innovation Relay Centre (IRC) network has helped more than 110,000 clients across Europe, many of them being SMEs. read more

CIP 'essentially an SME programme' says Enterprise DG Director
Date: April 2005

'The Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme [CIP] is the smaller and younger brother (or sister) of FP7,' according to Matthias Ruete, Director of the coordination for competitiveness directorate at DG Enterprise and Industry. read more

€ 4.2 billion "competitiveness and innovation programme" to boost growth and jobs
Date: April 2005

Competitiveness and innovation are the twin keys to unlocking Europe’s potential for sustainable growth and more and better jobs. The Commission today proposed a Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) with a budget of € 4.213 billion for the period 2007 – 2013. read more

Strong showing for Belgium and Finland in first Sectoral Innovation Scoreboard
Date: December 2004

For the competitiveness of certain business sectors, such as pharmaceuticals and aerospace, it is well known that innovation plays an important role, yet there are also those where innovativeness appears less vital, for example in textiles or transport and storage. read more

2004 innovation scoreboard reveals little change in country rankings
Date: July 2004

The 2004 European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) confirms Sweden and Finland as the EU's innovative leaders, with Estonia and Slovenia leading the ten new Member States. read more

CORDIS offers new gateway to information and support for innovation policy and practice
Date: July 2004

All users with an interest in innovation policy and practice can now find a comprehensive range of information and services easily accessible via the new Innovation Portal on CORDIS, the Community Research and Development Information Service. read more

Commission launches public consultation on innovation action plan
Date: April 2004

The Commission's Enterprise Directorate-General is developing a new innovation action plan, and has launched a public consultation to gather contributions from innovation stakeholders in Europe. read more

For further information, please consult the following web address: /innovation-policy/communications/

Evaluation of PAXIS initiative points to importance of long term projects
Date: Septemper 2003

The European Union's attempts to increase the number of start-ups should be restricted to 'focused and long term projects', the evaluation of the European Commission's PAXIS initiative has concluded. read more

SME TechWeb - facilitating SME participation in FP6
Date: Septemper 2003

SME TechWeb, the information service for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) seeking European research funding, has been revamped to provide comprehensive support to smaller enterprises interested in the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). read more

IST Results: Promoting Innovation for the Information Society
Date: July 2003
Press dossier
The European Commission has launched the IST Results service to provide on-going information on results of the EU's 3.6 billion euro research programme for the IT and telecommunications sector - the Information Society Technologies (IST) programme. read more

Innovation Policy: Updating the Union's Approach in the Context of the Lisbon Strategy
Date: 13 March 2003
Press dossier
Press and Stakeholder Conference on the 2003 Innovation Policy Communication from the European Commission...read more

Summary of current EU activities to promote innovation
Date: March 2003

Following the Lisbon European Council in March 2000, which recognised innovation as the corner stone for turning the EU into the world's most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by 2010, the Commission has launched two communications on Innovation Policy in Europe...read more

Intellectual Property Rights Helpdesk: Supporting Creativity and Innovation in Europe
Date: February 2003

The adequate treatment of intellectual property rights (IPR) is essential for succeeding with any cooperation for research and/or exploitation of its results, especially at international level. The IPR-Helpdesk, exists to support EU-funded research and technological development (RTD) projects on issues related to dissemination and exploitation rules....read more

A Directory of European Innovation
Date: November 2002

Innovation is all about connections. Finding the support or information you need, or the person with the experience that matches your requirements, is the first step towards introducing change. This directory is intended to accelerate that process....read more

Gate2Growth.com: where business ideas become reality
Date: October 2002

Traditionally, innovative entrepreneurs have had difficulties raising finance. Drawing up a convincing business plan, identifying the right investors and closing the deal in a timely manner before the market opportunity is lost was already quite a challenge. Recent indicators show that the reluctance to start a new business in Europe has even further increased...read more

Measuring Candidate Countries' Fitness for the Knowledge-Driven Economy
Date: June 2002

The 2002 edition of the European Innovation Scoreboard, which measures innovation performances in the EU, will, for the first time, include data from Candidate Countries where available. This will allow the assessment of some of the Candidate Countries' innovation performances, strengths and weaknesses compared to those of the Member States...read more

A good TIP
Date: May 2002

Europe has a long tradition of scientific excellence. The technology implementation plans (TIPs) produced by all FP5 research projects are designed to stimulate its exploitation as marketable goods and services. The new eTIP electronic reporting format provides additional support...read more

Gateway to Innovation Finance
Date: May 2002

Gate2Growth.com is a gateway to networks of financiers, company growth experts and service providers. It represents a leading pan-European initiative to support entrepreneurs, backed by the European Commission through its Innovation and SMEs Programme...read more

Innovation Policy Studies
Date: April 2002

The regular analysis of the factors and policies shaping innovion performance in firms (its mechanisms, its strengthens and bottlenecks) , constitutes a vital input to regional, national and EU policy-making... read more

Innovation Relay Centres
Date: March 2002

The Europe-wide network of Innovation Relay Centres (IRCs) is well-known to its clients - primarily smaller companies with technologies or know-how to sell abroad, or with technological needs which they are unable to meet in their own countries...read more

Meeting enlargement's innovation challenge
Date: March 2002

The Innovating Regions in Europe (IRE) network facilitates the exchange of experience between regions developing regional innovation policies, strategies and schemes, and gives access to good practice. ...read more

The single entry point to European Business Incubators
Date: March 2002

Since its launch in mid November last year the European database on business Incubators on the Web (/incubators) has doubled its size and now includes around 600 incubators in the EU and beyond...read more

A market place for innovators
Date: March 2002

An exciting internet service, relaunched in February, takes visitors to the heart of innovative activity in Europe. The CORDIS Technology Marketplace offers clearly written digests of new technological advances - easy to search, and easy to act upon...read more