Successful Conference on “Collaborating into the Future: Empowering SME to Innovate“ Some 80 participants from all over Europe attended the one-day conference “Collaborating into the Future: Empowering SME to innovate” in Brussels on October 18, 2007. Some 80 participants from all over Europe attended the one-day conference “Collaborating into the Future: Empowering SME to innovate” in Brussels on October 18, 2007. The main topic of discussion was the empowerment of SME to pursue research interests long-term and to increase their participation in EU RTD activities. The conference was organized by the smE-MPOWER initiative coordinated by the Fraunhofer IFF. The initiative’s mission is to provide small and medium-sized enterprises in Europe support to effectively take advantage of the funding opportunities for research and development open to them. The variety of presentations on open innovation and international funding opportunities were well received by the participants. In addition, the interactive discussions provided everyone involved in the collaborative R&D among SME invaluable opportunities to learn, discuss, review and network in a motivating and conducive environment. At the end of the conference, the consortium invited qualified prospective partners to join the smE-MPOWER initiative. This community with exclusive membership links coaches of SME intermediaries, regional policy makers and other actors and international initiatives supporting innovation in a distributed network. Keywords SME Countries Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom
