SMEs benefit from EU research support, and will continue to do so
SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) benefit from EU research support, and will continue to do so in the future was the message at the Hannover Technology Fair. Deputy Director General of the European Commission's Research DG, Hendrik Tent, stressed that the Commission will continue to give more attention to European SMEs in the future, and emphasised that this is already clear in the Commission's proposals for the next framework programme, where it is recommended that subsidies for SMEs be increased from 10 to 15 per cent. The German consortium of industrial research groups (AiF), which has worked with the central government since 1994 as the national contact point for issues relating to EU research and development, claimed that European support for research benefits innovative medium sized enterprises. Dr Alfred Tacke, State Secretary from the Federal Ministry for Business and Technology claimed in his address that medium sized enterprises benefit most from EU funds because they have better opportunities to form European technology partnerships.