EUREKA expands membership and scope
Italy will chair EUREKA from 1 July, following a formal hand-over ceremony in Prague during the meeting of EUREKA ministers on 9 June. EUREKA will move into important new areas under the Italian presidency, thanks to groundwork laid under the chairmanship of the Czech Republic. A key feature of the Italian presidency will be closer cooperation with the EU Framework Programme for research in more than one area. EUREKA has also admitted two important new members - Ukraine and Malta. The largest of the new EUREKA initiatives will be EUROSTARS. As with all EUREKA initiatives, the scheme will focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but EUROSTARS is a significant progression because it operates in cooperation with the Framework Programme and EUREKA member countries, tapping into new funding seams. Although CRAFT programmes of the EU Framework Programme target SMEs, they are for those companies to buy research off-the-shelf, and not undertake their own research. 'This [EUROSTARS] is a new programme that was decided about a year ago during the industrial days held in the Netherlands,' explained project director Luuk Borg in an interview with CORDIS news. 'We discovered that there was no specific EU-wide research programme for SMEs, although there were programmes under individual Member States and through private equity,' he said. EUREKA noted that the criteria for SME funding varied from country to country, and that the Framework Programme had found it difficult to attract SMEs. EUREKA has attracted up to 10 times the SMEs in its programmes compared to the Framework Programme. EUREKA noticed an excellent, and ambitious, opportunity. 'We want to harmonise and synchronise funding strategies. The revised Lisbon agenda relies upon cooperation of National Programmes. We decided that to reach SMEs, the answer was to tap into the Framework Programme, and combine National Strategies. This gives more access to resources, tailor-made for the regions,' said Mr Borg. EUROSTARS will use specific funding from the Framework Programme, coming with the European Commission's blessing, expected to run to around EUR 100 million, in addition to money from EUREKA member countries and Venture Capital funds. In total, EUREKA anticipates a fund of around EUR 400 million, to be spent over seven years. Crucially, the programme will be administered by EUREKA, with its proven and impressive track record in helping SMEs, taking research quickly and efficiently to market. But if you are an SME and looking for funds, do not reach for your pen just yet. 'Member States have made formal commitments,' explained Mr Borg, 'Nations may have legal constraints on how they release their money. This needs to be resolved. The Lisbon agenda specifies harmonisation,' he said. Because EUREKA projects are necessarily collaborative and international, laws may have to be re-written, or adapted. Daunting as this sounds, 21 countries have made firm, official, commitments, and a further five have firm but unofficial commitments. The rest may have some red tape to cut through, but they have an incentive: reward. 'There is a stimulation to innovate. Money will stay in individual EUREKA countries, so countries still fund their own companies,' said Mr Borg. This is important politically, as countries may have difficulty justifying funding innovation abroad, so this ensures countries fund their own. In addition, there is a reward. If countries fund innovation through EUROSTARS, money is returned to them. Harmonisation is the real breakthrough for the project. 'At the end of this process, when the system is written down, EUREKA Member States have to declare whether they have a problem or not, and either join or not. But maybe it is too important, and the money is too small for Member States to worry about individually. At the moment, even the sceptics are positive,' said an enthusiastic Borg. 'But if countries do not sign up, they cannot participate.' As mentioned above the project has strong and enthusiastic support from the European Commission, and EUREKA was mentioned specifically in the expert Aho-group report on innovation as an effective means to innovation. EUREKA's bottom-up approach is also effective for getting products to market - another essential tool for improving Europe's innovation. 'We aim for EUR 400 million over seven years to distribute - we think this should be the right amount. Assuming proposals go through the European Parliament on their first reading, the launch could be as early as next summer - May at the earliest. There will be two cut-off dates, and anyone can apply, with the target of funding decisions made within three months - that is our objective,' said Mr Borg. Another of EUREKA's established initiatives, clusters (not to be confused with regional clusters) will forge closer ties with some of the Framework Programme's European Technology Platform (ETP) initiatives. While ETPs are vast projects with very long-term goals, clusters have more short-term goals, with a market-driven approach. José Jiménez is chair of CELTIC cluster, which focuses on innovation in information and communication technologies (ICT), and spoke to CORDIS News: 'If they [ETPs] have short-term plans, then clusters could be used as instruments - we already have good relations with them, especially with four - eMobility, ISI, NESSI and NEM, as they are all IT-led. We will meet them at a meeting in Helsinki next month. It will give us a chance to talk and find short term parallels, through EUREKA for commercial ventures, or setting something down for the future.' But links between EUREKA clusters and ETPs are not new. They have already made successful collaborations. 'The Pan European Laboratory project is about to start in June. This is an FP6 project, trying to find a place where service applications can be tested and proved before going to market, and where ETPs can join together and discuss. All CELTIC companies participate, as well as partners in Israel, Canada,' he said. CELTIC is vital in this project because of its strength in bringing products to market. Mr Jiménez hopes that under FP7, project reviews will have a more market-focus than under FP6. 'FP6 is reviewed by academic people. This academic focus shifts the project away from the market, and the system varies, so reviews vary depending upon who conducted the survey. We hope that under FP7 there is a greater collaboration with clusters, and a greater focus on projects going to market,' he said. EUREKA aims to have products taken to market within a year. But Mr Jiménez does not believe that SMEs are the answer to everything. 'The agendas of large companies have to be taken into account, but this has to be refined,' he said.
Countries
Czechia