ICT
9:30am – 12:30pm, 27th April 2010.
HP Labs, Bristol

Attendees will learn what European funding is available for FP7 projects in the areas of ICT and NMP and will get advance notification of the likely call contents. The events will also give attendees the chance to meet with regional and national support teams and network with potential partners and experienced FP7 participants. The events will also provide details on how to access further support and how to write a proposal. A buffet lunch will be provided.

More information and registration for both events can be undertaken via the Enterprise Europe Network website. For more information on the NMP event please click here and click here for details of the ICT event.

A full day event outlining how to form a consortium and write a proposal will be held on the 25th May at Bristol Marriot City Centre.  More details and online registration can be found here.

For further information contact GWE Business West Events on 01275 370849 or email events@gwebusinesswest.co.uk

• A Eurostars project is collaborative, meaning it must involve at least two participants from two different Eurostars member countries.
• The lead partner must be an R&D performing SME (10% of turnover or 10% of staff time dedicated to R&D activities).
• The consortium should be well balanced, which means that no participant or country will be required to invest more than 75% of the total project costs.
• R&D performing SMEs have to undertake at least 50% of the total R&D project costs.
• Project duration 36 months or less.
• Market introduction is foreseen within 2 years after the project has ended, with the exception being biomedical or medical projects, where clinical trials must be started within two years of project completion. 

UK-specific criteria:

• Academics/universities and large companies are welcome to participate in a Eurostars project, but must fund their own participation or use funds from other sources.
• UK participants are eligible for up to 50% funding on eligible costs, with a maximum grant level per UK participant of 350,000 EUR.
• Companies must have been trading for over 12 months. 

Eurostars is open for funding applications on a continuous basis, with an average of two application submission deadlines each year. The next application submission deadline is 30th September 2010.
 
For further information please contact: Kenny Legg on 07980 795239 or email Kenny.legg@enterpriseeuropesw.org.uk

To download our factsheet on Eurostars please click here.
 

The programme is open to organisations in EU Member States and Associated Countries. Selected projects will be co-financed by the Joint Undertaking and the Member States that have joined Artemis.

ENIAC JU defines and implements a Research Agenda, notable by awarding funding to participants in selected projects following competitive calls for proposals, by promoting a public-private partnership, and by achieving synergy and coordination of European R&D efforts in the field on nanoelectronics.

The calls opened on 26 February. Details for Artemis are published here and for ENIAC are published here.

Draft only versions of Guide for Applicants and Eligibility Criteria may be found in FP7UK ICT Library here

Artemis will hold an Information event on Monday March 1st, 2010 at the Conference Centre  Nuremberg, Germany . The  event will be co-located with Nuremburg Messe. More about the Information event here.

An ARTEMIS Information day & Networking workshop will be held in Paris on 9 March 2010. Hosted by the French NCP – UBIFRANCE. This event is free of charge and will be in English. Further Information and registration here.

REACH is the Regulation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. It entered into force on 1st June 2007 to streamline and improve the former legislative framework on chemicals of the European Union (EU). REACH places greater responsibility on industry to manage the risks that chemicals may pose to the health and the environment.

In principle REACH applies to all chemicals: not only chemicals used in industrial processes but also in our day-to-day life, for example in cleaning products, paints as well as in articles such as clothes, furniture and electrical appliances.

If you are a manufacturer, an importer or a user of chemicals and you are not familiar with REACH you can find out your obligations using the Navigator tool.

For further information on guidance and obligations go to http://guidance.echa.europa.eu/index_en.htm

The project emphasises environmentally responsible design, including noise and gas emission reduction, green propulsion, and energy efficiency, and is expected to increase savings and sustainability on one hand, and decrease overall traffic environmental impact on the other, resulting from a more efficient travel.

Comprising 13 partners, PPLane is funded via the European Commission's FP7 funding stream and is partially based on the findings of previous European R&D projects, and the consortium is led by France's ONERA and includes organisations from 11 European countries, representing industry, research and academia. Project partners will identify those concepts found to yield the greatest social, environmental and economic benefit for future European RTD funding.

For more information on the project please click here.

For more details on how Enterprise Europe Network can help your organisation access FP7 please contact Kenny Legg on 01275 370 808 or email kenny.legg@enterpriseeuropesw.org.uk

The Enterprise Europe Network can assist by helping companies to identify opportunities, join consortiums and reach agreements with the Commission. A full list of the calls and their contents can be found by clicking here and details of how the EEN can assist here.
 
Our FP7 factsheet can be downloaded here.

The report examines SME participation from the start of FP7 up until June 2009. Overall, SMEs participate in over 25% of the contracts signed in FP7. Almost 70% of those SMEs in signed project contracts were firms with less than fifty employees. The figures show that out of all countries, the UK, Germany and Italy have the highest number of SME participation.

The full report can be downloaded here.

For more details on how Enterprise Europe Network can help your organisation access FP7 please contact Kenny Legg on 01275 370 808 or email kenny.legg@enterpriseeuropesw.org.uk

The Enterprise Europe Network can assist by helping companies to identify opportunities, join consortiums and reach agreements with the Commission. A full list of the calls and their contents can be found by clicking here and details of how the EEN can assist here.
 
Our FP7 factsheet can be downloaded here.

Read more at:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/sme/small-business-act/implementation/index_en.htm#h2-the-member-states

 Download the Report on the implementation of the SBA, Commission Working Document.
 
See also the Press release.

• Further simplification and streamlining of EU funding programmes;
• Better cooperation, coordination and complementarities among regional, national and EU innovation programmes;
• Improving synergies between research, innovation and education policies;
• Stronger focus on SMEs and facilitating their access to funding programmes;
• Orientating innovation policies towards major societal challenges, such as climate change and ageing;
• Reinforcing innovation in public services.

The summary of responses can be found here. The responses will provide a valuable input for the preparation of the future EU innovation policy that is due to be presented by Spring 2010.

Further opportunities can be found by undertaking your own search on the EEN website or by contacting us directly on 01275 370997 or emailing info@enterpriseeuropesw.org.uk.

Once the new European Commission comes into office in early 2010, shaping the EU budget for programmes post-2013 will be top of the agenda. Recent Commission documents seem to be proposing a more sectoral approach to funding – with greater emphasis on promoting excellence in research and innovation.  The shaping of FP8 will be central to these discussions.

Please click here to download prepared by SWUKBO, representing a start to a series of practical actions to be implemented to engage South West stakeholders in the process towards FP8:

If you are interested in engaging in the process of shaping FP8 please email Emily Palmer - epalmer@southwestuk.be

For more details on how Enterprise Europe Network can help your organisation access FP7 please contact Kenny Legg on 01275 370 808 or email kenny.legg@enterpriseeuropesw.org.uk

The Enterprise Europe Network can assist by helping companies to identify opportunities, join consortiums and reach agreements with the Commission. A full list of the calls and their contents can be found by clicking here and details of how the EEN can assist here.
 
Our FP7 factsheet can be downloaded here.

„Entrepreneurship – A different way of life“
„Entrepreneurship – Challenges and rewards“
„Entrepreneurship – The way into the future“

The winning video in each of the three categories will be awarded € 3,333, the videos in second place will be awarded € 2,222, and those in third place will receive €1,111. Each prize will be a lump sum and is not intended to cover the production costs of the videos or any other expenses.

Five additional „special winners“ will be awarded € 555 each. These special prizes are reserved for persons aged 25 or younger.

The producers of the best videos will be invited to a special award ceremony on 25 May 2010 in Brussels, as part of the 2nd „European SME Week“.

Target audience:
The competition is open to all natural and legal persons who are citizens or residents of a Member State of the European Union, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Croatia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Turkey and Israel.
Students of cinema schools and universities, business and management schools,
members of business networks and associations, entrepreneurs and professionals … all are invited to portray their ideas and own experiences in the field of entrepreneurship.

How to take part?
All you need to do is produce a short video (one to two minutes) in the category of your choice by 9 April 2010, upload it on the internet or mail it to us and register on our website.

For terms and conditions, news on the jury and Q&A, please visit:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policy/entrepreneurship/video-award/ index_en.htm

• Inform existing entrepreneurs about the support available to them at European, national, regional and local level.
• Promote entrepreneurship and encourage more people to become entrepreneurs.

The week will take place between 25th May and 1st June 2010 but events are allowed to take place throughout the whole of May and June. Business workout is the theme for this year’s SME week and it is all about ‘getting fit for the market’.

The formal openning events will be held in Brussels on 25th May and the closing event (together with the European Enterprise Awards ceremony) will take place on 31st May and 1st June in the Palacio des Congresos in Madrid.

European Entrepreneurship Video Awards (EEVAs)

As last year’s awards, which had an array of talented films, were such a success the European Commission will be running the EEVAs again this year.  The competition will be launched in February with the deadline for entrants in April.  There will be an ‘Oscars’ like awards ceremony in Brussels on 25th May to announce the winners. This year, we are being encouraged to promote the EEVAs in particular to students in colleges and universities.

New Website

The European Commission will be launching a new website this year www.ec.europa.eu/sme-week.  This will be the website to update you on the entire goings on for SME Week 2010.  The website will have some new and exciting tools which will make it more interactive, functional, and easier to keep up to date.

Enterprise Europe Scotland Life Sciences Brokerage Event 2010

Caledonian Hotel, Edinburgh - 5th February 2010

Life sciences companies looking for partnership opportunities could find just what they are looking for at a brokerage event in Edinburgh.  The event is part of a 2-day programme being held in partnership with the BIA Thistle Bioscience Forum and Scottish Enterprise Life Sciences Dinner.

The brokerage event is FREE and is open to delegates from any life sciences sector in any country. However, it is also an ideal opportunity for those 700 + delegates attending the BIA forum and Scottish Enterprise dinner in Edinburgh on Feb 4th to maximise business development opportunities through quick and focused, pre-booked business meetings on the following day.

More details - http://lifesciences.b2bmatchmaking.com

BioWales 2010, Conference, Exhibition and Biopartnering Event

Vale Hotel Nr Cardiff -17-18th March 2010

Similar opportunities exist at BioWales 2010, the UK’s largest bioscience conference, exhibition and EU sponsored biopartnering event outside of London. Now in its eighth year the event has a world class conference programme with high profile speakers. The themes for this years programme include;

• Stem cell technology  with key speakers Stephen Minger (GE Healthcare), Nobel laureate Professor Sir Martin Evans and Anthony Davies (Geron)
• Translational Research
• Point of Care Diagnostics
• Cancer Genetics
• Futurewatch

The Biopartnering event will bring together companies, academics and health professionals to discuss potential R&D collaborations.  At last years event over 350 1-2-1 meetings were facilitated leading to a number of licensing agreements and VC investments.

More details - www.biowalesevent.com 

For more details on the events and how Enterprise Europe can support you please call 01275 370997.

The call will help SMEs which do not have the capacity to undertake research themselves to commission work from R&D performers such as universities, research centres and industrial companies.

The programme’s goal is to strengthen innovation capacities in European SMEs and improve their contribution to the development of new technologies.

Project bids for this call can address any research topic in the field of science and technology, but they must be centred on the innovation needs of the SMEs that are outsourcing their research requirements. Projects should aim to produce new knowledge and results that can be harnessed to develop or improve products, processes or services for participating SMEs.

To be eligible under the scheme, a consortium must include at least three independent SMEs from three different EU Member States or Associated Countries. They must also include two R&D performers independent of any other participant.

The deadline for this call is 3 December 2009 – for further details, including an information pack, please click here