SME's, Research and Innovation: from Idea to Market, turning Knowledge into Profit!
The main objective of this European forum is to answer the question: "How to improve the environment of our SMEs to encourage their efforts in research?".
The conference programme will present the opportunities offered to SMEs by the research and innovation programmes in Europe.
The overall purpose of the Conference will be:
• To take stock of the current situation
The focus of the discussion would be on the creation of synergies between existing support instruments at regional, national and European level. This forum will directly raise the awareness of participants towards current instruments and economic opportunities open to them.
• To prepare a comprehensive vision for future SME research and innovation policies.
Research, innovation, and SMEs should be tightly-linked elements shaping Europe’s future. The idea here is to look beyond the 2013 horizon when FP7 and CIP will be finished.
The resulting output of the Conference will consist in a strategy paper proposing short-term and longer-term initiatives, to be submitted to the EU Competitiveness Council.
The conference will also be an interesting link between the Belgian and the Hungarian presidencies, relating the new "trio" policy (Spain, Belgium and Hungary). Thus, particular care will be given to the presence of Hungarian and Spanish representatives.