(UPDATED dates) Important message: AIECA 2010 to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan in November, 25-26 2010

International Highlights

News from members

In Focus

Caspian Investment Centre: In this month’s issue, we are pleased to introduce our network member from Azerbaijan - the Caspian Investment Centre (CIC).

Funding Opportunities

Events

To see the full version of the ECAbit Newsletter No 23, please, download it in PDF format.
 
Previous Newsletters:
ECAbit Newsletter No 22

ECAbit Newsletter No 21
ECAbit Newsletter No 20
ECAbit Newsletter No 19
ECAbit Newsletter No 18
ECAbit Newsletter No 17

As world leader in building materials, Lafarge is strongly committed to promoting ever more sustainable construction methods and it devotes more than 50% of its annual research budget to sustainable construction issues.

Lafarge has a long history of working in partnership with outside experts on these subjects. This is why the Lafarge Invention Awards 2010 have been launched to reward inventive European R&D projects related to building materials (aggregates, cement, concrete and gypsum) and that contribute to sustainable construction.

These projects should involve a new product, industrial process, construction method or service, based on an invention less than 5 years old.
Researchers, entrepreneurs, inventors, academics or members of a research team have until October 15, 2010 to submit their entries.

A panel made up of Lafarge executives and renowned economic and scientific experts will select 3 winners from 10 finalists. Each winner will receive a prize of €20,000 and will benefit from Lafarge support to set up an action plan to develop his/her project.

The Awards

• Submission of projects: from June 15 to October 15, 2010
• Evaluation of projects and selection of 10 finalists by jury: November 2010
• Oral presentation by finalists and selection of 3 winners: January 2011

To download the Rules for applicants and to fill in the Application form, please, visit the Lafarge Invention Awards 2010 and for more information: inventionawards@lafarge.com.

Sava Marinkovic, Director of TeleSkin, a tenant company of the ECAbit member BTI

To learn more about the fruitful activities of BTI,
read their 9th newsletter (PDF format, 565 KB)

The newest ECAbit member – the Agency for Innovation and Technology Transfer, has participated in the 6th edition of the International Investment Forum and Exhibition iin the context of the “Moldova Business Week 2010”, organized by the Moldovan Government and the Moldovan Investment and Export Promotion Organisation, in partnership with the Vienna Economic Forum. The forum took place in Chisinau between 22nd and 25th of June 2010.

Source: AITT  newsletter

In this context on 24th of June 2010, the Agency for Innovation and Technology Transfer in cooperation with the Moldovan Ministry of Economy organized the International Conference “Innovative Networks - a new formula for regional development”, which had as main objectives to identify the organizational and operational experience of national and international innovative networks and the role and the opportunities offered by these networks in the process of innovation and technology transfer.

Moderator of the conference was Mr. Sergiu Porcescu, Head of the Department of European Integration and International Cooperation of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova, which in his words of welcome stressed the role of innovation in socio-economic development of all countries, including Moldova and the importance of the event in identifying the successful models of creation and operation of the innovative of networks.

The Director of the Agency for Innovation and Technology Transfer, Mr. Ghenadie Cernei, in his presentation “The networking experience of the Republic of Moldova” has spoken about the innovation process in the Republic of Moldova, about the efforts and sparse successes achieved in innovative networking, focusing on the purpose of the conference question, which was to identify and generalize the experience of European countries, to consider the recommendations of the experts present at the conference in order to become active players in the creation and development of innovative networks in our country.

The conference was also attended by foreign experts who presented the experience of organization and operation of innovative networks, experience of creating technology parks and business incubators, technology transfer networks, with case studies, success stories. In this context, the speakers tried to identify common approaches in this activity.

During the conference it was emphasized not only the positive sides of the networks, but have been outlined the negative aspects as well the identifying of possible ways of solving the problems.

Thus, the conference presentations presented by the international speakers were:

• Todor Yalamov, Coordinator of ECAbit Network, Bulgaria -“Issues of cross-network cooperation”.
• Steffen Preissler, Head of business unit: Innovative Transfer Systems, Fraunhofer Centre for Central and Eastern Europe, Germany “Innovation Networks in Germany and the Role of Fraunhofer in Innovation Networks”.
• Pavel Habarta, Director of the TIC-CKD Incubator, Czeh Republic, “Regional Innovation Network in the Zlin Rein”
• Elena Serdiuk, Executive Director of National Technologic Transfer Network (NTTN, Ukraine), Director of the branch  ”Ukrainian Technological Transfer Centre”, Ukraine -“National Technologic Transfer Network” (NTTN, Ukraine)

The discussions were attended as well by the representatives of the Institute of Economy, Finance and Statistics, headed by Director Dr. A.Stratan, Mr. Vladimir Goremichin, Director at Special Design & Technology Office "Mezon" and Mr. Valeriu Cernei, Deputy Director of the CredInfo Ltd. – residents of the Scientific-Technological Park “Academica” and Innovation Incubator “Innovator” as well as representatives of the scientific and business environment.

Presentations at the conference and additional information can be downloaded from the web-site of the Moldova Business Week 2010.

More detailed information about the conference will be available soon in the next ECAbit newsletter.

infoDev

Article adapted from original on iDics website

Valerie D’Costa, infoDev’s Program Manager, said the key theme of FY09 had been the “strength, resilience, creativity and variety of our partnerships” with donors, project partners, World Bank Group colleagues, international organizations and the many, active participants in infoDev’s online communities of practice.

Some key achievements in FY09 included:

• Expansion of the global technology business incubation network in over 85 developing countries
• The extension of the ICT Regulation Toolkit with new modules on universal service and access
• The launch of nine projects supported by the Korean Trust Fund on ICT4D in crucial areas such as mobile banking, ICT and education in Africa, and ICT for efficient irrigation
• Contributions to the IC4D report by the Global Information and Communications Technology Department of the World Bank Group, showing infoDev’s constant pipeline of knowledge and expertise into the broader institution
• Preparations for the 3rd infoDev Global Forum on Innovation and Entrepreneurship to be held in FY10.
• Launch of a program with DFID to explore the development, deployment and transfer of clean technologies in developing countries
• Launch of the Educational Technology Debate blog, a web-based community of practice and open resource for educators and policymakers around the world
• Creation and initial implementation of a results-based framework to better track the impact of infoDev’s work (The annual report includes a preliminary version of the results matrix.)

To download the full text of the annual report and to read what other WB officials said about, please visit the iDisc web-site.

On the 25th anniversary of EBN, the 19th EBN Annual Congress 2010 will highlight a selection of 25 innovative entrepreneurs - 25 "smart champions" - nominated and coached by the 250 Members of the EBN network, the smart BICs.

Broker Inc., a tenant of YES Incubator in Macedonia, will compete in the group on digital models. The company was founded in 2008 and graduated from YES Incubator a year later, in 2009. It has won the World Summit Award and Youth2Innovation Award.

To read more about Broker Inc.’s success story and other nominated companies, visit the idisc.net page!

During the World Conference on Information Technology in Amsterdam on May 25th, Intel unveiled its new investment program in education, and announced the 2010 Intel Challenge for a new generation of entrepreneurs-in-training with specific enhancements for Europe. 

The Intel® Challenge Europe is a regional business plan competition for university students. Its goal is to contribute to the entrepreneurial movement and help generate interest and development of technological projects with the potential to become major business opportunities. By advancing technology entrepreneurship, Intel® Challenge Europe can support projects that can create value-added production chains and result in job creation.

The winners of this regional competition will be invited to participate in the final round of the competition at the Intel®+Berkeley Technology Entrepreneurship Challenge (IBTEC) in November this year at the University of California at Berkeley.

Intel® Challenge Europe is organized with the support of YouNoodle, a California-based company that provides a technology platform used by leading entrepreneurship clubs and university competitions worldwide.

Projects (in working prototype stage) will be accepted from students or recent graduates of any level of formal academic study (bachelor, bachelor’s degree or graduate), as at least one team member must comply with this requirement. Intel® Challenge Europe is open for participants from Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey, and United Kingdom.

As you can see among the above countries there are some that host ECAbit members and in most of the cases these are incubators working in the IT field. Having in mind this fact, as well as the experience ECAbit has in supporting students and young scholars in their entrepreneurial efforts through Y2I and various other projects, we would like to encourage you to pass the information to your partners, tenants and entrepreneurship arms, so that students from ECAbit countries may also have the chance to submit their business plans and compete internationally / globally.

Please, note the calendar of deadlines below and particularly, pay attention to that the first deadline is approaching very shortly:
Deadline, Round 1: Executive Summary 1 July 2010

Deadline, Round 2: Business Plan and Presentation 23 August 2010
Deadline, Round 3: Business Plan and Presentation 4 October 2010
Finalists Announced in Europe: 22 October 2010 IBTEC (UC Berkeley): November 2010

For more information, please visit the Intel® Challenge Europe web-site and download the Submission instructions (PDF file)

We are pleased to welcome our newest member - the Agency for Innovation and Technology Transfer, which was founded on October 29, 2004. The main goal of AITT’s activity is to coordinate, encourage and implement the innovation and technology transfer mechanisms in the Republic  of Moldova. The main direction of the activity is oriented towards supporting the society’s modernization process and improvement of social and economic environment by implementing the scientific research results in new competitive products and services. The organization implements the policies in the field of innovation defined by the Academy of Sciences  of Moldova  and supervises the activity of the Scientific and Technological Parks „Academica”, „InAgro”, „Micronanoteh” and the Innovation Incubator “Inovatorul” which represent the main components of innovation infrastructure.

The Agency has administered and monitored about 145 technology transfer projects with budget financing and business co-financing. These projects were related to strategic areas of the economy, such us nanotechnologies, industrial engineering, informational technologies, new products and new materials, renewable energy resources, biomedicine, pharmaceutics, food security etc. An important number of SMEs benefited of new technologies trough technology transfer projects.

A very important international project is being conducted by the AITT (project MOL8005) in cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) from Vienna, Austria, that has as main purpose the establishment in the Republic of Moldova of a Centre of Ionizing Technologies. The main objectives of the Center will be the promoting of ionizing technology to sterilize medical supplies and preserving agricultural products which contribute to health, environment and technological progress in the Republic of Moldova.The project has a great economical benefit, as it will be a start of the promotion of ionyzed products complying all EU standards.

The Agency focuses its activity also on the promotion of the renewable energy, therefore it is responsible for the running  of the Competence Centres in  the field of renewble energy with the purpose of incresing the usage of renewable energy up to 6 % by 2010 and up to 20% by 2020, according to the Energy Strategy of the Republic of Moldova.

In order to adjust its legal basis according to the Acquis Communautaire, the Agency seeks opportunities to develop this area. In this context throughout 2009 and first half of 2010 it obtained technical assistance through the TAIEX assistance instrument, designed especially for the ENP countries.

The assistance involved areas such as: the implementation in the Republic of Moldova of the concept of Innovative cluster; the adjustment of the innovation statistical data according to the Acquis Communautaire etc.

The Agency is accomplishing its objectives by providing consulting on policy and legal framework development for innovation infrastructure; managing budget funds for sustaining innovative and technology transfer activities; administration and monitoring of technology transfer projects activities; providing business assistance in the field of innovation and technology transfer; organizing conferences, workshops, exhibitions for promotion of specific activities for S&T; strengthening relationships between research institutions, universities and entrepreneurship; promoting the scientific results from research units to interested business entities; promoting the innovative SMEs.

Recently, AITT is an organizer of the roundtable on “Innovational Networks – a New formula of Regional Cooperation”, which will be hosted within the framework of "Moldova Business week 2010" that will take place in  Chisinau оn 22-25 June 2010. The discussion will be opened by Mr. Sergiu Porcescu, Head of European Integration and International Cooperation Departament, Academy of Sciences of Moldova and after him the floor will be given to the director of AITT – Mr. Ghenadii Cernei. Mr. Stefan Schandera, infoDev and Mr. Todor Yalamov, Coordinator of ECAbit network  will share their experience on the topic under consideration. Benefiting from the non-planned meeting of some ECAbit members at the roundtable, they will use the opportunity to discuss nearby issues and network activities.

International Highlights

• Workshop of Norwegian incubators in Eastern Europe: On May 6th 2010 several incubators established with Norwegian financing in Eastern Europe gathered for workshop in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The aim of the workshop was to create synergy and better cooperation among Norwegian projects in Easter Europe and a transfer of knowledge. Among the participants were some incubators, well known by ECAbit members. In a previous news post, ECAbit highlighted the experience of the “Polar Star” Incubator in Murmansk, while “YES incubator” is a network member form Macedonia.
• ECEIRD 2010: Entrepreneurship beyond crisis –channeling changes to advantage: The annual conference brings together decision makers, scientists, R&D centres, start-ups and practitioners from South East Europe in Novi Sad, Serbia. Ms. Gordana Grkovic (Business Technology Incubator of Technical Faculties Belgrade, ECAbit member) made a plenary lecture on business incubation development in Serbia, while Mr. Sava Marinkovic, director of TeleSkin Ltd. – one of the successful tenants of the incubator, presented their path towards “venture backed healthcare innovation”.

News from members

• Youth at the Forefront of Economic Development: On May 5th an opening ceremony of the Civic Awareness Program, financed by the National Endowment for Democracy Fund, was held with the participation of youth at “Uluchay” Social-Economic Innovation Center. The new online blog, created to support the program was introduced.
• News from the Scientific and Technological Park at BNTU: “Metolit” was co-organizer of the cooperation exchange “Energy and Resources: Science and Business Solutions” and a session organizer within the Belarusian-Kazakh Business Forum.

In focus

• We are pleased to welcome the newest network member – the Agency for Innovation and Technology Transfer from the Republic of Moldova.

Funding opportunities

• Agribusiness Incubation: Good Practice Assessment and Training Module: The Global Good Practices Assessment on Agribusiness Incubation should yield a report for developing countries looking to stimulate value added agribusiness SMEs. Deadline for expressions of interest: 17 June 2010
• GDN Regional Research Competition (RRC XI) for Central and Eastern Europe announced Call for Proposals with deadline 01 July 2010.
• Non State Actors and Local Authorities in Development: The European Commission is seeking proposals for actions in Belarus with financial assistance from the Non State Actors and Local Authorities in Development 2009 and 2010 Annual Action Programmes. The deadline for submission of proposals is 5 July 2010.
• EAST INVEST - Eastern Partnership / SME Facility: EAST-INVEST is a new regional investment and trade facilitation project of the EU covering the period from 2010 to 2013, and the countries of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. Deadline for submission of concept notes and applications: Monday 12 July 2010

Events

• EBN 19th Congress: Burgos 2010 -> BICs: The European Business & Innovation Centre Network (EBN) organizes its 19th congress under the title “Challenging recession with smart entrepreneurship” and within the framework of its 25th anniversary. The congress will take place in Burgos, Spain on 30 June-2 July. Deadline for registration: June 18th, 2010

To see the full version of the ECAbit Newsletter No 22, please, download it in PDF format.
 
Previous Newsletters:
ECAbit Newsletter No 21
ECAbit Newsletter No 20
ECAbit Newsletter No 19
ECAbit Newsletter No 18
ECAbit Newsletter No 17