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February 2019, Issue n. 173
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Updates on the life of the INSME Network
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Save the 6th and 7th of June on your calendar for the 15th INSME Annual Meeting!
“Fintech & Logistics: New Technologies and Markets for SMEs” will be the core topic of the 15th INSME Annual Meeting taking place in Naples, Italy on the 6th and 7th of June.
This year’s meeting will gather prominent experts and attract professionals and innovators from all over the world to explore how fintech and logistics are impacting on SMEs, how to exploit the opportunities as well as how to successfully deal with the challenges generated by new digital technologies. Fintech and logistics implications will be analysed from different perspectives by offering a very broad view on the state-of-the art of the tech revolution.
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Join the March session of the INSMEAcademy on “The Implications of Artificial Intelligence for SMEs and Others: the WIPO perspective”
New technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, 3D printing are significantly impacting on SMEs. If you are interested in discovering more about the influence of emerging technologies on small and medium companies and the role of intellectual property rights in this context, you cannot miss the upcoming session of the INSMEAcademy on the 20th of March.
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INSME President at the EU-African SME Summit
On the 20th and 21st of March entrepreneurs, business federations from Europe and Africa, international institutions, development organisations, NGOs, SME-focused venture funds and financiers will gather in Brussels for the first EU-African SME Summit organised by the European Entrepreneurs CEA-PME (European Confederation of the Associations of Small and Medium Enterprises). Among the prominent experts enriching the summit agenda INSME President, Mr. Sergio Arzeni will contribute to the debate and participate to the panel “SMEs as protagonists of development cooperation – another story?”.
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The BE.ST. project: INSME and Cluster House together to stimulate Serbian SMEs
Since the 4th of February INSME and Cluster House are committed to the implementation of BE.ST. (BEst practices exchange to STimulate Serbian SMEs growth), a project financed by the Central European Initiative under the Knowledge Exchange Programme and aiming at contributing to Serbian SMEs growth on an international scale.
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News and contributions from the INSME Members
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The Common IP Booster: META Group partners with ClearIPView to provide the new service launched by the European Commission
META Group (holding INSME vice-presidency) and ClearIPView are the providers of a new service funded by the European Commission: the Common IP Booster. The service - at no cost as the initiative is fully supported by the European Commission - addresses public research organisations that are committed to take out the most from their research results and offer them advices on the best IP strategy to be adopted.
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The Torino Fashion Week: the matchmaking event organised by the Union of the Chambers of Commerce of the Piedmont Region
The Union of the Chambers of Commerce of the Piedmont Region (INSME Member from Italy) is among the organisers of the Torino Fashion Week 2019 an event that will be held in Turin, Italy from the 27th of June to the 3rd of July.
The Torino Fashion Week, now in its 4th edition, confirms itself as a very appreciated appointment focused on the innovative and the emerging dimension of the fashion industry.
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The African Union Trade Observatory: a new initiative by the International Trade Centre, the European Commission and the African Union Commission
On the 9th of February 2019 the European Commission, the International Trade Centre (INSME Member) and the African Union Commission joined their forces to establish the African Union Trade Observatory which is a key pillar of the African Continental Free Trade Area. The Observatory, supported by the EU with EUR 4 million, by providing entrepreneurs, policy makers and other key stakeholders with updated and reliable data and statistics across the continent will: 1) enable them to identify new market opportunities 2) facilitate the monitoring of the implementation of the agreement.
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INSME's Picks in the News
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The European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform
The European Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform is an initiative of the European Commission and the European Economic and Social Committee implemented to offer a space where stakeholders active in the wide field of circular economy could share and scale up effective solutions and address specific challenges.
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Nominations for PDMA's “Outstanding Corporate Innovator” are open
The Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) based in the U.S.A. is looking for innovative companies to be nominated for the Outstanding Corporate Innovator Awards. If your organization has at least five years of success launching new products, significant growth from new products and services, well defined new product development practices and processes as well as a distinctive innovative character, then you can nominate your own company or a different one you know with those characteristics .
Winners will receive expert feedback to bring their product to the next level of maturity and global recognition through media coverage.
The deadline for nominations is the 9th of March 2019.
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The European Cluster Excellence Programme call for proposals now open
This call for proposals managed by the Executive Agency for SMEs - EASME aims at enhancing the collaboration, networking and learning of cluster organisations and their members in order to provide professional services more and more targeted to the needs of SMEs. Proposals must therefore foresees activities such as the development of cluster management skills, cluster strategy both at individual and partnership level and the organisation of twinning, collaboration, networking and learning activities as well as joint activities for implementing business-to-business (B2B) and cluster-to-cluster (C2C) collaboration projects. Activities must also comprise the implementation of the “ClusterXchange” pilot scheme by facilitating short exchanges from cluster organisations, technology centres and other scaling-up support organisations and SMEs based in a COSME participating country.
The maximum grant per project will be EUR 360,000 with a maximum reimbursement rate of 75% of eligible costs, except for financial support to third parties where a 100% reimbursement rate can be applied.
The deadline for electronic submissions is the 4th of April 2019.
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Apply for the International Award “Innovative Ideas and Technologies in Agribusiness”
UNIDO ITPO Italy and the Future Food Institute promote this award to select and recognize the best innovative ideas and technologies related to the entire agribusiness value chain developed by startups, MSMEs, research centres and academia that could be successfully applied in Developing Countries. Winners will be selected according to the following categories: overall, women, young - under 35, agro-food and climate change, agro-food and biodiversity.
Winners will benefit from media coverage, advisory and mentorship as well as from the opportunity to participate as a keynote speaker and guest of honour to the International Cooperation Expo - EXCO 2019 to be held in Rome next 15th -16th and 17th of May 2019.
The deadline for submitting applications is the 31st of March 2019.
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Digital Dividend: Policies to Harness the Productivity Potential of Digital Technologies
Digital technologies can boost firms productivity. Despite that, productivity in most OECD countries dropped considerably in the last years. There are two main reasons for that: the diffusion of digital technologies has been slow and the gains from them have been unequally distributed among the most and least productive firms. This contribution has been recently released for the OECD Going Digital Project, an initiative addressing policy makers with the aim to provide them with the tools they need to help their economies and societies prosper in an increasingly digital and data-driven world.
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Women in Alternative Investments - Report by KPMG
This report released by KPMG aims at analysing what firms, investors and individuals are doing to help improve gender diversity within the alternative investments sector. The analysis is based on a survey of 886 alternative investment professionals globally as well as on interviews with industry leaders both man and women.
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AGORADA 2019: Exploiting the full potential of social enterprises
26 - 27 of March | Brussels, Belgium
The European Association of Development Agencies – EURADA (INSME Member from Belgium) together with the Interreg Europe project consortium Social Seeds, Social Economy Europe, Industrial Modernisation Platform on Social Economy and Reconfirm Initiative are organizing AGORADA 2019 “Exploiting the full potential of social enterprises” on the 26th and 27th of March 2019 in Brussels, Belgium. The event aims at stimulating the debate on how policies, programmes and structures can support social enterprises with a special focus on the most pressing and complex challenges such as start-up, scale-up, finance, internationalisation, up-skilling, and innovation that will deserve specific attention during the conference. The event targets Regional Development Agencies, innovation agencies, EU institutions, academia and of course micro, small, medium and large-sized social enterprises that can register to the event via this link.
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XXX ISPIM Innovation Conference “Celebrating Innovation: 500 Years Since da Vinci”
16 - 19 of June | Florence, Italy
ISPIM (INSME Member) invites you to join the XXX Innovation Conference “Celebrating Innovation: 500 Years since da Vinci” taking place from the 16th to the 19th of June 2019. The three-day event will bring together world-renowned innovation managers, researchers, business and thought leaders from around 50 countries worldwide in what is considered to be the cradle of the Italian Renaissance: Florence.
The event will welcome more than 550 innovation professionals from 50 different countries to engage with 25+ different workshop and 6 innovation tours in the Florence area. INSME Members can benefit from a special discounted rate to attend the event. If interested, please contact us at secretariat@insme.org.
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Future International meetings, workshops, seminars selected by INSME
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March
Best practices and Training on activating a Business Angels ecosystem – a study visit to gain a unique insight into the Italian investment world, with advice on best practices from leading Italian angels
Organized by the ESIL Consortium - Early-Stage Investing Launchpad
4 – 5 of March | Milan, Italy
EBAN 20th Anniversary – an event to discuss how the angel market has evolved over the last 20 years, the role EBAN has played in this regard, and the outlook for the next 20 years of European angel investment.
Organized by EBAN – The European Trade Association for Business Angels, Seed Funds and Early Stage Market Players
6 of March |Brussels, Belgium
EARMA Conference 2019 on “Supporting a sustainable future for research”
Organised by the European Association of Research Managers and Administrators - EARMA
27-29 of March | Bologna, Italy
April
BioInItaly Investment Forum - the key investment forum for biotechnology and life sciences innovation in Italy.
Organized by Assobiotec - the Italian Association for Biotechnology Development
16 – 17 April | Milan, Italy
May
EUREKA Global Innovation Summit, the international meeting place for businesses and innovation agencies to share knowledge, network, collaborate and secure future business growth opportunities.
14-16 of May |Manchester, UK
ASTP-PROTON Annual Conference 2019 on “Creating Value from Knowledge”
Organised by ASTP-PROTON in association with Knowledge Transfer Ireland – KTI
21-23 of May | Dublin, Ireland
June
15th INSME Annual Meeting on “Fintech & Logistics: New Technologies and Markets for SMEs”
Organised by INSME in collaboration with SRM – the Economic Research Centre related to Intesa Sanpaolo Group (INSME Sustaining Member) & the Authority of the Central Tyrrhenian Sea Port System
6-7 of June | Naples, Italy
EU-funded mission in the ICT sector – An opportunity for selected companies to explore the Singaporean and Thai markets and extend their businesses with the support of the EU
Organised by EU Gateway | Business Avenues
17 - 22 of June | Singapore & Bangkok, Thailand
September
The XVII International Triple Helix Conference
Organized by The Triple Helix Association
9 - 11 of September | Cape Town, South Africa
NETVAL Summer Conference "Creating value from research"
Organizes by NETVAL
16 - 19 of September | Rome, Italy
36th IASP World Conference on Science Parks and Areas of Innovation
The 4th Industrial Revolution: areas of innovation and science parks as key boosters for a successful transition
Organized by the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation - IASP
24 - 27 of September | Nantes, France
October
Global SME Finance Forum 2019: The Convergence of the Real and Financial Sectors in SME
Organized by the SME Finance Forum
7 – 9 of October | The Netherlands
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