View this email in your browser (https://mailchi.mp/insme.org/insme_newsletter_issue206_march2022?e=2d8317fc5...) ** ------------------------------------------------------------ ** Issue n. 206 ------------------------------------------------------------ News from INSME INSME’s SEI Project Provides Social Entrepreneurship Insight to the Lebanese Development Network (https://www.insme.org/insmes-sei-project-provides-social-entrepreneurship-in...) Read the main takeaways takeaways from the Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation Project organized by INSME, and supported by EBSOMED. INSME at the World Entrepreneur Investment Forum 2022 (https://www.insme.org/insme-at-the-world-entrepreneur-investment-forum-2022/) INSME’s Secretary General Giovanni Zazzerini attended the World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum, organized by UNIDO ITPO Bahrain in partnership with Annual Investment Meeting, aimed to generate sustainable solutions through networking and collaboration. Learn more here. The XPRESS Project announces the next Co-creation workshop in Venice on April 22, 2022 (https://www.insme.org/the-xpress-project-organised-the-2nd-stakeholder-cafe-...) The XPRESS Project will host the Co-creation Workshop “Experiences and solutions for the development of GPP in the renewable energy sector”, co-organised with eAmbiente, on April 22, 2022. Updates and contributions from INSME Members Turning Start-ups into Scaleups: Business Angels Europe’s and Invest Europe’s Joint Paper (https://www.insme.org/turning-start-ups-into-scaleups-business-angels-europe...) BAE, INSME Member, and Invest Europe published the joint paper “Turning start-ups into scale-ups - Incentivising the role of early-stage investors”. Read about the the untapped potential of thousands of investors across Europe here. IFC - SECO Partnership for Sustainable Investments in Emerging Economies (https://www.insme.org/ifc-seco-partnership-for-sustainable-investments-in-em...) The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, INSME Member, and the IFC, announced a new program to spur private investments in developing countries through environmental and social risk management. Read about it here. Content of the month New OECD Report on “Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2022” (https://www.insme.org/new-oecd-report-on-financing-smes-and-entrepreneurs-20...) The OECD published the 10th edition of “Financing SMEs and Entrepreneurs 2022: an OECD Scoreboard”, with a focus on how the global pandemic impacted SME finance, along with framework conditions paired with the policy developments for over 48 nations. European Commission and EIB unlock Billions for Investments across Europe (https://www.insme.org/european-commission-and-eib-unlock-billions-for-invest...) On March 7th, the European Union implemented the InvestEU programme between the European Commission and the EIB Group, composed by the European Investment Bank and the European Investment Fund. Learn more here. We are happy to receive your updates: share with us your projects, activities, and events: we will include them in the next INSME Newsletter and spread the information among our readers! Email us at secretariat@insme.org (mailto:secretariat@insme.org) ============================================================ Calls and opportunities This section is supported by: ** Product Development and Management Association (PDMA): Nominations are open for the 2022 Outstanding Corporate Innovator (OCI) Award (https://www.pdma.org/page/OCI-award-Nominations) For 35 years, PDMA's OCI Award has been the premier honor recognizing sustained and quantifiable innovation success. Nominate your own company or one you admire. There is no application fee. To nominate, please go to: ** https://www.pdma.org/page/OCI-award-Nominations (https://www.pdma.org/page/OCI-award-Nominations) . For additional help, contact Dr. Hamsa Thota, email: ** hthota@innovationbd.com (mailto:hthota@innovationbd.com) Deadline: April 4, 2022 ** Entrepreneurship Skill Development Services for USAID (https://www.developmentaid.org/tenders/view/937253/entrepreneurship-skill-de...) The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Mission in Pakistan seeks the services of consultants/firms to conduct training, capacity building sessions and accessing start-up funding opportunities for up to or approximately 155 USAID employees working in the area of international development (hereinafter referred to as “client-employees”). Open application for experts on development services, and assessment on both entrepreneurship landscape and key/local stakeholders, starting from May 1, 2022, till September 30, 2024. Deadline: April 5, 2022 ** WE Empower UN SDG Challenge 2022 (http://www.ldn-lb.org/news/we-empower-un-sdg-challenge-2022) Applications are now open for the WE Empower UN SDG Challenge 2022. It is the first-of-its-kind global competition for social entrepreneurs who are advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and inspiring entire communities to act to create the world they want by 2030. The opportunity recognizes their innovative work and provides Awardees with capacity-building training sessions and opportunities to connect with an unparalleled global network to advance their enterprises. Deadline: April 15, 2022 ** New cut off-date added to the Interregional Innovation Investments call (https://eismea.ec.europa.eu/funding-opportunities/calls-proposals/interregio...) Strand 2a focuses on increasing the capacity of regional innovation ecosystems in less developed regions to participate in global value chains, as well as the capacity to participate in partnerships with other regions. It supports both foreign direct investment-driven value chains and other emerging sectors. Three subcategories come from this strand: digital, green, and manufacturing. Deadline: April 20, 2022 ** RESTwithEU - Pilot Project (https://www.developmentaid.org/tenders/view/928890/restwitheu-pilot-project-...) The RESTwithEU project aims at developing the digital infrastructure of SMEs in the restaurant industry around the EU: mapping the existing tools and carrying out a gap analysis of the tourism ecosystem overall, looking specifically into the restaurant sector. The technical challenge is to define and stimulate the development of technical solutions for specific challenges, particularly for the restaurant sector, and stimulation of new solutions, and guidelines to support the restaurant sector and the wider tourism ecosystem with the possibility of using the network of Digital Innovation Hubs. Deadline: April 27, 2022 ** Public Procurement of Innovation Development Open Call (https://www.developmentaid.org/tenders/view/928890/restwitheu-pilot-project-...) The European Commission has launched an open call to increase innovation in public procurement strategies. The call aims to build an extensive reference base for innovation procurement activities and a network of procurers. This call is part of the EU’s Single Market Programme, which has a budget of €4,2 million over the period 2021-2027 and provides an integrated package to support and strengthen the Single Market. A key objective is improving the competitiveness of businesses, especially SMEs, to complement financial support offered through ** InvestEU. (https://europa.eu/investeu/home_en) Deadline: May 3, 2022 ** Digital Europe Programme (https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/digital-programme) The aim of this program is to support the development of advanced digital skills of people in the labour force, with a focus on SMEs, by providing affordable access to high quality specialised training courses, reflecting the latest developments in key capacity areas, such as Cybersecurity, AI, cloud or microelectronics. SMEs owners, managers and employees will have the possibility to attend high-class digital training that larger companies can more easily afford. This action contributes to the implementation of the SME strategy for a sustainable and digital Europe, which will ultimately contribute to increasing the number of people able to design, develop and deploy digital solutions in the economy and across sectors. Deadline: May 17, 2022 ** Ideas Powered for business SME Fund (https://euipo.europa.eu/ohimportal/en/online-services/sme-fund?cmvsource=mlp...) Grant scheme designed to support the intellectual property (IP) rights of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the EU. The SME Fund is an initiative of the European Commission implemented by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). Deadline: 16 December 2022. If you're interested in pursuing one of these opportunities together, drop us an email at ** secretariat@insme.org (mailto:secretariat@insme.org) Upcoming events 5^th - 6^th April – Online Event World Intellectual Property Organisation - ** Intellectual Property and Frontier Technologies (https://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/frontier_technologies/frontier_conversation.html?utm_source=WIPO+IP+Frontiers+Technology+Newsletter&utm_campaign=87fe5e5c10-DIS_FRONTIER_EN_250122&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_2b70fedeed-87fe5e5c10-256931433) 7^th April - Online Event EURADA– ** 7^th Edition of the Brokerage Event for Innovation Agencies (https://www.eurada.org/calendar/events/7th-edition-of-the-brokage-event-for-...) 27^th - 28^th April – Brussels, Belgium, and Online European’s Commission Scientific Advise Mechanism – ** Science Advice Under Pressure (https://scientificadvice.eu/) 28^th - 29^th April – Trento, Italy, and Online Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development - ** International conference on SMEs and the Urban Fabric (https://oecd-events.org/smes-cities) 8^th - 10^th May – Venice, Italy Licensing Executives Society International - ** Restarting Business and Fuelling Innovation (https://lesi2022.org/index.php/programme/) 12^th - 13^th May – Barcelona, Spain EU Startups - ** EU-Startups Summit (https://www.eu-startups.com/eu-startups-summit-2022/) 18^th - 20^th May – Lisbon, Portugal ASTP - ** ASTP Annual Conference 2022 (https://www.astp4kt.eu/astp-annual-conference-2022-123.html) 24^th - 25^th May – Brussels, Belgium European Business and Innovation Centre Network - ** Transition Towards 2030 (https://ebn.eu/event/save-the-date-2022-ebn-congress-24-25-may-in-brussels/) 5^th - 8^th June – Copenhagen, Denmark The International Society for Professional Innovation Management– ** Innovating in a Digital World (https://www.ispim-innovation-conference.com/) 20^th - 24^th June – Washington, D.C. The World Bank - ** Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics: Recovery, Reform, Environment (https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2022/06/20/annual-bank-conference-on-dev...) 27^th - 28^th June – Florence, Italy Triple Helix Association - ** 20^th Triple Helix Conference (https://www.triplehelixconference2022.org/) 5^th - 8^th July - Hybrid, hosted in Washington, D.C. International Council for Small Business - ** The Entrepreneurial Revolution (https://icsbcongress.com/) 26^th - 30^th September – Brussels, Belgium, and Online European Commission – ** European Sustainable Energy Week (https://eusew.eu/) 27^th - 30^th September – Seville, Spain IASP – ** 39^th IASP World Conference on Science Parks and Areas of Innovation (https://iaspworldconference.com/) 10^th - 12^th October – Bangkok, Thailand World Intellectual Property Organisation - ** World Intellectual Property Forum (https://www.worldipforum.com/) 19^th - 21^st October – Brno, Czech Republic European Commission - ** International Conference on Research Infrastructure (ICRI) 2022 (https://www.icri2022.cz/post/these-are-the-icri-2022-key-topics) 9^th - 11^th October – Durban, South Africa TCI Network - ** 25^th TCI Global Conference (https://www.tci-network.org/events/25th-tci-global-conference-durban-south-a...) ** Website (http://www.insme.org) ** Twitter (https://twitter.com/INSME_) ** Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/INSME-The-International-Network-for-Small-and-Mediu...) ** LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/insme---the-international-network-for-small...) 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