EUREKA at the third European Innovation Summit

As last year, EUREKA, under its Hungarian Chair, was represented at the third edition of the European Innovation Summit (EIS). This year, the Summit will take place on 10-13 October in two locations: in the Brussels European Parliament and in Warsaw, as one of four flagship Polish Presidency events.

EUREKA project participants were invited to join EUREKA’s technology exhibition in Warsaw. Polish EUREKA projects presented at the stand included EUREKA success stories ModPolEUV, FLITE, HEALTHY WEANING and LOGCHAIN TRANSLOG SAFETY, as well as the recently completed Eurostars project SESS.

Head of the EUREKA Secretariat Luuk Borg moderated a debate on the strengthening of the European Research Area (ERA), an initiative composed of all research and development activities, programmes and policies in Europe which involve a transnational perspective. He oriented the debate towards the question of answering the needs R&D SMEs and foster market-oriented innovation in Europe. The lively discussion between the members of the panel focused on the means to make the ERA more industry-oriented and friendlier to SMEs, which are struggling to obtain public funding for innovative projects. The panellists also discussed the way to better integrate the players in the European research sector at European, national and regional levels.

President of COST Ángeles Rodríguez-Peña highlighted the different actors of the ERA should learn how to better share their knowledge and look how to satisfy the needs of European citizens.

Wolfgang Crasemann, from the German Federal Ministry of Economics, reminded the audience of the numerous barriers existing to the free circulation of skilled engineers in Europe. He also brought the emphasis on the lengthy time-to-contract for small companies in need of funding and also on the importance to dedicate a higher percentage of the Horizon 2020 package to applied research.

Zlatuše Novotná, from the Central European Institute of Technology, pledged for better conditions of participation for East European organization willing to take part in the Framework Programme and Horizon 2020.

Josef Kaspar, CEO VZLU-Aerospace, presenting the Industry’s point of view, expressed its concerns about the lack of coordination at governmental level and the need for smart specialisation of the different parties involved.

Adriaan de Graaf, representing the Association of European Research Establishments in Aeronautics, expressed his views on the development of a stronger business vision with the community of European researchers.

Richard Granger, of the Technology Partners foundation wrapped-up the Warsaw conference by presenting the main conclusions of the different sessions: European Innovation has to be fostered through better coordination, access to funding should be simplified and appropriate skills should be developed to achieve the objective of a knowledge-based society in Europe. ‘Regions should be taken as examples of agility in answering the needs of SMEs but should be complementary and not competing against each other’ Granger added.

EUREKA Chairman Sándor Erdő was also a speaker at the Brussels session “The Future of Innovation in Europe”, on 12 October. On 11 October, Chairman of EUREKA Cluster CELTIC José Jiménez participated at the Brussels session “Future Internet PPP”, and EUREKA Innovation Prize Winner – JSC Biocentras - Monica Kavaliauske on the “Role Models on Science & Technology Careers”.

EUREKA projects which participated at the Brussels stand was Biocentras UAB, E!2522 OPTISOIL-CLEAN: ”Growing Plants on oil contaminated land”, Agilent Technologies, MEDEA+ 2A103 MIMOWA: “Multiple input multiple output technologies for wireless access”, ACQUEAU the industry driven EUREKA Cluster dedicated to water related technologies and innovation, Eurostars E!5294 BioSpeak: “Real Time Biometric Speaker Verification Toolkit”; Eurostars E!5218 Emo-Speech: “Interact naturally and emotionally with virtual environments”; ITEA2 08005 DiYSE: “Creating smart experiences on the Web of Things”.