ERRIN Innovation Funding Working Group Meeting: European Commission briefing on current calls relating to entrepreneurship education
The Innovation Funding Working Group under the leadership of the Welsh Higher Education Office (Paul Harris), and hosted by West Midlands in Europe, organised a information session on European Commission calls relating to entrepreneurship education.
Simone Baldassari (European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry) presented the call for proposals on entrepreneurial culture of young people and entrepreneurship education published on 27 January 2009, which aims to support the implementation of the Small Business Act and of the Oslo Agenda, with the objective to promote winning ideas in the field of education for entrepreneurship and in improving the entrepreneurial mindsets of the European youth. Mr. Baldassari also provided the network with a comprehensive definition of entrepreneurship, priority areas, general eligibility and evaluation criteria for this call.
Typhaine Beaupérin from Eurochambres also presented an update on the newly launched call for proposals on erasmus for young entrepreneurs foreseen to be published in Spring 2009.
Presentations of Simone Baldassari and Typhaine Beaupérin are available online for ERRIN members only.
ERRIN Energy Working Group Meeting: Information Session on the EU Renewable Energy Directive, 20 February 2009, Brussels
The ERRIN Energy Working Group organised an information meeting on the Renewable Energy Directive as an integrated part of the Climate Package. The RE Directive is a thorough piece of legislation hailed by highranking officials as the most extensive piece of EU legislation since the formulation of the Internal Market. DG TREN/D1 Head off Unit Mr Hans van Steen (DG TREN/D1) who represented the European Commission in the tough negotiations between the European Council and the European Parliament, brought clarifications on the key figures 20/20/20/10 and on what the almost 200-page directive actually imply, how does it impact and what are the provisions within it that can be taken forward.
Mr Hans van Steen Presentation available online
Link to the provisional text of the Directive:
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/strategies/2008/doc/2008_01_climate_action/2008_0609_en.pdf
The ICT Working Group in partnership with the Lisbon Regions Network organised an Information Day and Project Café on the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme. The event followed the publication of the CIP PSP Call on 26th January and provided a networking opportunity for practitioners and Brussels officers interested in participating in related project bids.
Topics and calls covered included: - CIP- Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme
- CIP Eco-Innovation Call: Market Replication Projects (Theodoros Staikos, EACI, European Commission)
- The Intelligent Energy Europe Programme (Dario Dubolino, EACI, European Commission)
- ERASMUS for Young Entrepreneurs - Concept & Roles (Christian Weinberger, Entrepreneurship and SME Policy Adviser, DG ENT)
- ICT Policy Support Programme 2009 Call (Pierre Marro, Strategy for ICT Research and Innovation unit, DG INFSO)
PowerPoints are available fromICT Working Groupspace on the ERRIN website. A detailed report will soon follow
To foster the creation of ERRIN project consortia for participation in the forthcoming Intelligent Energy Europe 2009 call, the ERRIN Energy Working Group organised a networking event for regional practitioners. The call expected to be open from April to June 2009 will make 65 million Euros available to support European projects for energy efficiency, renewable energy, and local or regional energy agencies.
Taking place immediately after the Intelligent Energy Europe Info Day, the event was part of an effort by the Energy Working Group to actively promote ERRIN practitioner involvement in European projects, with a specific focus on the IEE call. It provided an opportunity for 30 practitioners from 14 ERRIN member regions to present and discuss their project ideas and discover their expertise and profiles.
For the IEE call priorities 2009 as well as more information on the IEE programme please see the info documentation at: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/intelligent/events/infodays_en.htm
or consult the ERRIN IEE Funding Factsheetrealised with the kind support of WMIE.
The European Commission’s competitiveness report 2008 presented a rather positive diagnosis of the EU economy's competiveness. The communication from the Commission on the European Competitiveness Report 2008 speaks of ‘a continued improvement of the European economy in terms of productivity and standards of living vis-à-vis the United States (...). Intra-EU productivity differences are diminishing, new Member States are catching up and some of the richest EU Members States actually outperform the US.’However such a success is eclipsed by the current financial and economic crisis’ impact, and the EU must continue to boost competitiveness through its Growth and Jobs Strategy in 5 key areas:
1. Productivity differences and growth drivers
2. Fostering trade openness and foreign direct investment
3. Entrepreneurial initiative and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs)
4. Opportunities arising from renewable energies and climate change policies
5. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in contributing to competitiveness
More information:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=2154
See also:
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/enterprise_policy/competitiveness/1_eucompetrep/eu_compet_reports.htm
Secretariat launches call for new themes, 6 February 2009, Brussels
ERRIN has currently 8 Working Groups (Innovation Funding, Transport, Space, Health, Energy, Biotech, ICT, Science in Society). These working groups are key to providing thematic leadership, structuring the information, knowledge exchange and boosting project development within ERRIN.
Since ERRIN is keen to absorb and capitalize on additional interest and ambitions of its members, the Secretariat has launched a call for expression of interest on new issues and themes, which could be either addressed by the existing Working Groups or lead to the establishment of new ones.
Every member is kindly invited to submit to the Secretariat:
- Themes or issues of interest not sufficiently covered by the existing ERRIN Working Groups
- Other potential areas where cooperation through ERRIN could add value
As a follow-up to this consultation, the Secretariat will facilitate a meeting between members interested in a specific theme/issue and/or organize specific seminars.
ERRIN organised a one-day training course with Pinnacle Public Relations in January to offer its members the opportunity to improve their website related communication skills.
People consume information differently online: readers’ attention span, scanning habits and navigation behaviour all confound the assumptions of writers who are used to traditional documents and paper. This course explained and then implemented in practice the ideas and skills required to translate good writing into effective writing for the Web b y focusing on two skill-sets:
1. Basic journalism skills for generating original news: fundamentals of news journalism; using sources and interviews to generate and develop news ideas; practical copywriting; story structure and specifics of writing for Web readers.
2. Editing and rewriting skills for working with wire copy: compiling stories; selecting information; editing; rewriting; cutting and combining wire pieces.
A follow-up training will be organised depending on interest of ERRIN members.
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