You will find this edition of "INSMEnews" richer in ideas and proposals than usual. This is especially true for the Life of the Network section, where new proposals for projects to be implemented, starting next Autumn, are higlighted in order to allow the INSME Network to grow, have a wider visibility and offer useful services to its Members.

These proposals were discussed during the 1st Meeting of the INSME Promoting Committee, on which you will find a short summary below.

As usual, any comments on the content of the INSME Portal and expression of interest in participating in the editorial work of its sections are welcome anytime.

Enjoy your reading....and above all enjoy your summer holidays!

INSME Secretariat

1st Meeting of the INSME Promoting Committee Milan, Italy, July 7-8, 2003 On July 7-8, 2003, the First Meeting of the INSME Promoting Committee took place. 23 delegates representing 9 countries and 4 International Organisations involved in the INSME Process met in Milan (Italy) for the occasion. The main achievements of the INSME Process so far and the future steps to take it forward were on the agenda of the meeting. In particular, the working sessions focussed on: the proposed organisation and Statute of the INSME non profit international Association; proposals for the INSME Services; launch of the first INSME Pilot Projects. The need to set up a formal organisation to support the Network's activities, including the provision of INSME's general and tailored services, was reaffirmed at the meeting. In this regard, the proposals of the INSME Secretariat for the INSME Association included: The formal Governing Bodies (General Assembly, INSME Board and INSME Secretariat); The different Membership categories (Full Members, Associate Members and Observers); The Membership fees pertaining to each of these typologies. As for the services to be offered by INSME, the Secretariat presented a Catalogue of Services that will be offered through the INSME Portal for free to all and those for Members only. There was great importance stressed on the launching of Pilot Projects aimed at the ideation, experimentation and assessment of innovative practices - of a sectoral and/or factoral nature - in Countries/Organisations which participate in the INSME Process. Moreover, there was a proposal for the creation of Thematic Working Groups among some interested Members, in order to improve the exchange of ideas and know how in some select fields with a view to carrying out operational activities and identifying services to be delivered to the INSME Members. These proposals sparked much discussion among the delegates, but consensus was shared on continuing the work in order to establish the INSME Association by June 2004. It is proposed that the next meeting of the INSME Promoting Committee be held in early 2004 (late January or February) and that the INSME Steering Group meet in April-May, 2004, with a view to preparing INSME for its official launch at the 2nd OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs (Istanbul, 4-5 June 2004). The summary records of the Milan meeting will be soon available on the INSME Portal. In order to fine-tune future work of the INSME Secretariat, Members of the INSME Steering Group will be invited to express their point of view on the issues at stake by filling in a questionnaire that will soon be posted on-line. The First Meeting of the INSME Promoting Committee

In doing so, the Think Tank will support the INSME Network for the fulfilment of its strategic goals:

INSME will be launching, in the next few months, the first edition of the INSME Award, a prize conceived to acknowledge the success or importance of the activities and initiatives at international, regional, national or sub-national level undertaken by intermediaries or their networks which are Members of the INSME.

that represent a relevant contribution in the field of innovation and technology transfer to SMEs within the socio-economic environment they are referring to.

The aim of the Award is not only to motivate INSME Members to achieve a higher level of performance in the provision of services to SMEs, but also to promote the visibility and diffusion of success stories in the field of innovation.

The INSME Award will consist of both symbolic and cash prizes and the first winners will be selected by mid-2004.

Details on application and deadlines will be published soon on the INSME Portal.

More intermediaries join the INSME Process: the Cyprus Institute of Technology, the "Mouvement des Entreprises de France" (MEDEF), the Croatian Small and Medium Entrepreneurs' Association (UMIS-SMEA) and the Walloon Business House for Europe enter the INSME Steering Group as Observers.

An informal meeting on "Which Policies for a Competitive Europe in a Global Market" was convened by the Italian Presidency of the EU in Rome on 11-12 July 2003.
Ministers of the EU Member States, Members of the European Commission, Ministers of Accession and Candidate Countries, as well as from EFTA Countries, responsible for Competitiveness (in total about 200 delegates) attended the event.
The Conference focussed mainly on research and industrial policy.

Ministers expressed the view that in an enlarged Europe the fundamental conditions for strengthening competitiveness include fostering entrepreneurship with particular reference to SMEs and investing more in research and innovation.

The Italian Minister of Productive Activities, Mr. Marzano, pointed out in his speech that intermediaries and their networks also play an important role in order to encourage SME's innovation processes. He referred in this respect to the INSME and the commitment of the Italian Government in this field. There was also an INSME information booth at the Conference venue.

The INSME Secretariat is about to launch an INSME Pilot Project to provide professional and timely answers to specific questions related to innovation and technology transfer posted by INSME Members. "Ask INSME" will be an on-line service for Members only, provided through the INSME portal, to be carried out by independent experts.

The "Ask INSME Project Team" to design, start-up and test this new service is being set up.
We welcome partners interested in supporting these activities!

For further information or to express your interest in joining the Team, please contact the INSME Secretariat, Ms. Silvia Grandi by 14 September, 2003:

Tel: +39 06 80972215
Fax: +39 06 80972443
e-mail grandi@ipi.it

A website dedicated to the second OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs is soon to be launched by the Organisers. Information will be available in English, French and Turkish.

The Annual Conference of ADT, the German Association of Business Incubators and Technology Parks, will celebrate 20 years of business incubators in Germany.

A part of this conference will deal with an international issue: "Concepts, Experience and Visions", to summarise the developments of business incubation programmes throughout the World and to offer perspectives for the future.

A special topic will be international cooperation of business incubators to support global market access of their client companies.

The conference workshops will seek to summarize experience and to develop tools and recommendations for such activities.

In case any member of the INSME Network wishes to contribute to the conference with a paper, please send your proposal (title and short abstract of your paper) to:

Heinz Fiedler e-mail: spice@spice-group.de

Deadline for submitting papers: 15.08.2003

The European Commission's Enterprise DG has published a call for proposals for the establishment of an online information service on business-to-business (B2B) e-marketplaces.

The objective of the call is to create and maintain a European online 'B2B e-marketplaces portal' to facilitate the access of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to neutral and reliable information on B2B e-marketplaces and business partners and to provide them with guidance to select the most appropriate and trustworthy e-marketplaces and business partners, thus helping SMEs to take maximum advantage from participation in e-marketplaces.

The online information services should be made available as widely as possible and preferably within all Member States, the acceding countries, the candidate countries and the EEA EFTA states and in all relevant languages.

Deadline for submitting tender documents: 28.08.2003