Don't miss this opportunity to increase your visibility and reputation worldwide!

The INSME Secretariat encourages any Member or non-Member organisation interested in co-organising and co-hosting the INSME 2006 Annual Meeting to present its candidature. All proposals received will be evaluated by the INSME Board.

A call for expressions of interest is open in this regard until July 15, 2005, specifying the guidelines for co-hosting and co-organising the 3-day INSME meeting:
 Call for co-hosting and co-organising the INSME Association 2006 Annual Meeting

To ease you into the process of drafting your proposal, download and fill in the following template:
 Template for the Call for Co-hosting and Co-organising the INSME Association 2006 Annual Meeting

For further information and any clarification or to submit your proposal, please contact the INSME Secretariat:
Ms. Simona Marzetti
secretariat@insme.it
Phone: +39 06 80972.448
Fax: +39 06 80972.443

The registration phase for the INSME-CFI International Training Course on Management of Innovation and Technology Transfer has closed successfully. About 50 participants from Argentina and other countries, also outside Latin America, are expected. 

 
On July 5-8, 2005, representatives of public and private organisations will gather in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to attend this course, the first jointly organised by the INSME Association and the Argentinean Federal Investment Council (CFI).

Download the latest version of the training course's agenda:
 INSME-CFI Programa de Formación (ES)
 INSME-CFI Training Course Agenda (EN)

Learn about the speakers:
 http://www.insme.info/page.asp?IDArea=1&page=cfi_training_trainers

We look forward to welcoming soon the speakers and the trainees at CFI headquarters for professional growth and international networking!

For the latest arrangements, contact the INSME Secretariat:
Mr. Mariano G. Cordone
 secretariat@insme.it 
Phone: +39 06 80972.472/466
Fax: +39 06 80972.443

Book your agenda now to be sure you will not miss this training course on innovative enterprises:
 
INSME-API Training Programme on Supporting the Creation and Development of Innovative Enterprises
Date: 13 - 15 December, 2005
Place: Abou Nawas Hotel, Tunis
Tuition Fees: 400 euro (reduced fee of 250 euro for INSME Association Members, Tunisian Trainees and participants from non-OECD countries)
Language: French only

Find out more about the topics developed during the course:
 Programme de Formation (FR)

Register to attend the INSME-API Training Programme (deadline: December 3, 2005): 
 Formulaire d'inscription (FR)

Learn about the trainers and their experience:
 http://www.insme.info/page.asp?IDArea=1&page=api_training_partecipants

Read about the co-hosting organisation, API - Tunisian Agency for the Promotion of Industry:
 API website: http://www.tunisianindustry.nat.tn/
 API Presentation: http://www.insme.org/documents/API_presentation.pdf

For further information and any clarification, please contact the INSME Secretariat:
Mr. Mariano G. Cordone 
 secretariat@insme.it 
Phone: +39 06 80972.472
Fax: +39 06 80972.443

Mr. Sergio Arzeni is the Director of the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development at OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and head of the OECD Programme on Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED).

In this interview he offers an invaluable global perspective on how institutions - at local, national or international level - should foster entrepreneurship and innovation.

Why invaluable? Because not only is it at the base of Mr. Arzeni's 20 year experience and engagement in economic development at the OECD, but also because it offers challenging views on how government, either at national or supranational level, should come out of the entrepreneurship and innovation rhetoric to really make innovation happen.

"Innovate your modus operandi at institutional and organisational level" is Mr. Arzeni's encouragement. We hope you too are ready to follow it!

Read Mr. Arzeni's interview at:
 http://www.insme.info/page.asp?IDArea=1&page=interview&IDInterview=11

The INSME Association has recently joined as Associate the EPRI-start European Network, a free association of projects and organisations following complementary goals related to the stimulation of the participation of small and medium enterprises from the European Union’s New Member States in the EU IST Programme (Information Society Technologies Programme).

The EPRI-start network aims to synchronise and coordinate activities of its members in order to increase the efficiency of each of its partners’ activities and extend the scope, reach, and impact of the coordinated actions.

EPRI-start is an 18-month project (March 2005-August 2006) that includes an extensive range of activities to both educate innovative IST-oriented enterprises from the New Member States with no or low experiences in participating in the IST programme and at the same time raise the awareness of existing and newly arising consortia in the IST community to find potential project partners form the New Member States.

Visit EPRI-start website:
 http://www.epristart.org/epristart/content/index.php

Download EPRI-start presentation:
 http://www.insme.org/documents/20050512_EPRI-START_flyer.pdf

The European Commission's Enterprise and Industry DG invites tenders for a study to benchmark regional and national support services for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the field of intellectual and industrial property.

The study will identify, analyse, classify and benchmark support services in the area of intellectual and industry property that are provided in the MAP (Multiannual Programme for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship) participating countries (EU-25, Bulgaria, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Romania and Turkey) and in other non-EU countries such as the US, Canada, Japan, and Australia.

Call Identifier: 2005/S 103-102369
OJ Reference: OJ S103 of 31.05.2005
 
Deadline for submitting tender documents: 8 July 2005 

To see the full details of the call go to:
 http://ted.publications.eu.int/

Programme: Sixth Framework Programme - Specific programme: Structuring the European Research Area - Activity area: Research and Innovation

Budget: 5,5 million Euro

Call Identifier: FP6-2005-INNOV-8
OJ Reference: OJ C91 of 15.04.2005
 
Deadline for submitting proposals: 19 July 2005

The rationale behind this call lies in the belief that standards are catalysts for innovation and offer enterprises a potential competitive advantage. To better exploit the European investments into standardisation the following three activities are foreseen within this call:

1. Facilitate the integration of open standards into the design of new products and services;
2. Facilitate the integration of open standards into business processes;
3. Stimulate innovation through reference to standards in public procurement.

These actions should result in the establishment of thematic networks with the objective to exchanging and compiling good practice on how to use standards for innovative business solutions.

A detailed description of the proposed activities and information on how to apply can be found at:
 http://fp6.cordis.lu/fp6/call_details.cfm?CALL_ID=201

A guide to better practices for collaborative research and knowledge transfer
between science and industry

The handbook on Responsible Partnering has been recently issued by the European University Association (EUA), ProTon Europe, the European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO) and the European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA).

This handbook describes a voluntary programme aimed at improving the organisation, management and overall effectiveness of joint research and knowledge transfer activities involving public research organisations (PROs) and companies.

Ten actionable guidelines are proposed:

1. Foster strong institutions
2. Align interests
3. Treat collaboration strategically
4. Organise for lasting relationships
5. Provide the right professional skills
6. Establish clear intent
7. Use standard practices and communicate regularly
8. Achieve effective intellectual property
9. Provide relevant training
10. View innovation as a trans-disciplinary activity

For a full review of the guidelines, download the Handbook at:
 http://www.insme.org/documenti/Responsible%20Partnering%20Guidelines.pdf

For further information contact ProTon Europe:

Mr. Mark Schneider
 mark@protoneurope.org
Phone: +32 2 211 34 32
Fax: +32 2 218 89 73
 http://www.protoneurope.org

The African Economic Outlook, a joint project of the African Development Bank and the OECD Development Centre, is an annual review of the recent economic situation and the likely short-term evolution of selected African countries.

The 2004/2005 edition provides an in-depth update on the economic and political situation in 29 African countries, accounting for 85 per cent of Africa’s population and 90 per cent of its economic output. It also focuses on a topic critical for Africa's development prospects: SMEs development and growth.

As a matter of fact, African SMEs suffer from an adverse business environment and this results in a "missing middle" between very large firms - often multinationals - and the informal sector. This year's AEO shed lights on obstacles to their development, focusing on access to external finance. The Outlook stresses that a may pronged approach is needed to improved African SMEs' access to finance. This would include a better investment climate, improved capacity to cope with banks' requirements and more diverse sources of financing from financial institutions - including micro-finance - and the existing large enterprises.

The African Economic Outlook 2004/2005 tackles all these and other crucial challenges for African development, providing a valuable support for policy making, investment decisions and potentially donors' interventions.

The full edition of the African Economic Outlook is available at:
 SourceOECD for subscribing institutions and many libraries
 OECD Online Bookshop for non subscribers
 Olisnet for subscribed Government Officials

This is a report on a research project examining spin-out activity at 10 UK universities.
Its aim is to give a measure of university performance in research commercialisation and find out the ways in which university spin-out companies can deliver value to universities and regional economies.

Conducted by the St. John’s Innovation Centre and commissioned by the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, the report includes the following key findings:

• There are three categories of spin-outs, all of which have the potential to deliver value but in very different ways: (1) Spin-outs with identifiably high growth potential, capable of attracting venture capital investment; (2) Spin-outs that are likely to be serious businesses in that they create employment and generate profits, but which may have limited or slower growth potential; and (3) spin-outs that are commercial development vehicles for a technology which, in due course, is likely to be commercialised through the licence or sale of the IP.
  
  
• There are marked variations in numbers of spin-outs between the large, research intensive universities, and those with smaller research budgets. However, the number of spin-outs should not be interpreted as a free standing indicator of the relevance of the university's research to the commercial world.
  
  
• Different categories of universities will have different strategies for commercialising their research outputs, and they need to develop appropriate systems for doing so. Seeking generic approaches - and generic measures of success - across all universities may not be helpful.

Download a copy of the report at:
 www.stjohns.co.uk/documents/usoreport.pdf

For further information on this report, contact the authors:
Tim Minshall
 tminshall@stjohns.co.uk
Bill Wicksteed
 wwicksteed@sqw.co.uk

World SME Network – Connecting SMEs
http://www.sme-portal.com/default.aspx 

This portal was recently launched under the aegis of WASME (World Association of Small and Medium Enterprises) at the WASME 2005 SME Convention (Bucharest, 15-18 May 2005).

It is an additional tool to help SMEs in internationalisation and transition to the knowledge based economy. The portal can be used both by national SME organizations and by their SMEs to exchange views and look for business partners.

Sme-portal.com is still under development and will need some time to be fully effective. So we recommend you to bookmark it and come back visit it often to see what it's new!

 http://www.sme-portal.com/default.aspx

Xplora -  The European Gateway to Science Education
http://www.xplora.org/ww/en/pub/xplora/

Launched recently by the European Commission, Xplora provides resources for primary and secondary education, and is aimed at teachers, pupils, scientists, communication professionals and others involved in science education. Its final aim is to attract more young people to take up scientific careers for EU's innovation.

The key features of Xplora are the "Megalab", where ideas for experiments and projects are suggested; the "Practice" section, where teachers from all over Europe can share their practical teaching approaches; the "Library", highlighting learning objects, open source softwares and research reports; the "Events" section, a calendar if events in science education.

Xplora.org is funded under the Science and Society action of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6).

Here is our selection of interesting events due to take place in July. The full list of the July events is available at:
http://www.insme.info/page.asp?IDArea=1&page=events

A search tool is also available on that page to help you find relevant international, regional or national events related to innovation, technology transfer and SME issues. Events can be searched by date, place and thematic areas.

27-29 June 2005
Worldwide Symposium on Geographical Indications
Jointly organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Italian Ministry of Productive Activities, Parma Municipality, Parma Chamber of Commerce, IPI-Italian Institute for Industrial Promotion.
Parma, Italy 

03-05 July 2005
"Train the Trainers" - 2005 ProTon Training Schools for the Knowledge Transfer Profession
Organised by ProTon Europe. Build as an opportunity for knowledge transfer experts to develop their training skills, this course aims to cover everything from intellectual property to the interface between universities and industry.
Lucca, Italy 

05-07 July 2005
High Technology Forum - Opportunities for Cooperation in Biotech, ICT & Broadcasting between Italy and the People’s Republic of China
Organised by the Ministry of Productive Activities and the Italian Institute for Foreign Trade.
Beijing, China 

11-12 July 2005
Building Awareness of Women's Entrepreneurship in the MENA Region
Organised by the OECD Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs and Local Development.
Istanbul, Turkey 

13-15 July 2005
2nd UNIDO International Conference on the Process of Innovation and Learning in Dynamic City-Regions
Jointly organised by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Government of India.
Bangalore, India

15-16 July 2005
HIGHTEX 2005 Technical Textile Brokerage Event
Organised by the Innovation Relay Centre-Ege, this event will be focused on innovative technological applications for the textile sector, including: non-woven, technical textiles, smart textiles and garments.
Istanbul, Turkey 

29-31 July 2005
World Future 2005: Foresight, Innovation and Strategy
The World Future Annual Conference is a three-day event inclusive of courses, symposia and lecturers on multidisciplinary topics related to science, technology and innovation.
Chicago, Illinois, USA

To be kept timely informed about future events, subscribe to the weekly INSME E-mail Alert for Events: 
http://www.insme.info/page.asp?IDArea=1&page=alert_portal_subscribe

24-26 August 2005
Baltic Dynamics’05 and Nordic Science Parks Conference 2005 - "Science/Technology Parks and business incubators fostering the enterprise internationalisation and partnerships".
Co-organised by TEHNOPOL (Tallinn Technology Park) and TEKEL (Finnish Science Park Association), the event combines the Baltic Dynamics Conference and the Nordic Science Park Conference.
Tallinn, Estonia 

12-14 September 2005
Sustaining the Entrepreneurial Spirit Over Time
35th EISB Conference (Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Small Business Conference 2005).
Barcelona, Spain   

18-21 September 2005
"Global Innovation - The Role of Science and Technology Parks"
XXII IASP World Conference on Science and Technology Parks
Beijing, China

19-22 September 2005
Asia-Europe Emerging Economic Leaders Forum
The conference is organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) and the Young Entrepreneurs Association of Brunei Darussalam (YEAB).
Brunei Darussalam, Brunei

06-07 October 2005
2nd Symposium on the Entrepreneurship–Innovation–Marketing Interface
Organised by the University of Karlsruhe.
Karlsruhe, Germany

23-24 November 2005
WIPO-Italy International Symposium on the Role of the Intellectual Property System for the Competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Working in the Textile Sector
Jointly organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Italian Ministry of Productive Activities and the Italian Institute for Industrial Promotion (IPI, INSME Member).
Real Sito Belvedere di San Leucio, Caserta (near Naples), Italy

Advertise your event to the nearly 10,000 INSMEnews subscribers!

Looking for a place to advertise your event regarding innovation, technology transfer or SMEs related issues? Well, let us help you out. You can advertise your event in this section of INSMEnews and on the dedicated section of the INSME portal.

Just send an email with relevant information about your event to the INSME Secretariat:
 secretariat@insme.it