The updated agenda for the upcoming INSME Annual Meeting to be held in Montevideo from April 24 to 26, 2006 has just been released and is available for download:
 INSME Annual Meeting Agenda

We suggest that interested participants make their registration as soon as possible so as to take advantage of early bird fees:
 http://www.annualmeeting2006.insme.org/?pg=Registration

Participation for INSME Members, Speakers and Uruguayan delegates is free of charge.

A hall for stands exhibition and networking or bilateral meetings will be available during Day 2 of the Meeting. Learn about the available options at:
 http://www.annualmeeting2006.insme.org/?pg=stands

For information, please contact the INSME Secretariat:
Mr. Mariano G. Cordone
 insme2006@insme.it
Phone: +39 06 80972.472

INSME is pleased to announce that will support SASME, the Serbian SME Association (INSME Full Member), in the organisation of the IV International Serbian SME UNION Congress, "Support  to EU Integration", which will take place in Belgrade at the Intercontinental Hotel on December 2, 2006. An International SME Fair is foreseen from 30 November to 1 December 2006 at Belgrade Fair Center.

The issues of Stability, Association and Integration of Serbia into the EU were at the centre of the debate of the last SME Congress, which took place in Belgrade on December 17, 2005, organised by SASME. Serbian representatives recognised that these are important determinants of the speedy development and founding of new small and medium-sized enterprises in the country.

Ms. Simona Marzetti, INSME Secretary General, participated in the panel discussion dedicated to "Attracting Investments and Strengthening the Finance Sector in the Balkans", highlighting the contribution that the INSME Network can give in this respect (view programme).

We will keep you updated through the INSME newsletter on the work in progress for the IV SME Congress. Interested organisations can contact SASME:
Mr. Velimir Vukadin, SASME President and INSME Vice-President
 office@srb-smeasoc.org
Phone: 381 11.3442-475

What is the contribution of international events like the 2nd INSME Annual Meeting to influencing or inspiring concrete action-taking by policy makers and innovation players? What are the expectations for the outcomes of INSME Annual Meeting 2006 in Montevideo?

These are 2 of the questions that we have addressed to a Member of the INSME Board, Mr. Serge Golovanov, actively involved in the fine tuning of the meeting agenda and the identification of the INSME conference themes.

Mr. Golovanov is President of GOLEM Integrated Microelectronics Solutions, Austria.

Read his answers at: 
 http://www.insme.org/

Read also the interviews with other INSME Board Members: Mrs. Maria Callejon and Mr. Thomas Andersson (respectively, INSME President and INSME Vice-President) on the same issues
 http://www.annualmeeting2006.insme.org/?pg=Objectives

The archive of INSME's Interviews is available at:
 http://www.insme.org/

The Foundation for Small and Medium Businesses (FSMB) is a non-governmental, non-profit organisation established in 1998. It operates in the Republic of Armenia and is situated in the capital city, Yerevan. It has recently joined the INSME Association.

FSMB's mission is to enhance the formation and growth of the SME sector in the country by providing high quality assistance to small amd medium enterprises, helping business people and organisations to share resources, knowledge and expertise, and encouraging them to cooperate for the advocacy of common interests.

Learn more about FSMB's objectives and scope of activity in the following presentation:
 FSMB Presentation

FSMB welcomes cooperation and partnership with all interested organisations sharing the same mission within Armenia and abroad.

FASHION, TEXTILE & INNOVATION: THE FUTURE NOW
Villa Medicea Ferdinanda (Artimino, Prato - Italy)
30 March 2006

Read about the event:
 Conference Programme (EN/IT)

Registration Form:
 English Version                                       Italian Version
Participation is free of charge.

INSME and IPI will have an information booth at the conference venue.

If you are interested in having a reserved area during this conference to present your scientific and technological results and applications through posters, prototypes and/or new product ideas, please send your application to the Fashion Net staff:
Ms. Valentina Milazzo
 milazzo@ipi.it
Phone: +39 06 80972.517
Fax: +39 06 80972.443

Further details on this call are available at:
 http://fashionnet.insme.org/index.php?module=ContentExpress&func=display&btitle=CE&mid=&ceid=52

For further information on the event, please visit the Fashion Net website: 
 www.fashionnet.org

EuroTransBio, a European initiative aiming at coordinating national funding programmes for the benefit of biotech SMEs, has launched on January 2, 2006, a first call for proposals to support research intensive small and medium sized enterprises and their strategic partnerships in all fields of biotechnology.

Funding is intended for challenging, innovative industrial research and development and applied research projects. Consortia of at least 2 SMEs from 2 different participating countries - Austria, Finland, France, Germany and Spain (Basque Country) - are entitled to participate. Large companies, academic research groups and organisations can be part of the consortia.

Details about the eligible projects and on how to apply are available at:
 http://www.eurotransbio.net/sommaire.php3

Deadline for submitting pre-proposals: February 28, 2006.

 http://www.tunisianindustry.nat.tn/

Gateway of Tunisian industry, summarizing advantages and incentives and containing a dynamic database of industrial Tunisian enterprises (5,403 companies recorded until 12 January 2006), included a virtual exhibit which allows an insight into over 578 enterprises from 9 different manufacturing sectors and services.

Would you like to know the current situation or the evolution of an industrial sector in Tunisia? Then the API Products/ Studies section is the right place to browse in. Would you like to set-up a company in Tunisia? Then the "One Stop Window" service will answer your purpose and assist you with legal formalities.

The Tunisian Industry Portal is maintained by the Tunisian Industry Promotion Agency (API) - INSME Full Member - and is available in French and English.

 http://www.medpride.net/

This is the reference website for those organisations involved in the Med.Pride project, co-financed by the European Union in the framework of the Eumedis Programme to create a network of Centres of Excellence supporting enterprise creation and innovation in Malta, Cyprus, Morocco, Tunisia, Palestinian Territories, Lebanon and Egypt.

Medpride.net website consists of 2 areas. One is publicly accessed and provides general information on the project and news and events relating to the subject matter. A protected area with reserved access (Extranet) is dedicated to the project's Members as their virtual working area, where training activities take place, experiences and problems are shared and an advice board is available.

This is the new programme that the European Commission will run from 2007 until 2013 to boost Europe's competitiveness and innovation. The budget foreseen is 4.21 billion euro. 

CIP has 3 sub-programmes and one is especially dedicated to entrepreneurship and innovation. This will bring together activities that were previously dispersed over the Multiannual Programme for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship (MAP), activities for Industrial Competitiveness and the eco-innovation part (including environmental technologies) of the existing LIFE-Environment programme. CIP will also build on innovation activities that have been successfully tested and developed under previous Research Framework Programmes.

This programme will also address access to finance, which is often quoted as a barrier to entrepreneurship and enterprise innovation. It will do this through Community Financial Instruments operated on behalf of the Commission by the European Investment Fund (EIF).

Through the programme, SMEs will also have simple, clear and efficient access to the EU via the business support networks consisting of many of today's EICs (Euro Info Centres) and IRCs (Innovation Relay Centres Network).

For further information on the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme, visit:
 http://www.cordis.lu/innovation/en/policy/cip.htm

Published by EURADA, the European Association of Development Agencies, this guidebook provides information on different types of funding sources for SMEs, criteria for accessing funding sources and stages at which each source could be accessed. That's why it is a very useful tool for SMEs to understand that "all money is not the same": all forms of finance do not have the same aims, and similarly the motivations and criteria of different investors vary according to the type of product presented and the level of risk linked to it.

This EURADA guidebook also makes a good reading for public bodies' representatives in charge of developing and implementing programmes aimed at providing SMEs access to finance. "The scope for public intervention" - it is stated - "lays at the supply side (provision of finance) and at the demand side (increase the quality of the business plan or reduce the risk to be taken by investors). The public sector can try to solve market failures by helping the demand to match the offer through networking activities".

For further information, please contact the author:
Mr. Christian Saublens
 info@eurada.org
Phone: +32 2 2184313

The full guidebook can be downloaded for free from the EURADA website:
 http://www.eurada.org/doc/All money is not the same E.pdf

The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) is the instrument developed by the European Commission under the Lisbon Strategy to evaluate and compare the innovation performance of the 25 EU Member States. This 2005 edition also includes innovation indicators and trend analyses for non-Members, such as Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the US and Japan.

The synthetic measure of each country's innovation performance is represented by the Summary Innovation Index (SII). Considering the SII average growth rate, the 2005 EIS reveals that Sweden, Finland Switzerland, Germany and Denmark are the European innovation leaders and that most of the new Member States are engaged in the catching-up process. However, their slow pace is unlikely to allow for short-term convergence in Europe.

In addition, the innovation gap between the EU25 and Japan is increasing and the one between EU and US is almost stable. Should trends for the 25 Member States continue, the innovation gap between Europe and the US will not close by 2010.

Innovation efficiency is also evaluated, capturing how countries are good at transforming their innovation assets into innovation results. 5 key dimensions of innovation (innovation drivers, knowledge creation, innovation and entrepreneurship, applications, IPRs) are used to explore national strengths and weaknesses in the innovation performances.

Learn more about the European Innovation Scoreboard main findings for 2005 at:
 http://trendchart.cordis.lu/scoreboards/scoreboard2005/index.cfm

Read former editions of the EIS at:
 http://trendchart.cordis.lu/tc_innovation_scoreboard.cfm

09-11 February 2006
InnovAction Fair 2006 - Knowledge, Ideas and Innovation
International fair on innovation for global competitiveness, jointly organized by the University of Udine and Udine Fiere.
Udine, Italy

16 February 2006
2nd COTEC Symposium (Innovation Technology Foundation)
Organised by Fundación Cotec (Spain) in collaboration with Cotec Foundation (Italy) and l'Associa��o Cotec (Portugal).
Madrid, Spain 

22-24 February 2006
IPTEC 2006 - "Intellectual Property of Technology Exhibition and Conference"
Marketplace for the Transfer of Patent Protected Technology.
Cannes, France 

10 March 2006
Innovative Strategies
Supported by EFMD (European Foundation for Management Development), this Management Conference, featuring Michael Porter and Gary Hamel, will deliver a double masterclass of innovative strategies for business.
Manchester, United Kingdom

15-17 March 2006
Internationa ProACT Conference - "Rethinking Competitiveness, Policy and the Society in a Globalised Economy"
Organized by the Research Programme for Advanced Technology Policy (ProACT) and financed by Finland's Ministry of Trade and Industry and the National Technology Agency (Tekes).
Tampere, Finland

27-30 March 2006
OECD Global Summit on SME and Entrepreneurship Financing
Co-organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the Brazilian Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.
Brasilia, Brasil

29 March-02 April 2006
Expo Pakistan 2006
Organised by the Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan.
Karachi, Pakistan

24-26 April 2006
2nd INSME Annual Meeting 2006 - Boosting Innovation by Bridging the Knowledge Gap: A Developer-User Approach
Organised in collaboration with CEGETEC (Centre for Technology Management, Chamber of Industries of Uruguay), hosting organisation of the Meeting.
Montevideo, Uruguay

26-29 April 2006
17th WASME World SME Convention
Organised by WASME (World Association of Small and Medium Enterprises).
Seoul, South Korea

19-23 June 2006
Euro-South East Asia 2006
Information & Communication Technologies conference and exhibition. Funded by the European Commission, Information Society & Media DG and organised with the support of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Singapore
 Call for Exhibitors (280 kb)