Join us at the next INSME Annual Meeting on Building a Knowledge based eco-system for SMEs: Finance, Innovation, Technology and Networking to be held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) on April 20-23, 2009.

Learn about the main co-hosts: Dubai Institute of Technology (DIT) and the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF).

 Provisional flyer on the INSME Annual Meeting 2009.

To stay updated on the 2009 Annual Meeting, visit the dedicated website:
 http://www.annualmeeting2009.insme.org/

For more details, please contact the INSME Secretariat at:
 insme2009dubai@insme.it

The INSME Secretariat is collaborating with CORFO (Chilean Economic Development Agency) to involve interested INSME Members in the new Chilean European Business Network Platform. This platform, designed in the framework of the Support for the Creation and Development of Innovative Companies program, launched by the Chilean Government and the European Union, aims to promote technology missions and study tours of Chilean companies to Europe, facilitating the involvement of European business consultants in innovation activities in Chile.

 For more information, please visit the website (under construction), available mostly in Spanish:
http://www.gentor.cl/bac/

FINPYME is a new program developed by the Inter American Development Bank - IADB in collaboration with the Inter American Investment Corporation - IIC which aims to assess small and medium-size enterprises through a diagnose mechanism in order to help them become more competitive and improve their access to potential sources of financing.

FINPYME has been launched in 2007, with funding from the Korea-IIC SME Development Trust Fund, in the following countries: Costa Rica , El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Dominican Republic.

Recently Korea-IIC SME Development Trust Fund has approved more than US$500,000 for the FINPYME projects, while the IIC has offered to local banks up to US$2 million in credit lines specifically to provide financing for FINPYME participants.

For more information on FINPYME please visit the website:
http://www.finpyme.org/

The last EU Competitiveness Council, held in Brussels on 1-2 December 2008, in order to respond to the current economic crisis, adopted conclusions on several important issues related to clusters policy and the Small Business Act (SBA) for Europe.

In particular, the Council invited the Commission and the Member States to cooperate for achieving closer cooperation between clusters at European level and for improving the functioning of the internal market, thereby contributing to the emergence of world-class clusters that are competitive on a global scale and able to attract high-quality investments and highly skilled staff. Furthermore, the Council underlined the importance of integrated set of measures in the SBA aimed at improving access to finance, enhancing market access, and ensuring a regulatory environment in support of SME's needs.

Read the press release of the conclusions of Small Business Act and Clusters Policy.

Launched by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW) was the first-ever global initiative aimed to generate new entrepreneurial ideas and to encourage innovative young people to turn their ideas into reality and to embrace innovation and creativity. During this event, which was celebrated by 17 to 23 November 2008, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Kauffman Foundation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to work together to promote actions and initiatives to help develop high-impact entrepreneurship in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Read more about the Global Entrepreneurship Week at:
http://www.publicforuminstitute.org/nde/news/2008/enews-08-11-24.htm

Read more about the MoU at:
http://www.kauffman.org/Details.aspx?id=5866

Call Identifier: Research for the benefit of SMEs - Coordination and Support Activities Call 1 (FP7-SME-2009-1). Programme: Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). Specific Programme: Capacities.

Topic: Studies on regional, national, European SME research support programmes and actions.

Aim: To map and analyse SME research and innovation support activities at national, regional and European level dedicated in order to enhance/redesign policy measures for the benefit of SMEs and to increase their innovation capacity and their research efforts, to extend their networks, to better exploit research results and to acquire technological know how, bridging the gap between research and innovation.

Deadline for submitting proposals: 27 January 2009.

Indicative budget: € 4,000,000.

Participants: at least 3 legal entities established in different EU Member States or Associated countries (Albania, Croatia, FYR Macedonia, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey). The entities must be independent of each other.

Read more at:
http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm?fuseaction=UserSite.capacitiesDetailsCallPage&call_id=163

Issuer: The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM, INSME Member).

Theme: "The Future of Innovation" (Vienna, Austria 21-24 June 2009).

This symposium, connecting about 300 academics, business leaders, consultants and other professionals involved in innovation management, will provide networking opportunities together with interactive workshops and discussion panels to understand the challenges faced in managing innovations in such a connected world.

Deadline for submitting abstracts: 30 April 2009.

Details on specific submission requirements and processes are available at:
http://www.ispim.org/conference/CFP.html

The EU-China Managers Exchange and Training Programme (METP) is a four-year intergovernmental cooperation project between the European Union and P.R. China in the field of international trade. In particular, the programme aims to enhance business expertise by developing European and Chinese human resources by improving the skills of managers from SMEs and NGOs.

The call for application for Training for Chinese and European managers is open till 4 January 2009.

Download the MEPT flyer
For further information please visit the site:
http://www.metp.net.cn/english/index.asp?ColumnId=271

During the latest 11th Microenterprise Forum, the Inter-American Development Bank announced that the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF) is about to launch a financing facility to help microfinance institutions despite the current global financial crisis. The expected horizon of this initiative is that micro-credit will triple by 2012, amounting to about $21,000 million and involving some 20 million beneficiaries in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

Learn more about this financing facility at:
http://www.iadb.org/news/detail.cfm?language=English&id=4795 (English version).

http://www.finanzas.com/noticias/economia/2008-10-09/50283_plantea-triplicar-proximos-cuatro-anos.html (Spanish version).

The Entrepreneurship Survey and Database (WBGES) is a study jointly edited by the World Bank Group, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. This study aims to illustrate the dynamism of entrepreneurship around the world through data on business creation at the international level that can be compared across more than 100 industrial and developing countries.

To learn more please visit the World Bank website at:
http://econ.worldbank.org

The INNO Learning Platform, a branch of the PRO INNO Europe initiative, has recently published results of the eight mini-studies conducted to better understand the scope and financial implications of existing support mechanisms in favour of innovation policies in Europe, by promoting transnational cooperation activities and facilitating the exchange of experiences and trans-national policy learning activities.

Download the thematic mini-studies at:
http://www.proinno-europe.eu/index.cfm?fuseaction=nwev.NewsReader&news=2316&lang=EN&topicID=90&parentID=0

Read more on the Inno Learning Cycle 2008 and 2009 at :
http://www.proinno-europe.eu/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&topicID=157&parentID=57#

In the new Global Innovation 1000 report Beyond Borders, R&D expenses across the globe are evaluated as a key innovation indicator. In particular, the report focuses on Multinational companies which are spending a growing share of their R&D money outside their headquarters countries. In fact, the report shows that the U.S., in the last year, received more money from foreign companies to develop products than any other nation, establishing the U.S. as the global outsourcing destination for innovation.

Download the full report Beyond Borders - The Global Innovation 1000.

The new version of Your Europe - Business portal was officially presented on the occasion of the First Annual Conference of the Europe Enterprise Network (EEN) held in Strasbourg, France, on 24-26 November 2008.
Jointly provided by the European Commission and national EU Members authorities, Your Europe - Business offers to companies looking for business in another EU country with multilingual practical information and online government services, including information on access to finance, IPR and innovation.

Information are available in all EU official languages.

See more on:
http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/business/

Europa Media Newsletter is a free quarterly newsletter issued by Europa Media Trainings, which provides information on the latest happenings concerning European Commission funding opportunities, as the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7) and the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) and many events, trainings and seminars organised within the frame of EU funded projects.

Sign up for the EM newsletter at: http://www.eutrainingsite.com/newsletter.php

7 January 2009
2009: European Year of Creativity and Innovation
Organised by the European Commission
Prague, Czech Republic

14-16 January 2009
Introduction to Foreign Direct Investments
Organised by ANIMA Investment Network- Invest in Med
Marseille, France

22 January 2009
The Role of Business Incubation in the Wider Community Workshop
Organised by the UK Business Incubation
Birmingham, United Kingdom

22-24 January 2009
International Conference "Harnessing Entrepreneurial Potential of Women for Economic Growth"
Organized by Manipal Institute of Management jointly with Asian Centre for Entrepreneurial Initiatives (ASCENT)
Manipal, India

26-27 January 2009
Intellectual Property Italia 2009
Organised by Marcus Evan (for a fee)
Milan, Italy

26-30 January 2009
UNIDO PHAROS Training Workshop"Management of Change in industrial enterprise with UNIDO Pharos software suite"
Organised by UNIDO - United Nations Industrial Development Organization and GOLEM IMS GMBH
Vienna, Austria

27 January 2009
7th Annual European Financial Services Conference "Financial Markets and Economic Recovery
Organised by Forum Europe
Brussels, Belgium

30-31 January 2009
Seminar on SME Financing "SME Finance - Challenges and Opportunities"
Organised by G-Nexid and BFPME - the Bank of Financing SMEs
Tunis, Tunisia

30 January- 01 February 2009
The International Conference on Technology, Knowledge and Society, TECHNOLOGY IX
Organised by Common Ground
Huntsville, Alabama, USA

11 February 2009
Advanced Istitute of Management Research - AIM Conference "Social Science and Innovation Event"
Organised by Lead Innovation Fellow
London, United Kingdom

9-13 February 2009
1st ICT Enterprise Forum
Opportunities for technological integration in Latin America and the Caribbean
Havana, Cuba

14-15 February 2009
7th Global SME Partnership Summit & 3rd Global Importers-Exporters Meeting
Organised by India International Trade Center (IITC-INDIA) and Small and Business Development - Chamber of India
Mumbai, India

16-17 February 2009
Regions For Economic Change - Networking for Results
Organised by the European Commission's Regional Policy Directorate General
Brussels, Belgium

2-3 March 2009
Practical Seminar EU Funding for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
Organised by the European Academy for Taxes, Economics & Law
Berlin, Germany

2-3 March 2009
Creativity & Innovation - Best Practice from EU Programmes
Organised by the European Commission - Directorate-General for Education and Culture
Brussels, Belgium

9-11 March 2009
Annual Edition of the International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED 2009)
Organised by the International Association of Technology, Education and Development (IATED)
Valencia, Spain

16-18 March 2009
BIO-Europe Spring 2009
Organised by EBD Group
Milan, Italy

19-20 March 2009
2nd Annual Microfinance Forum "Implementing innovative tools and opening new horizons"
Organised by Uniglobal Research
Vienna, Austria

23-25 March 2009
3rd Annual Tech Policy Summit
Organised by SageScape LLC
San Francisco, United States

23-27 March 2009
Innovation in Small Countries How Small Places Change the World
Organised by Fulbright Academy for Science and Technology
Skopje & Ohrid , Macedonia

24-25 March 2009
WBT Showcase "World's Best Technologies"
Produced by Development Capital Networks, LLC
Arlington-DFW, United States

25-28 March 2009
The 10th Mediterranean Research Meeting
Organised by the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies
Florence, Italy

31 March- 3 April 2009
NANOTEC2009.it: competitiveness & innovation for the industrial growth
Jointly organised by AIRI/Nanotec IT, the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and Veneto Nanotech
Rome, Italy

5-9 April 2009
18th International Conference on Management of Technology "Management of Green Technology"
Organised by the International Association of Management of Technology (IAMOT)
Orlando, United States

19-22 April 2009
23rd NBIA International Conference on Business Incubation " Bulding on Best Practices"
Organised by the National Business Incubator Association - NBIA
Kansas City, United States

20-23 April 2009
V INSME Annual Meeting Building a Knowledge based eco-system for SMEs: Finance, Innovation, Technology and Networking
Organised by the INSME Association in partnership with the Dubai Institute of Technology (DIT) - Dubai Technopark and the Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF)
Dubai, UAE

20-24 April 2009
5th CINet PhD Seminar on Research in Continuous Innovation
Organised by the Continuous Innovation Network (CINet)
Z�rich, Switzerland

24-25 April 2009
ICEIRD 2009 - 2nd International Conference for Entrepreneurship, Innovation & Regional Development
Organised by City College - Affiliated Institution of the University of Sheffield and South East European Research Centre (SEERC)
Thessaloniki, Greece

27-28 April 2009
EBAN Annual General Assembly and 9th Annual Congress
Organised by EBAN - European Business Angels Network
Madrid, Spain

6-14 May 2009
First European SME Week - Launch event
Organised by the European Commission
Brussels, Belgium

7-8 May 2009
Research Connection 2009
Organised by the European Commission - Directorate General for Research
Prague, Czech Republic

8-9 May 2009
Tex Tech II
Organised by I.N.C.D.T.P. the Research - Development National Institute for Textile and Leather
Bucharest, Romania

10-12 May 2009
3rd Conference on Micro Evidence on Innovation in Developing Economies - MEIDE
Organised by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), in collaboration with UNU-MERIT
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

1-4 June 2009
XXVI IASP World Conference on Science and Technology Parks "Future Knowledge Ecosystems"
Organised by IASP - International Association of Science Parks
Raleigh, United States

24-26 June 2009
18th EBN Annual Congress 2009
Organised by the European BIC Network (EBN)
Fez, Morocco