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Post from the editorial team
I4MS to boost competitiveness of SMEs in manufacturing sector
Last week you could read in the press that the Commission is contributing € 77 million from its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to an innovation initiative for the manufacturing sector aiming at strengthening the competitiveness of European high-tech small and medium size enterprises (Commission Press Release).
The I4MS initiative - ICT for Manufacturing SMEs – starts on 1 July. Through it, we want to connect innovators across value chains in manufacturing and engineering to better profit from newest advances in ICT. For users, that means reducing their risk in being an early adopter of innovative ICT. For suppliers, that means helping the to advance innovative prototypes towards a successful product.
Lighting the Cities – The next step
What do the cities of Albertslund (Denmark), Birmingham (UK), Eindhoven (The Netherlands), Hódmezővásárhely (Hungary), Lyon (France), Mechelen (Belgium) and Tilburg (The Netherlands) have in common? They have all embraced LED lighting technology for public spaces and buildings and are now enjoying the benefits of advanced technology over solutions of the past. By switching to LED lighting, European municipalities can reduce their CO2 footprints and electricity bills, while improving the quality of public lighting for their citizens. For these reasons, many European cities are now envisaging to make the transition to innovative LED lighting solutions.
Translating research and innovation into jobs and growth
Posted by the organizing team in DG CONNECT for the Digital Agenda Assembly Workshop "Translating research and innovation into jobs and growth"
Welcome to the Digital Agenda Assembly blog post of workshop 3 addressing the crucial issue of translating research and innovation into growth and jobs.
"Boosting competitiveness needs to be at the heart of everything we do. Including, especially our innovation agenda. For every part of the ICT ecosystem, let’s map out how to achieve global competitive success, and then let’s tailor our research to fit that” - Speech of Vice-President and Commissioner Neelie Kroes
Digital Single Market: European opportunity for growth
Annalisa Deluca, animator of the online discussion for DAA
What does it mean? It means removing barriers to transactions which take place online. These barriers may be legal – when the legal framework is not "friendly" for innovative services to grow, economic – when there is a need to redefine business models, or other.
How to support tech and web entrepreneurs to scale up their business?
As the European Union (EU) is facing the most severe economic crisis in 50 years, with the unemployed breaking the 25 million threshold, supporting new, fast-growing and innovative enterprises and unleashing the potential of ICT and web entrepreneurs are key policy priorities.
Tech and web entrepreneurs have an enormous impact on society and play a crucial role in creating sustainable and high added value jobs as well as in shaping the future path of EU economic growth. However, they also have specific characteristics and, thus, particular needs which call for tailored support measures, and much remains to be done to create favourable conditions and improve the entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Secure cyberspace – is it a safe place?
It is hard to imagine a human activity that is not somehow reflected online or at assisted with technology. With our lives being mirrored in social networks, transactions we do online, results of our creativity being stored in the cloud, we all agree that there must be reliable systems put in place that make all these secure. For today’s technology systems, security is ‘the new black’.
Cloud and broadband: the perfect Union!
Welcome to the Digital Agenda Assembly Blog post on Workshop 4 (Broadband demand stimulation: the impact of cloud) that will take place on the 19th of June in Dublin.
Cloud services are already widespread and they will skyrocket in the future. We all use cloud services for our work and for our entertainment and we increasingly rely on them even if sometimes we are not even aware that we are using them!
Do digital public services and smart cities serve people’s needs?
Posted by the organising team in DG CONNECT for the Digital Agenda Assembly Workshop “Going smart and accessible in public services and cities“
Public services should be shaped around people’s needs, be easily accessible and delivered effectively and efficiently. Citizens should be at the heart of any smart city solution. When every Euro matters, governments need to think digital, and think European. What do we mean by that and how can it be done?
VOTE: Who should be invited at the Digital Agenda Assembly?
This year we continue our tradition of opening up the Digital Agenda Assembly through the online engagement platform. Debates are ongoing on all issues addressed by the workshops.
Just as last year, you will see from today the "interesting" button. You can vote on the contributions, not based on a general "approval or like" as in social networks, but on the fact that there is interesting content.
In fact, the goal of online engagement is precisely to gather more and better ideas; and to involve new and relevant people.
By clicking on the "interesting" button, you indicate who's bringing the best ideas to the conversations, and whose voices should be heard.
A neurotech startup born out of an EU-funded project
This is the fascinating story of ATLAS Neuroengineering: a brilliant idea that set off 7 years ago and, last year, became a spin‐off of imec, Leuven and IMTEK (a department of the University of Freiburg).