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Innovation Union, turning ideas into jobs,
green growth and social progress

With an ageing population and strong competitive pressures from globalisation, Europe' s future economic growth and jobs will increasingly have to come from innovation in products, services and business models. This is why innovation has been placed at the heart of the Europe 2020 strategy for growth and jobs. With over thirty action points, the Innovation Union aims to improve conditions and access to finance for research and innovation in Europe, to ensure that innovative ideas can be turned into products and services that create growth and jobs.

News ... from across the Union

Tuesday, 22 May 2012

May 2012 issue of the JRC newsletter (via JRC)

The latest edition of the JRC Newsletter has been published and can be downloaded here. This issue features an editorial by Julia Slingo, Met Office Chief Scientist, UK. The cover story focuses on matching water supply and demand in Europe and Africa. Among the news are stories on a model predicting inundation height after a cyclon, the state of biodiversity in Congo basin forests and an analysis of strategic energy technologies worldwide. Further reading provides details on mapping the potential of pumped hydropower storage and assessing the impact of the Japanese disaster on the global car industry.

Source: European Commission - Joint Research Centre

Calendar

4-5 June 2012

Week of Innovative Regions in Europe 2012 (WIRE2012), Krakow, Poland

The conference will focus on smart regional development based on knowledge and innovation. WIRE2012 will address main current issues related to the effective implementation of the Innovation Union at regional level for the next period 2014-2020, through three main thematic pillars:

Innovative regions in the Horizon 2020 will investigate the role of regions in smart specialisation, the role of cities as innovation hubs, and regional innovation ecosystems within Horizon 2020;
Stairway to Excellence will focus on the future of research and innovation at the regional level, on synergies between Horizon 2020 and the Cohesion Policy, and on smart specialisation in convergence regions and Centres of Excellence;
Networking for ERA at Regional Level will discuss the European Territorial Cooperation, networks of clusters, European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation, networks of research infrastructure and Multiregional Knowledge Partnerships (e.g. Danube, Baltic)

Participation in the Conference is free of charge, but pre-registration is required.

19 June 2012

Innovation @ DIT - Where Science Meets Industry, Dublin, Ireland

The event will be focusing on:
• New Materials and Technologies (including nanotechnology, photonics, inorganic pharma and nanomaterials)
• Information and Media Technologies (including antennas, digital media and electrical power)
• Environment & Health (including food, pharma, sustainability and radiation science)

and highlighting all the quality work being undertaken in these fields to an invited audience of industry, funding bodies, media, professional associations and other organisations.
There will also be presentations on funding opportunities and technology offers running in parallel to the exhibition.