MFG European Reporter -

Even though there are not too many new call for proposals published recently, the September issue of our Project Development Newsletter is worth a look. A lot of exciting events are coming up the next months – like the international conference “Creativity, the Energy of Success” in Košice, Slovakia or Europe’s forum for ICT research and innovation “ICT 2010: Digitally Driven” in Brussels, Belgium.

Download our Project Development Newsletter here and enjoy the read!

The KIS Mobile Convention on 18 May 2010 (13:00-18:00) deals with this question. Focussing on Knowledge Intensive Services and Applications for Mobile Devices regional stakeholder will be brought together in Stuttgart.

The event is organised by Ministry of Economics of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg and MFG Baden-Württemberg – Innovation Agency for ICT and Media. Partners are FZI – Forschungszentrum Informatik and Forum SatNav MIT BW e.V.

Become member of the Linkedin-group “KIS Mobile Convention Stuttgart” and meet participants and presenting companies already before the event.

More information and registration…

Applications for the European Seal of e-Excellence 2010 are now open to award ICT and digital media companies worldwide. The European Seal of e-Excellence is known for promoting ICT digital companies with an excellent track record in the marketing of innovation, i.e.:
- innovative products and services
- excellent marketing practices to promote them.

How to apply
The period to apply for the European Seal of e-Excellence is officially open till 31st of December 2009. Interested companies may now apply online through the Seal of e-Excellence website.

A jury composed of representatives of the Partner Associations selects the winners on the basis of an open application process. The Seal Award Ceremony will take place at CeBIT, the European trade show for the ICT industry on 2nd of March 2010.

What to win
By focusing on the marketing aspects of digital products and services, the European Seal of e-Excellence helps winners promote themselves in the global market place. Winners are entitled to:
- publicly display the “Seal of e-Excellence” logo in their own marketing programmes
- free membership in the European Multimedia Forum
- receive preferential rates for all e-Accelerator services
- other advantages in kind from various Seal Partners and Sponsors.

The European Seal of e-Excelence has been awarded annually since 2003. It is organised by the partners of the European Multimedia Forum (EMF) and Digital Tender and supported by a network of digital media associations from Europe.

On the 9th September the Steibeins Europa Zentrum in collaboration with the MFG Baden Württemberg has run a workshop on the European Seventh Framework Programme (FP/7), with the aim of giving the applicants some useful tipps to present a successful project, being aware of possible tricks. More than 40 german future applicants had the chance to improve their knowledge on the programme and make questions to clear their doubts. Here a brief overview of what has been said.

FP/7 is the short name for the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, the EU’s main instrument for funding research in Europe. The broad objectives of FP7 have been grouped into four categories: Cooperation, Ideas, People and Capacities. For each type of objective, there is a specific programme corresponding to the main areas of EU research policy. All specific programmes work together to promote and encourage the creation of European poles of (scientific) excellence. The programme will run from 2007 till 2013 with a budget of 54.521 billion euro.

The complexity of the programme required a careful understanding of the requirements set up in the call. Take your time to read and understand all the documents and, in case you still have any doubts, there are a lot of european contact points who can help you to work on your proposal.

Heike Fischer from Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum

First of all, who can participate to FP7?

Any company, university, research centre, organisation or individual from the EU-27 Member States may participate in a collaborative project. But also associated, candidate and third countries may take part to a project.

No one can present a project on his on: a fundamental prerequisite to take part to FP7 is to set up a consortium of at least 3 partner.  In choosing partners it’s crucial to look for reliable organisations, which will for sure carry out the work assigned to them. For a successful project management a clear division of tasks among partners is vital. Look for partners with differente expertise, which can bring complementary knowledge and support in the project, adoiving – in the meantime – any form of internal competition. And remember that the transnational dimension of the project is a key factor for its success.

If you have never draw a proposal before, finding the right european partners could not be that easy. Fortunately, there are a lot of database that can help you in your search: in these database organisations looking for partnership can upload their profile by entering their project idea or specific expertise and, of course, can look for other partners reading all the profile divided by projects and countries.

Here are some useful links:

Cordis database

Enterprise Europe Network

Is your idea right for the FP7 and how can you develop it?

This is also an important questions that should be answered before drawing a proposal. Ideas should fit to the detailed request from the EU and should therefore proposed in the framework of the right programm. But good ideas are not enough. A good project should show a high profile project management that takes into consideration a solid risk management and a wide dissemination strategy. If you are not sure that your project has all these requisites you can ask for advise to the one of the many contact point and institutions that all over Europe help applicants to write proposals, check financial matters and evaluate the work done from a outsider’s point of view.

In Germany you can in any time contact the National Contact Point for any problems regarding European project. If you are in Baden-Württemberg you can directly ask the Steinbeins Europa Zentrum, your regional contact point.

Here you can find all the slide and the information provided during the workshop:

Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum

Grundprinzipien der Europäische Forschungsförderung

Der Weg zum Antragstellung und Aufbau eines Konsortiums

Aktuelle IKT Aufrufen in 7. Forschungsrahmenprogramm

Finanzielle Aspekte in einem FP7 Projekt