15. April 2009 by Aidan.

The first European SME Week, taking place from 6 to 14 May 2009, is a campaign to promote entrepreneurship across Europe and to inform entrepreneurs about support available for them at European, national and local level. It allows SMEs to discover an array of information, advice, support and ideas to help them develop their activities.

Check here for what it’s all about and what events are planned near you.

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15. April 2009 by Aidan.

The European Commission has launched a public consultation process to get insights on how to best improve the effectiveness of public innovation support mechanisms in the EU.

“The public consultation consists of two online questionnaires : The one asks the beneficiaries of innovation support measures, namely companies , to provide their views on the direction of future innovation support policies and instruments in the EU, while the other invites institutional stakeholders active in the design, funding, implementation, and evaluation of innovation support measures at regional, national and European level to give their opinion on the key issues of better innovation support in Europe. ”

The E.C. hopes to identify which types of support would have most impact on companies’ capacities to innovate. The Commission also seeks to advise member states on how to better focus their innovation support measures.  

The results of the consultation will be summarised in a Commission Staff Working Document scheduled for publication in June 2009.

More details are available on the Commission website.

Submissions must be in by midday on 4th May 2009.

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