EUROPE AND SME

OSEO ANVAR: 27th JULY 2006
This meeting aimed to present the European activities of the Foundation Sophia Antipolis and those of “OSEO Anvar” in order to create partnership synergy around current projects.

INNET PROJECT, COORDINATED BY OSEO INNOVATION
The Foundation Sophia Antipolis moderated a round table conference on the topic of clusters and initiatives supporting SMEs within clusters during the meeting of the launch of the INNET project. The project aims to reinforce collaboration between public and private financiers of the European innovation policy. The project targets SMEs of traditional sectors and their relations with clusters, for joint funding of innovation projects enabling SMEs to acquire the technology of clusters. 19 partners of 8 countries (France, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium, Italy, Greece, Spain, Poland), representing 8 innovation agencies and 11 regions are associated with this project.
21st-22nd of September 2006, in Paris.

28th SEPTEMBER 2006
Under the auspices of the Foundation Sophia Antipolis, 7 EU funding projects, representing around 100 European decision-makers, were gathered together to hold their business meetings. They also participated in a conference entitled “Towards a better integration of SMEs in European policies” chaired by Senator Laffitte with a view of creating a “Sophia Antipolis Memorandum” in order to improve the development of SMEs.
The Foundation Sophia Antipolis organised this event in order to provide an occasion to reflect together upon the current state of affairs of the measures aiming to support the development of SMEs in order to contribute to the reflexion lead by the European instance on this topic. It is possible to be inspired by the SBA (Small Business Act) without having adopted the complete North American system. It has become indispensable to understand how to make the development of our SMEs and the appearance of new large companies possible.

This meeting provided an opportunity to share project results, to consolidate respective networks, to exchange thoughts on the new European regulations (FP7, Structural funds, etc.) and to present the activities of the Foundation Sophia Antipolis on this matter.