Year 2013, No. II Winter 2013 SEETechnology is a part of South East Europe (SEE) Transnational Cooperation Programme. The project is about cooperation of SEE (South East Europe) science parks for the promotion of transnational market uptake of R&D results and technologies by SMEs. It's about creating the environment for innovative entrepreneurship. Inside this issue: Message from Prof. Dr. Dean Korošak, SEETechnology Project Coordinator Dear readers, It is my pleasure to welcome you to the second edition of the SEETechnology Newsletter. The support activities for creating the environment for innovative entrepreneurship have been gaining momentum in the last few months. The existing conditions (both stimulating and de-stimulating), that are crucial for the support to innovative SMEs, have been thoroughly examined and analysed in all project respective regions / countries, which allowed the project partners to begin in a stimulating inter-action to contemplate on the new effective mechanisms that could be put in place in a transnational context. Some concrete results are already visible; the first pilot project has been carefully designed in order to build a link between the university sphere and the real entrepreneurial world. The pilot is carrying the name DEMOLA and is since September 2013 being implemented at the University of Maribor, in close cooperation with the Budapest University. Deriving from the previous experiences elsewhere in Europe (starting in Finland), we have adopted the notion that young generation is an exciting fountain of innovative ideas and in our pilot they are involved into self-dependent solving of real-life cases from enterprises. First months show a lot of dedication, enthusiasm and fun! I would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers successful and joyful 2014! Dean Korošak SEETEchnology Coordinator Meetings, events 2 Promotional events 4 Upcoming events 4 Project Partners 5 Merry Christmas and a prosperous and happy New Year 2014! Picture by László Bacsa
SEETechnology Newsletter Page 2 SEETechnology meetings, events... 2nd Innovation Lab in Budapest (June 2013) well as the open innovation platform called Demola-Budapest and accommodated in the BME Innovation Lab. 2nd Innovation Lab was held on 18 June in Budapest, Hungary. Within the framework of Lifelong Learning programme series of the European Union, a delegation of 10 people from Turkey ( businessmen and university professors) visited the BME Technology and Knowledge Transfer Office (BME MTTI). Laszlo Bacsa, the director of BME MTTI summed up in his presentation the knowledge transfer activities within the university and programmes that are running on this issue like, as Insights from the Innovation lab Innovation Coffee shop (July 2013) New series of events Innovation Coffee shop UEFISCDI started a series of events called "Cafeneaua de Inovare" (Innovation Coffee Shop), where local private and public incubators, clusters and entrepreneurs have been invited. was presented during the "Innovation Coffee Shop" held on 11 July 2013 and raised a lot of expectation from entrepreneurs. Presentation of the at the Innovation Coffee Shop Innovation Coffee Shop website More information available at: http:// www.cafeneauadeinovare.ro Project Meeting in Graz (September/October 2013) WP4 (Capacity building and policy recommendation) Project meeting was held in Graz on 30 September and 1 October 2013. Subjects of the meeting covered presentation of SEETech project to local authorities, WP4 activities, and next steps in WP4 actions, project and financial management. Meeting in Graz Also, the progress of WP3 - Mapping of needs and capabilities and development, monitoring and evaluation of a joint service development strategy and elaboration of a joint business plan was presented.
Page 3 Visit to Tampere, Finland (30 September - 5 October 2013) At the beginning of October, we visited New Factory in Tampere, Finland. Demola story began in Tampere 5 years ago and the New Factory is the Demola center in Tampere. Additionally, during the visit we actively participated at the Academic MindTrek conference (1-3 October). During the visit we had a fruitful discussion with Demola co-founder Ville Kairamo and other Demola facilitators. We met several students, Demola projects' participants and participated in one of the first meetings Demola student team had with their facilitator. Demola team Tampere showed us their premises and we had the opportunity to observe some of the daily activities in Demola Tampere. Innovation lab in Zagreb (November 2013) On 26 November 2013 in Zagreb, an Innovation lab was held, including Demola presentation. Demola Project was launched in Finland in 2008 and quickly became so successful that it has turned into a network that connects four European countries. As part of Demola a network that includes 1500 students, 250 projects and 6 centers (Tampere, Vilnius, Oulu, Budapest, eastern and western Sweden) - university students are developing products and services together with companies and thus contributing to solving real problems. Visit to Tampere Within Academic Mindtrek conference, we presented a contribution Enhancing Identification of Opinion Spammer Groups as an important functionality of the ICT Tool, which would be able to automatically discover interesting content. Demola helps with establishing the needs and competencies and combines functional groups, and thus facilitates the process of creating. With its innovative approach, Demola connects talented students, companies and the academic community and creates conditions for better cooperation of businesses and universities. Demola connects talented students, companies and the academic community and creates conditions for better cooperation of businesses and universities. R&R panel (November 2013) R:R panel was held on Thursday 28 November 2013 in Maribor. The event was attended by researchers, businessmen, students and representatives of other organizations. The main purpose of the panel was to connect the needs of commercial partners and competences of the University of Maribor and thereby accelerate economic and social development of Slovenia. After the presentation of development policies and innovation ecosystem of the University, the programme was divided into four strands of development that allowed an intensive exchange of experience and suggestions by participants: Advanced Materials and Technologies, Modern ICT solutions for a better quality of life, Marketing and management skills for successful market performance and Methods of lean entrepreneurship and business models generating. The final part of the meeting included presentation of promising student projects within Demola - a concept, which encourages co-creation of students, companies and universities (Demola "no-slide -pitching"). Prof. Dr. Dean Korošak, SEETechnology Coordinator, speaks at the R:R panel
Page 4 Train the trainers / Partners meeting (November 2013) On Friday, the 29 November 2013, the team from the Maribor pilot DEMOLA prepared a whole-day train the trainers experience for project partners by involving them into the practical work of students in solving of reallife cases. Partners had a chance to learn about the Demola model and its mechanisms. They were pulled into elaboration of the first idea prototype, in communicating of the prototype with the public on the street and by pitching the prototypes to the wider audience. It was an exciting and fruitful Demola day! The project partners used the event also to analyse and discuss the project work and to set pathway for action in the future months. Promotional events Besides project events, as a promotion activity, the has also been presented at the following events: Within the final event of project FIDES, held on 28 February 2013, the was shortly presented. improve services of an exisiting supporting environment in the field of intellectual property, and to promote commercialisation activities. Workshop The value of intellectual property as an additional leverage in the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises, 11 June 2013, Zagreb, Croatia. 4 TU MEETING, 16 17 July 2013, Prague, Czech Republic. Creation and operation of innovative start-ups elective course, 24 September 2013, Budapest, Hungary. Project FIDES (FROM IP TO BUSINESS: Developing enviroment for start up companies) was a bilateral project between Slovenia and Croatia within the Operational Programme SL-HR 2007-2013. Main goals of the project FIDES were: to use potential that is provided by inovative individuals within regions, to promote entrepreneurship, to 26th Bled econference, 12 June 2013, Bled, Slovenia. Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Innovation Conference and Training, 21 June 2013, Budapest, Hungary. Insights from the events Upcoming events... Events to be held in January 2014: Transnational workshop on organisational concept (WP4), Iasi, Romania; Opening SEETechnology Conference, organised by the recently joined ENPI partner from Chisinau - ASEM - Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova.
Project partners: University of Maribor (Slovenia) dean.korosak@um.si Budapest University of Technology and Economics (Hungary) bacsa@ik.bme.hu Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna (Italy) alessandra.baccigotti@unibo.it University of Graz (Austria) volker.ribitsch@uni-graz.at»petru Poni«Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry (Romania) coseris@icmpp.ro University of Zagreb (Croatia) zstiper@geog.pmf.hr Comenius University in Bratislava (Slovakia) turna@rec.uniba.sk Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (Romania) marius.mitroi@uefiscdi.ro Business Innovation Agency of Croatia - BICRO (Croatia) ivana.buce@bicro.hr JAPTI - Public Agency for Entrepreneurship and Foreign Investment (Slovenia) ASTER Joint Stock Consortium (Italy) Styrian Government - Department 3, Science and Research (Austria) Industrial Property Office of the Slovak Republic (Slovakia) Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (Slovakia) Hungarian Investment and Trade Agency (Hungary) Styrian Business Development Agency (Austria) More information about the project: Website: http://www.seetechnology.eu/ SEETechnology Follow @seetechnology Disclaimer: This newsletter is a product of and its objective is to disseminate information about the project. Editorial Board: Dean Korošak, Jasmina Klojčnik, Andreja Čurin, Andrej Duh, Marko Samec, University of Maribor; Jasna Poženel, IPMIT d.o.o. Contact e-mail: seetech@ipmit.si