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COST Action Participation – Through the eyes of an SME. Dr Antonis TOUMAZIS. Dinner Debate , European Parliament , 29 January 2013. Who I am The firm / SME COST experience Innovation through EU Projects SME role Constraints Suggestions. Presentation Overview. Civil Engineer - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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COST Action Participation – Through the eyes of an SME
Dr Antonis TOUMAZISDinner Debate, European Parliament, 29 January 2013
Presentation Overview Who I am The firm / SME COST experience Innovation through EU Projects SME role Constraints Suggestions
Antonis TOUMAZIS Civil Engineer PhD Hydraulics Partner in an Architects’ and
Consulting Engineers’ firm Visiting Lecturer UCY, CUT Vice-President Nicosia - Kyrenia
Branch of CACE
Dion Toumazis & Associates
4 Partners 3 Professional Staff 2 Technical/ Administrative
staff
Fields: Structures Water Transport Energy
Architects and Consulting Engineers
COST Action C22 ‘Urban Flood Management’ 2006-2009
COST Action ES0901 ‘European procedures for flood frequency estimation’ (FloodFreq) 2010-2013
COST Actions
FloodFreq
Reliable estimates of expected extreme flood events
COST: benefits for SMEs
1. Networking:
COST C22 FP7 SMARTeST Project
2. Exchange (STSM):
Firm staff member trained for 2 weeks in another organisation Knowledge applied in actual projects
3. Training School in Cyprus
Benefits for COST from SMEs
1. Transfer of real-life challenge to the research world
2. Adaptation and implementation of research findings to actual challenge
3. Direct contact with industry, small business, home owners
Importance of Research
Applied Research Important to SMEs
Dissemination: Universities Research organisations Practising firms Industry / users
Innovation potential
Flooding is a natural risk
Floods become: More frequent More intense
Living with Floods
Recent Concept - Potential for new products, more jobs, less damage
Innovation potential
Barrier development
Barrier development
CONFERENCES Vs. COST
Conferences: OK…
…While COST: Enhances networking Cooperation Exchange of staff Advancement of Science and
Technology
COST Vs. FP7 Project
Applying/ Joining Networking Learning/ Sharing Knowledge Inspiration/ Perspiration European Integration Administration/ Financial Issues
Challenges – How to overcome them?
1. Main participation: universities and Large Research Organisations
2. Advise COST to increase promotion to SMEs - focus on mutual benefits
Suggestions
More COST Actions on applied research Increase SME participation and lead
Balanced Mix of Proposal Evaluators More Evaluators from SMEs?
What about…
Conclusions
SMEs can offer much, much more: European Innovation Competitiveness Economic Growth
Some variations in rules can help us achieve this…
COST Actions are a huge success.
Dr Antonis TOUMAZIS
Civil Engineer
Partner
Dion. Toumazis & Associates
Cyprus
COST Action ES0901
www.cost-floodfreq.eu
adtoumazis@cytanet.com.cy
Thank you!
www.cost.eu
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