24.04.2012 Seite 1 von 6

SEE IFA Network

Final Event (incl. Partner Pre-Meet)

15/16 March 2012 | Vienna Partner Pre-Meet

Participants

• LP/WP1-leader, WP5-leader, WP7-leader – aws (AT): Elfriede Kober, Ingrid Mitteregger, Christina Windisch, Roswitha Mosburger (expert of aws)

• ERDF PP1 – EPF (BG): Vihra Andonova, Rayna Karcheva • ERDF PP2/WP4-leader – Finlombarda (IT): Chiara Denti (Francesco Cannatelli excused) • ERDF PP3 – GEORAMA (GR): Georgiou Loukas, Mary Mihopoulou • ERDF PP5/WP6-leader – Regione Veneto (IT): Michele Pelloso (Giulio Cavinato

excused) • ERDF PP6/WP2-leader, WP3-leader – UEFISCDI (RO): Marius Mitroi, Viorel Vulturescu • 10% PP2 – RDA Banat (RS): Radomir Topalov, Irena Zivkovic • IPA PP1 – UKIM FME (MK): Bojan Jovanovski, Ljupka Mitrinovska, Trajce Velkovski

• ERDF PP4 – TETALAP (HU) excused

• ERDF PP7 – SID Bank (SI) excused

• 10% PP1 – AZRA (HR): Patrick Galeski excused 1. Greetings - LP (aws):

Christina Windisch welcomed all PPs present at the meeting. She explained that the purpose of the partner pre-meet was to present and discuss the latest developments regarding WP1 and WP2 amongst PPs and any outstanding matters/work still to be done in this regard (“internal project issues”), before the presentation of the other work packages to external parties/the public the next day.

2. WP1 – aws/Christina Windisch (refer ppt-presentation) Christina presented the status quo regarding reporting. In particular, she pointed out the end of the final reporting period P6 on 30 April 2012 (8 months), which means that all PPs need to submit their respective DoVs/Activity Reports by latest 1 July 2012, so that the Progress Report for P6 incl. AfR can be submitted punctually to JTS by 1 August 2012.

Regarding eligibility of costs, she noted that generally expenses have to be incurred and paid before project end date (30/04/12), with exception of costs incurred in the final reporting period which can be paid within 60 days from project end date at the latest (i.e. by 29/06/12). This means that project-related salaries incurred in April but only paid in May can be considered eligible. Furthermore, external auditing costs are the only costs that are eligible also if they are incurred and paid after project end date but within 60 days, i.e. 29/06/12.

Christina then went on to inform the PPs that aws/LP had assigned ÖAR (a Vienna-based consulting company) to carry out the required final evaluation in March and April 2012. She emphasised that the perspective and experience of all PPs is of crucial importance, and that ÖAR will soon get directly in touch with PPs and stakeholders (PPs were asked to please provide contact details ASAP). The final evaluation report will be sent to all PPs around mid-April.

Then budget shifts were discussed – first the general principles, then specifically the budget shifts in P6. Christina informed the partners that in P6 EPF, UEFISCDI and aws had all (after a thorough

24.04.2012 Seite 2 von 6

reallocation limit and reasonableness check by aws) submitted a proposal for a budget shift to JTS (Finlombarda submitted a request for budget shift to aws in March). Cumulatively seen, all budget shifts to date (P1-P6) are well below the 20% reallocation limit.

With regard to the project end phase, Christina pointed out that (after all WPs were now completed – in DRAFT version – in view of/for the final event), the work remaining/still to be done included the project handbook (act. 1.2) and the guidelines and recommendations manual (act. 2.5). aws/LP will provide a concept by 28 March 2012, and contributions/feedback by PPs are to be made by 11 April 2012. In general, with regard to ALL final output (reports, supporting documents, etc.), the final deadline is Monday, 16 April 2012.

Finally, in view of the approaching project end, the PPs were then asked to give a few reflections/feedback on the SEE-IFA-Network as a whole, including wishes/ideas for the future.

Viorel Vulturescu commented that he learnt a lot, both from a personal as well as an organisational point of view, e.g. about project-related organisational issues, approaches & methodologies, “multiculturalism”… He mentioned that based on the experiences made and insights gained, it might be possible to set up a task force in Romania with regard to innovation, and in particular an IP-fund.

Rayna Karcheva noted that in view of the project’s duration (three years) there had been quite a few organisational changes (incl. staff changes). In her opinion, the WP-leadership was good, and the network produced strong results.

Mary Mihopoulou confirmed this. She then raised the question of follow-up projects.

Elfriede Kober suggested that – in order to ensure and optimise the sustainability of the existing strong cooperation – all PPs collect ideas and suggestions until the end of the year; these could then be exchanged and discussed (and possibly developed further) at a meeting or in an online forum.

The PPs agreed to this.

Roswitha Mosburger rounded off the discussion by reinforcing the idea that the strong cooperation which had developed within the project was definitely worth pursuing and that there were still a few open efforts (such as Greece’s effort with regard to WP6) which should be followed up.

3. WP2 – UEFISCDI/Marius Mitroi (refer ppt-presentation)

Marius Mitroi presented the communication and dissemination outputs to date. He informed the PPs that the draft version of the 6th electronic newsletter (which included details on all meetings from June/July 2011 to March 2012) was virtually ready – apart from a few PP contributions that were lacking, as well as final approval by LP – and that the final version would be disseminated by end March/beginning of April 2012.

Marius went on to state that with regard to press releases and information on local support group meetings, information from PPs was still needed – he asked all PPs to please send all relevant materials to UEFISCDI as soon as possible.

Regarding the guidelines and recommendations report, Marius noted that this is currently work-in-progress (by aws); as soon as the concept has been established, aws will send this out to the PPs for feedback. The goal is to have a final paper version by April 2012.

With regard to the project website, he mentioned that this is active (and has been paid for) until November 2012. He picked up on the previous discussion thread (sustainability of strong cooperation) and mentioned that he could investigate the possibility of keeping the project website active for a longer period of time, to enable online discussions between PPs in a forum. He recalled that the costs of keeping the website active are not very high (about EUR 100 p.a.) and could be paid from the project budget.

The PPs confirmed their approval of keeping the website active for a longer period of time.

Marius finished off by noting that UEFISCDI will continue the maintenance and updating of the project website as before.

24.04.2012 Seite 3 von 6

Final event

Participants

• LP/WP1-leader, WP5-leader, WP7-leader – aws (AT): Elfriede Kober, Ingrid Mitteregger, Georg Gasteiger, Christina Windisch, Roswitha Mosburger (expert of aws), Alexander Blauensteiner (Snowflake GmbH)

• ERDF PP1 – EPF (BG): Vihra Andonova, Rayna Karcheva • ERDF PP2/WP4-leader – Finlombarda (IT): Francesco Cannatelli, Chiara Denti • ERDF PP3 – GEORAMA (GR): Georgiou Loukas, Mary Mihopoulou • ERDF PP5/WP6-leader – Regione Veneto (IT): Michele Pelloso (Giulio Cavinato

excused) • ERDF PP6/WP2-leader, WP3-leader – UEFISCDI (RO): Emilia Dumitras, Marius Mitroi,

Viorel Vulturescu • 10% PP1 – AZRA (HR): Nicola Kucis, Tomislav Sipek (GARA) (Patrick Galeski excused) • 10% PP2 – RDA Banat (RS): Radomir Topalov, Irena Zivkovic • IPA PP1 – UKIM FME (MK): Bojan Jovanovski, Ljupka Mitrinovska, Trajce Velkovski • aws: Johann Moser, Bernhard Sagmeister, Wolfram Anderle, Matthias Bischof, Norbert

Knoll, Gerald Ruppert, Andrea Waclik, Karin Winkelbauer • External stakeholders: Andrea Rainer Cerovska/ÖROK (AT), Anna Maria Schober/ÖROK

(AT), Maria Ratzinger/Wirtschaftskammer Österreich (AT), Kostadin Kostadinov/EPF stakeholder (BG), Nada Burmazovic/AP of Vojvodina (RS), Mirjana Mundzic-Krncevic/AP of Vojvodina (RS), Igor Nikoloski/MOES (FYROM), Simeon Petrov/APERM (FYROM)

• ERDF PP4 – TETALAP (HU) excused

• ERDF PP7 – SID Bank (SI) excused

• External stakeholders: Simone Hagenauer/ecoplus (AT) excused

1. Welcome – Johann Moser, CEO of aws (LP):

Johann Moser welcomed all SEE-IFA-Network project partners and stakeholders present at the meeting. He noted the importance of South-East Europe to the Austrian economy, and pointed out the common goals and objectives between EU-member states, candidate and accession countries. Moreover, he pointed out the fact that the SEE-IFA project is in line with Europe 2020, the EU's growth strategy for the coming decade (“smart growth”), and emphasised aws’ interest to be in cross-border networks for communication and cooperation purposes, to be able to realise opportunities. He concluded by stating that the SEE-IFA project has managed to establish innovation support structures for SME’s in the SEE-region, a framework for the future.

2. Results of WP3 (country reports) – UEFISCDI/Viorel Vulturescu (refer ppt-presentation)

Viorel Vulturescu described how both the methodology and the country study templates for the needs and gaps analysis of WP3 were arrived at, so that data and information could then be collected and 14 country studies finished by early 2010. These were then compiled together to arrive at a synthesis of country studies, meanwhile available on the SEE-IFA website.

3. Results of WP7 (training and capacity building) – aws/Roswitha Mosburger (expert of aws) (refer ppt-presentation)

Roswitha Mosburger gave a presentation on the tasks which had been completed regarding training activities. Based on the WP3 country reports and questionnaires sent to PPs, the training need assessment and activity plan was compiled, to cater for the need of the operating WPs to exchange know-how as well as to achieve sustainability regarding the SEE-IFA project results.

24.04.2012 Seite 4 von 6

This was followed up by 2 intensive training courses, 3 train-the-trainer sessions and 2 study visits. Finally, 3 internships were carried out. Altogether about 110 participants attended the training activities.

4. Results of WP4 (instruments) – Finlombarda/Francesco Cannatelli (refer ppt-presentation and project partners’ presentations)

Francesco Canatelli presented WP4 – the instruments. He began by talking of the aim of WP4, as well as WP4 within the SEE-IFA conceptual framework and went on to describe the working plan followed to develop instruments, which broadly consisted of a study phase (instrument identification – needs assessment – instrument proposal – study) and an implementation phase. In detail he then presented the individual steps of the various phases.

Francesco finished off by giving a brief overview of the different stages of development / implementation of the 5 partners AZRA, RDA BANAT, UEFISCDI, EPF and UKIM. The PPs, together with Francesco, then went on to present the respective situations in the relevant countries in detail:

� AZRA / GARA (Croatia): Nikola Kucis presented the output of AZRA /GARA regarding instruments:

A cooperation agreement was signed with other Croatian regional development agencies providing guarantees, to advocate for increased financial support from the Croatian national government for regional guarantee programs for innovation and SME support. Moreover a subsidized loan program of the Croatian Delvelopment Bank HBOR for the consortium is under negotiation. The new instruments will focus on investment and working capital for innovation development for SME and also on micro loans and shall increase the efficiency of the local guarantee programs (adoption of basic standards).

The articles of association of GARA were adjusted, to specifically prioritise on technology development and to provide guarantees for patenting costs.

Varazdin County managed to secured finance for vouchers for SMEs and innovators in the pilot phase in 2012 and hopes for new fundings in the future.

Negotiations with other stakeholders, like BICRO, for further support are on-going.

� RDA Banat (Serbia): Radomir Topalov presented the output of RDA Banat regarding instruments:

Within the framework of the innovation platform developed in WP6 (which was developed to sustain innovation in Vojvodina and which has been signed by 12 institutions), negotiations between RDA Banat, Vojvodina Government, Vojvodina Development Bank, Vojvodina Guarantee Fund and others regarding the implementation of an instrument are on-going.

� UEFISCDI (Romania): Viorel presented the output of UEFISCDI regarding instruments:

Having obtained further information from universities, companies and public organizations regarding factors such as geographical details and the identification of domains, sectors (biotech, automotive …), etc., a (revised) proposal to implement an instrument for clusters is being prepared. It is supposed to focus on smaller scale investments with a grant system and will be presented to the UEFISCDI internal council for approval. Once the approval of the council has been submitted, a LOI for implementation is planned to be signed.

� EPF (Bulgaria): Vihra Andonova presented the output of EPF regarding instruments:

Recommendations regarding financial instruments identified within the SEE-IFA project, to be incorporated in the national innovation fund (which is foreseen in the innovation law currently in preparation and already being circulated among ministries and stakeholders) were drafted on the basis of the Seed Fund and will be sent to the national government.

� UKIM-FME (FYROM): Bojan Jovanovski presented the output of UKIM-FME regarding instruments:

24.04.2012 Seite 5 von 6

UKIM-FME had hired an expert who analysed the reasons for failure of the former guarantee fund. The report thereon compared past conditions, guidelines, operations and procedures of the fund. Based on this report recommendations for the establishment of a new guarantee fund (incl. preconditions) were elaborated by Finlombarda and aws after discussions with banks and the national Development Bank in the course of the road show in Skopje in March 2012 and will be sent to the national government, to examine the possibilities for and next steps towards a new guarantee fund in FYROM.

5. Results of WP5 (cross-border patent fund) – aws/Georg Gasteiger and Alexander Blauensteiner (Snowflake GmbH) (refer ppt-presentation)

Georg Gasteiger together with Alex Blauensteiner presented the activities which had been carried out regarding a potential cross-border patent/IP-fund in the SEE region. Initially interviews in 9 SEE countries and a desktop research were carried out, to analyse the existing demand regarding an IP-fund. Based on the findings, a structure for a potential IP-fund was proposed. This was followed by the assessment of possible funding opportunities for such an IP-fund.

The question of the availability of interesting inveystment opportunities in the region lead to the collection of 23 pilot technologies, which were provided from 6 SEE countries; 15 of these were subsequently assessed by an Austrian external expert for technology assessments, with a feedback round table incl. partners and experts being held at the end. The result was that 8 of the 15 pilot technologies received a positive assessment, i.e. were considered worthwhile for a potential IP-fund to invest in, which can be considered as a rather high success rate in this field.

Based on their findings and in view of the latest market developments, Georg and Alex finished off by providing recommendations on further steps to be taken to arrive at an IP-fund for the SEE region.. The recommendations focus on the establishment of a working group, ideally lead by EIF, and in undertaking further activities to develop a more detailed financial and operational structure for the IP-fund model, which should serve as a basis for the fund raising process.

6. Results of WP6 (setting up of new IFAs) – Veneto Regione/Michele Pelloso (refer ppt-

presentation and project partners’ presentations)

Michele Pelloso presented WP6 – innovation and finance agencies. He presented the process followed within WP6, starting with the analysis and then assessment of countries’ needs (based on the country studies from WP3, questionnaires distributed to partners as well as workshops organized). This was followed by the focus on legal barriers as well as the identification of core missions, to arrive at a legal and organizational framework incl. service portfolio. It included existing IFAs being presented as cases studies, and models and trends in Europe being analysed; moreover, scenario exercises with the relevant partners were carried out, to stimulate debates.

The result was different approaches for different partners (according to the contexts): different paths were followed to identify the steps needed to implement an IFA as well as a service portfolio. Michelle finished by giving an overview of the overall achievements of WP6, before presenting, together with the PPs, the respective situations in the relevant countries in detail:

� UKIM-FME (FYROM): Ljupka Mitrinovska presented the output of UKIM-FME regarding IFAs:

NCDIEL, “National Centre for Development of Innovation and Entrepreneurial Learning”, is a NGO established in November 2009 with the support of the Austrian Development Agency and developed under recommendations of the SEE-IFA project. Its mission is to promote, support and develop innovation and entrepreneurial learning in the main for entrepreneurs and micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).

Under the SEE-IFA project a business plan was developed together with aws (from October 2011 to March 2012), with the aim of organizing NCDIEL’s activities to allow for structured support for innovators and entrepreneurs, exploring opportunities for future development, and presenting to potential partners / donors / sponsors.

Instruments that were proposed included a small grants scheme, business start-up training and coaching, and technical assistance for the APPRM (APERM) innovation voucher scheme and international project participation.

24.04.2012 Seite 6 von 6

A marketing concept was developed together with Veneto Innovazione. Promotion of NCDIEL (incl. its business plan and proposed instruments) to financing institutions took place in the form of a road-show in March 2012 together with NCDIEL, aws and Finlombarda.

� RDA Banat (Serbia): Irena Zivkovic presented the output of RDA Banat regarding a new institution for innovation support:

Based on the analysis of existing mechanisms in AP Vojvodina, and as proposed by the SEE-IFA project, an innovation platform to sustain innovation in Vojvodina was developed within WP6 and signed by 12 members (provincial, financial, scientific & research, and development institutions & funds).

The goal of the platform is mutual cooperation, to create favorable conditions for the development of a competitive economy based on knowledge, new technologies and innovation. This primarily entails the coordination and cohesion of activities of all members, emphazis will also be put on the creation of new support mechanisms with existing resources (financial / non-financial) as proposed in WP4, on finding new financial resources, as well as on a common marketing strategy.

Negotiations between the members regarding the internal organisation (setting up of internal procedures, communication, competences, defining of priorities, establishment of working groups, creation of models of support, preparation of an action plan) as well as the implementation of an instrument are on-going.

Roswitha reminded that beside the results presented for the three IPA countries by Veneto Regione, also the PPs in Bulgaria and in Greece were interested in setting up new IFAs and had prepared some need assessment documentation.

- GEORAMA (Greece): Mary Mihopoulou presented the status quo of GEORAMA regarding IFAs: In the region of Western Greece the need for a innovation support institution is obvious and can be shown by the need assessment report of Georama. Unfortunately the financial and political situation in Greece today is not supportive for the establishment of an adequate agency or fund, but the efforts will hopefuly continue when the situation will improve.

- EPF (Bulgaria): Rayna Karcheva explained that Bulgarian initiatives were set to concentrate the most important stakeholders on the initiative to set up a national platform for innovation, which should not only be composed of financial and political institutions, but also include universities and other technology oriented agencies. An initiative has already been started with the support of the Ministry of Economy and works will be continued in the near future.

7. Conclusions and discussion – aws (LP)/Christina Windisch (refer ppt-presentation) and

Roswitha Mosburger

Christina Windisch concluded by presenting a final overview of the outputs for WP3/Country reports, WP4/Instruments, WP5/IP-Fund and WP6/IFAs. There were concrete results regarding new instruments (Varazdin County/HR) and a new institution (FYROM), and a model and recommendations for a cross-border- patent fund will be transmitted to the EU. Moreover drafts and recommendations for new instruments in Vojvodina/RS, Romania, Bulgaria and FYROM will serve further initiatives and developments, and initiatives for an innovation platform have been signed in Vojvodina/RS and planned to be set up in Bulgaria.

Roswitha stated that the meetings held and training activities carried out within the SEE-IFA project, as well as the discussion and dissemination of the project results promise a sustainable and growing network of IFAs in the SEE region in the future. Overall, she noted that the SEE-IFA project targets were more than fulfilled despite the dramatic deterioration of the economic conditions since project start.

Christina finally thanked the PPs for their good collaboration and work in all phases of the 3-year-project. Ideas for new projects have already been mentioned, which would be good to use and even intensify the SEE-IFA network in the future.