With the EU project “Fit for Health,” the Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum and 26 other European partners are helping to increase participation of research-intensive SMEs in the European Directorate General’s research programme for health. The most notable services on offer are workshops, training courses and strategic coaching sessions for enterprises and clusters. The aim is to promote partnerships between industry and research, and generate successful EU projects. To achieve this and take advantage of synergies, the project partners are working closely with networks like the Enterprise Europe Network.
“Fit for Health“ is designed to simplify admission into the European research program for businesses and research institutions. Partner organizations assist individual projects with everything from the initial idea and formulation of the research proposal, to project bidding, searching for suitable partners, and dealing with intellectual property matters. How do I find the right partner, what does cooperation look like within a consortium, how are responsibilities distributed? Who does what, exactly? Project partners are there to answer all of these questions. At the implementation stage, companies and researchers are then assisted during contract negotiations with the EU, with financial matters, and making use of research findings.
The project is being coordinated by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency. The Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum is assisting with training on the topic of project implementation. So far, approximately 650 participants have taken part in 25 SME forums held in six countries. In Budapest and Zagreb, the partners trained more than 200 participants who had no previous knowledge of the European Research Programme. 167 participants received training on the EU project bidding, 400 more on project management. Over 8,400 contacts were made and 160 partner searches were facilitated via the Fit for Health Database – a collection of roughly 3,000 expert profiles of SMEs and research institutes. 800 participants attended four events for face to face meetings.
Several of the project partners are also members of the Enterprise Europe Network. SMEs could take advantage of synergy opportunities with 600 economic development institutions in 52 countries and gain insights into all matters relating to competitiveness and innovation in Europe. The network’s central objectives are to foster research and technological partnerships in Europe while also broadening pools of con- tacts with market partners abroad. The “Fit for Health” project entered its second phase in November. The Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum will stay on board as a partner. And during the next several years, it will collaborate with other project partners once again to help businesses and research institutes get the most out of “Horizon 2020,” the EU’s upcoming Framework Programme for research and technology.
Prof. Dr. Norbert Höptner, Dr. Petra Püchner, Hicham Abghay, Nina Fritz, Verena Neubauer
Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum (Stuttgart)