Sofia, May 3-4th: “Smart Specialization and Technology Transfer as Innovation Drivers for Regional Growth”
Jürgen Raizner, in his quality as CEO of Steinbeis Transfer Management Romania, and Project Manager Roxana Boboruta attended together the 2 days conference of JRC in order to promote Steinbeis network as virtuous framework for technology transfer, local economic development acceleration and regional competitiveness improvement tool.
The Joint Research Centre (DG JRC) of the European Commission, with the Bulgaria`s Presidency of the Council of the EU proposed a conference with the purpose to consider opportunities and challenges for Europe (notably South-Eastern Europe) in R&D, education, employment and innovation and to involve local stakeholders in designing comprehensive innovation strategies in order to achieve a coherent framework for prioritizing public investments.
The proposed conference is also a platform for constructive dialogue between businesses and institutions (academia and government) with the support of the civil society by presenting facets of the innovation landscape in Europe.
In EU more than 120 strategies for Smart Specialization were designed and assessed by the European Commission and over EUR 40 billion is invested until 2020 in the priority domains defined in these strategies. Considering this, conference also underlined the importance of evidence informed policy-making – notably for an efficient allocation of resources. In addition, knowledge and technology transfer are recognized as proven enabling operational tools for boosting local and regional economic and social impact.
Among the key-speakers of the event: Sergio Paoletti, President of AREA Science Park, and Stephen Taylor, AREA’s director. Science Park AREA in Trieste is project partner of Steinbeis Romania in implementing the strategic Danube project “European Early Innovators Initiative”.