European Business Awards for the Environment 2014 shortlist unveiled!
Seventeen finalists have been shortlisted for the 2014 European Business Awards for the Environment (EBAE), following a two-day jury meeting in Rome. The 17 organisations were selected from 152 submissions, coming from 22 European Member States and candidate countries. This year’s entries came from a number of fields, including healthcare, financial services, and the food and drink and automotive sectors.
The European Business Awards for the Environment were established in 1987 by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment. They are presented every two years with the aim of recognising and rewarding European companies that stimulate economic growth by contributing to innovation and competitiveness, while also protecting the environment. The scheme consists of five awards, rewarding businesses for management practices, eco-friendly products and services, sustainable processes, international business cooperation and – most recently – activities which protect biodiversity.
[quote align=”center” color=”#999999″]European Commissioner for the Environment Janez Potočnik stated: “The companies shortlisted for the European Business Awards for the Environment have a proven track record in combining business success and respect for the environment. They showcase real-world experience of the fruits of eco-innovation.”[/quote]
The winners will be announced at a ceremony in Lyon on 1st December 2014 at the Pollutec exhibition of environmental technologies in Lyon, France.
See the finalists for the 2014 EBAE.
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EU water sector players ask new European Commission to give water the place it deserves among the Juncker Commission priorities!
The key European water-related umbrella organisations are jointly asking the Juncker Commission to prioritise water during the next 5 years due to its importance for EU’s economy, environment, and quality of life of the European citizens. These organisations increased their collaboration and coordination in the form of a European Water Alliance, with the objective of achieving a more coherent and thus more effective representation and visibility for water at the European Union level.
The first result of this cooperation is a joint ask to the Juncker Commission identifying key priorities for water. Its purpose is to promote a more informed and structured policymaking discourse on these matters, as well as to inspire members of the European Parliament to raise the importance of water with the Commissioners-designate in forthcoming hearings.
These issues are vastly complex, cross-cutting many fields of public policy, economic and market imperatives,and concerning major public and private investments for innovative development and maintenance. Therefore, action by and collaboration between all players in the innovation triangle are strongly required.
Download the Main priorities for water under the Junker Commission
For more information, please contact Durk Krol.
Read MoreREGISTRATION FOR EIP Water Conference is now Open!
Registration for the 2nd EIP Water Conference is now open! The preliminary programme can be now found online with numerous high-level speakers and thought-provoking sessions. The programme of the conference also includes the launch of the CDP water program’s Global Water report 2014, which analyses business understanding of water risk at the world’s largest listed corporations on behalf of 573 institutional investors representing in excess of US$60 trillion. The 25 EIP Water Action Groups will be present at the conference, as well as a number of organisations participating in the conference exhibition area. WssTP will be also there!
The EIP Water Conference 2014 is organised by the European Commission, with the support of the Municipality of Barcelona, the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Spanish Ministry for Economy and Competitiveness, CETaqua / Agbar.
Places are limited! To join the conference, please register soon!
Read MoreWater Stewardship Local Actions Driving Global Impact Event Report Published!
A report on July’s event Water Stewardship: Local Actions Driving Global Impact, has now been published, featuring the lessons learned and practical experiences of representatives from civil society, authorities, water service providers and the investor community. The participants observed the usefulness of Water Stewardship in bringing all elements of water management together and allowing companies to develop a competitive business model.
Read MoreCreating values: IP exploitation in Horizon 2020 – by Jörg Scherer
Paving the route to successful exploitation, intellectual property (IP) takes an essential role in the entire life cycle of R&D projects funded through Horizon 2020, the new framework programme of the European Union (EU) for research and innovation for the period 2014-2020. With Horizon 2020, the EU aims at strengthening the European scientific and technological base and fostering benefits for society as well as better exploitation of the economic and industrial potential of policies of innovation, research and technological development. In fact, it is essential that the public resources and efforts used in research are converted into socio-economic benefits to the EU. For this reason Horizon 2020 establishes commitments from the participants in terms of exploitation of the projects’ results, including their protection through IP. Proper IP management should therefore be carefully considered from the very beginning of a project. Major issues to be considered in this context are:
- How will results be protected? How will Joint Ownership be treated?
- How will the exchange of existing knowledge and know-how (i.e. “background”) and results among partners and external stakeholders be managed? What are the best conditions to grant access rights?
- What are the best and most viable routes for exploitation of Horizon 2020 results?
Horizon 2020 is a very attractive and flexible programme to develop creative solutions to incorporate intellectual assets into proper business strategies. Horizon 2020 is very open for Business. More than any of the former EU RTD framework programme initiatives it is calling for ideas and strategies to identify proper exploitation routes. There are great opportunities and there are not many limits to design the most suitable exploitation strategy at consortium and/or individual participant level.
Exploitation channels may encompass a wide range of different paths to bring research results to the marketplace such as:
- Improving existing/developing new products and services to be more competitive in existing and/or emerging new markets
- Creating new businesses for further exploitation, i.e. Spin-offs or Joint Ventures among project partners or involving third parties outside of the project
- Taking advantage of licensing opportunities by negotiating the right type of licence to be granted, e.g. exclusive, non-exclusive or sole licence, and whether it should be limited by the field of use and/or territory. By nature, licensing is a viable and the most common approach to create business opportunities out of research results.
It’s all about IP – the key to sustainable success
Horizon 2020 collaborative projects differ in their innovation dimension, but as a common principle, they bring partners with different business mind-sets and interests around a table. Expectations and strategies regarding the commercial use of project results are driven by the value and exploitability of IP generated in the project on the one hand and the overall business orientation of the participating institution on the other hand. An IP exploitation strategy at project level can only be successful if institutional IP policies are carefully incorporated and respected in the overall approach.
Usually, most of the institutions involved in Horizon 2020 projects have preferred or established IP exploitation tools and channels, and it is a recommended practice to exchange information within the consortium about those strategies at a very early stage of the project. Obviously, a sustainable and successful IP exploitation strategy at project level has to derive from, and be embedded in, the overall business development strategy of the individual consortium institutions. In the case of small and medium sized-enterprises (SMEs), for which Horizon 2020 has reserved a driving seat to stimulate innovation in Europe, it is not obvious to find proper internal management structures and capacities to turn IP into business. Therefore, specific support measures (i.e. Enterprise Europe Network, European IPR Helpdesk) are available at European, national and regional level to enhance the innovation capacity of SMEs.
Besides the risk of IP conflicts among consortium partners that might hinder the smooth implementation of a project, a lack of expertise in IP management and knowledge transfer also poses a threat to the successful exploitation of project results. Far too often the full potential of commercialising research results remains unrecognised and thus not fully tapped due to inadequate experience and expertise in IP management. This insufficient exploitation of research results contrasts with the rising importance and demand of professional exploitation strategies, which are already an inherent component of collaborative research projects at the proposal stage.
Therefore, with the start of Horizon 2020, the European IPR Helpdesk has implemented an extended focus on IP aspects of downstream activities. Based on an increasingly market-driven approach, more emphasis is placed on turning research outcomes and technological developments into value-creating products and/or services.
For more information, please visit the EU IPR Helpdesk’s website.
Jörg Scherer is Chief Executive Officer of the European Research and Project Office GmbH (Eurice) and consortium member of the European IPR Helpdesk, the official IP service initiative of the European Commission providing free-of-charge, professional first-line advice and information on Intellectual Property (IP) and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) to researchers and SMEs. For the European IPR Helpdesk he is coordinating a comprehensive capacity building programme for academics and entrepreneurs with over 50 training sessions a year in the field of IP & Innovation.
Mr. Scherer has been working as a research manager in both the academic and industrial sector for the past fifteen years, and has a strong track record in research and innovation management issues within EU RTD Framework Programmes.
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