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Cultural treasures go on-line
New funding opportunities
for Research and
Entrepreneurship
European Inventors of the
Year: Improving Health and
Environment
24-hour public service
by the portal ERMIS
The sectors of Health and Environment
were the major winners of "European
Inventors of the Year 2009", awarded by
the European Patent Office and the European
Commission at a special ceremony in Prague.
The "Lifetime achievement" award went
to Adolf Goetzberger (Germany), founder
of the Fraunhofer-Institut for Solar Energy.
Jürg Zimmermann and Br ian Druker
(Switzerland) won the category "Industry"
for a new treatment for Chronic Myelogenous
Leukaemia (CML). The "SMEs/research"
prize was awarded to Joseph Le Mer (France)
for a condensation heat exchanger adapt-
ed to interface with a gas or fuel-oil burn-
er. Finally, the Chinese team of Yiqing Zhou,
Dianxi Ning, Shufen Wang, Deben Ding,
Guofu Li, Chengqi Shan, and Guangyu Liu
collected top honours in the category "Non-
European countries" for their anti-malar-
ia composition (marketed as Coartem).
Highlights
INNO
VATION
RESEARCH
ΤECHNOLOGY
&
i
Hellenic government portal ERMIS
i
i
National Strategic Reference
Framework (ESPA) 2007-2013
General Secretary for Research and
Technology
Hellenic Organization of Small and
Medium Sized Enterprises and
Handicraft (EOMMEX) S.A.
i
European Inventor of the Year 2009
The European Patent Office (EPO)
European Patent Forum and
PATINNOVA 2009
The preservation and promotion of cul-
tural heritage through digital applications,
and making it accessible to everyone, is a
priority for Europe and indeed for the world.
Several initiatives and projects support this
policy: the UNESCOCharter on the Preservation
of the Digital Heritage; the selection of
"Digital Libraries" as one of the main ini-
tiatives of the European Commission; and
the announcement of digitalization pro-
jects on culture by organisations such as
Google, Microsoft and Yahoo.
Greece is committed to digital conver-
gence, with initiatives to promote the dig-
italization of collections on history and civil-
isation, to improve broadband services,
and to spread new technologies to wider
and more diversified target groups. To
achieve these goals there are new fund-
ing schemes, initiatives such as the Digital
Culture Awards, as well as online collec-
tions and projects, all involving key play-
ers from the academic, research and busi-
ness communities.
Indicative online collections are: PANDEK-
TIS - A Digital Thesaurus of Greek History
and Culture; Digital Crete: Mediterranean
Cultural Routes; a Cultural Thesaurus of
the Greek Language; a Cultural Portal of
the Aegean Archipelago; and the Digital
Archives of Konstantinos Karamanl is
Foundation.
Three new funding programmes related
to research and entrepreneurship have
been recently announced under the National
Strategic Reference Framework (ESPA)
2007-2013. The first, with a budget of 122
million euros, aims to link research with
the market and includes 3 actions (Co-
operation, New innovative enterprises,
Groups of SMEs). The second programme,
with a budget of 40 million euros, sup-
ports young people and women in start-
ing their own business. The third, with a
budget of 136 million euros, funds Green
Entrepreneurship and includes 3 different
activities (Green Infrastructures, Green
Enterprise and Re-Installation).
A new electronic tool that facilitates greater
interaction between citizens and public
administration - the Hellenic government
portal ERMIS - was recently launched by
the Ministry of Interior and the company
"Information Society S.A.". The aim is to
modernise Public Administration, bringing
the benefit of added-value services to the
citizen. This government portal will pro-
vide citizens and enterprises with a com-
plete briefing of all their transactions with
the Public Administration (manual or elec-
tronic), as well as certain electronic trans-
actions, all from a single access point.
RAF-REGIONS:
Food research clusters
i
RAF REGIONS
The RAF-REGIONS project brings togeth-
er three regional research-driven clusters
in Greece, Italy and Bulgaria, aiming at
enhancing economic development through
science and technology that focuses on
the AgroFood Sector. The project is fund-
ed by the Regions of Knowledge Programme
(FP7) and is coordinated by the Greek com-
pany Euroconsultants SA. Mr Giannoulidis,
in an interview given to our magazine,
explains the benefits of such a project and
the synergies between research organisa-
tions, enterprises and regional authorities.
He also refers to the European ‘Food Cluster
Initiative’ and the expected results for the
organizations involved.
ΚΑΙΝΟΤΟΜΙΑ
ΕΡΕΥΝΑ & ΤΕΧΝΟΛΟΓΙΑ
Ι
03-04 / 2009
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