A joint EUREKA and Danube-INCO.NET workshop took place in Vienna on 11 December 2014. Representatives of both initiatives presented their work and future steps in a workshop dedicated to finding common areas of cooperation.

The workshop was aimed at introducing the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) and its related R&I activities as well as the EUSDR supporting Danube-INCO.NET project to the EUREKA network and its representatives from the Danube Region Countries, as well as the EUREKA network and its funding opportunities for multilateral (cooperative) research & innovation projects to the Danube-INCO.NET project partners. Moreover it served for stimulating/enhancing networking between EUSDR, project and EUREKA representatives with the view for common/joint  STI funding activities and the finalization of details for the EUREKA Danube Region multilateral call in 2015. Danube-INCO.NET representatives also presented their work emphasizing on their networking activities in the field of research cooperation.

EUREKA’s activities in the Danube region

The vast majority of Danube countries are members of EUREKA and EUREKA’s contribution to the internationalization of the Danube area in the field of research and development has been significant. Since 1985 EUREKA has approved 1680 projects involving Danube region countries, 472 of which were implemented after 2008, which shows that the interest in R&D cooperation is rising in the region. A wide SMEs participation in these projects was reported.

According to EUREKA’s report most active Danube region countries are Germany, Slovenia, Czech Republic and Austria. Most commonly used services provided by EUREKA are individual project financing and support and cluster support. The first instrument is broadly used by Balkan counties totaling €115m. The second instrument mostly implemented among Austria and Germany has received €184 milion until now. Hot areas for funding are the ICT and Manufacturing / Materials / Transport sector.

Topics raised during the workshop

EUSDR linkages to EUREKA’s activities were highlighted. EUREKA’s experience in industry-academia co-operation can prove very valuable both for R&D project financing in the Danube region and for enhancing SMEs participation in these activities. Another hot topic was policy coordination among the players in the region in order to provide the conditions for jointly addressing a co-operative framework, which will include common rules, funding mechanisms and identifying common challenges in the field of research cooperation.

The finalisation of the  E!DI-Multilateral Call 2015 was also announced and next steps shall focus on a proper dissemiation of it. Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech republic, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Slovak Republic have signalized to support participants by public funding. There are no specific thematic priorities concerning this call yet. EUREKA sees the common call as an opportunity to promote industrial R&D projects in the Danube Region. There is a tentative time planning, yet to be confirmed: call opening   March 9, 2015; deadline project outlines   April 30, 2015; submission deadline  June 17, 2015. Projects could start from late 2015. For more information refer to the presentations below.

Representatives of other R&D funding mechanisms in the Danube region such as the Enterprise Europe Network and Technology Agency of Czech Republic presented their experiences in combing funding opportunities to finance R&D cooperation. The event ended with EUSDR, EUREKA and Danube.INCO-NET representatives promising to engage in a closer future cooperation.