Successful integration of the Republic Croatia to the EU requires a shift towards knowledge economy where relationship between science, technology and economy is interrelated more than ever before, producing growing demand for knowledge transfer.
Research activity in Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and Public Research Organizations (PRO) generates knowledge and technologies that yield high quality jobs, successful businesses, better goods and services and more efficient production and management processes. Therefore, the process of knowledge transfer from HEI and PRO to business and wider community for the benefit of economy and ultimately for wealth creation has the pivotal role in national policy agenda for strategic development.
In this context, European Commission has issued a restricted call for proposals seeking concept notes at first instance from eligible organizations for grant scheme aimed at building technology transfer and commercialization capacities of Higher Education Institutions (HEI) and Public Research Organizations (PRO) in order to contribute to sustainable regional development and industry competitiveness of high value added sectors of the economy and knowledge based SMEs.
The specific objective of this Call for Proposals is to support innovation commercialization in public R&D sector in order to bridge the gap between the pre-commercial and commercial phases of R&D in Croatia, and thus create a productive environment where innovation capacity can grow and develop.
Priority Issues
The priority issues for this Call for Proposals include the following:
Lot 1
– Improvement of regional and national innovation system by establishment/development of professionally facilitated technology transfer services across regional/national networks of HEIs and/or PROs.
Lot 2
– Enhancement of the science-industry/business collaboration in order to enable the HEIs and PROs to effectively interact with business sector and thus to better serve the needs of industry.
Types of activity
Lot 1
Activities might include but would not be restricted to the following:
a) Assistance in technology and product development
b) Capacity building for upgrade and development of services
c) Commercialisation and technology transfer
d) IPR management
e) Networking
f) Awareness raising
Lot 2
a) Research result-related activities:
b) Knowledge diffusion and networking activities
Size of grants
Any grant requested under this Call for Proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:
– minimum amount: EUR 50.000
– maximum amount: EUR 750.000
Last date for submission of concept notes is October 21, 2011
For more information and details, you can visit this link.
