Western Balkans

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence.

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News archive - CIP Call for Proposals - Services in support of business and innovation

The first call under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) has been launched. The European Commission implements a measure to provide SMEs with integrated services in support of business and innovation building on the experience achieved with the Euro Info Centres and Innovation Relay Centres. Proposals have to cover a clearly delimited geographical area, applicants from the Western Balkan countries are eligible to participate.

Deadline: April 2, 2007

The main objective of this call is to implement a single network providing integrated services in support of business and innovation.

The individual objectives are to:

increase the synergies among network partners through the provision of integrated services;
maintain and continually improve the access, proximity, quality and professionalism of the integrated services provided by the network;
raise awareness - in particular among small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) - regarding Community policy issues and the services offered by the network, including the improvement of environmental awareness and ecoefficiency of SMEs and the Cohesion policy and Structural funds;
consult businesses and obtain their opinions on Community policy options;
ensure that the network offers complementarities with other relevant services providers;
reduce the administrative burden for all parties.

To implement these objectives, proposals will include the following services:

information, feedback, business cooperation and internationalisation services;
services for innovation and for the transfer of both technology and knowledge;
services encouraging the participation of SMEs in the Community framework programme for research.

The estimated budget for the entire call is 320 million for the period 2008 to 2013.

Source: CORDIS article.
Further details are available in the call text which is also available in the document service /doc/693.html. The whole submission set can be downloaded from the CIP call website (/link/629.html).