The event will be organised by the JRC's Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (IPTS) and the Spanish Centre for Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI) under the auspices of the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council. It also forms part of the Industrial Research Monitoring Analysis (IRMA) activities of the European Commission's Directorates Joint Research Centre (JRC) and Research (RTD).

The Conference aims to link science, business, and policy making by being structured around a series of policy relevant questions and thereby seeks to understand the policy implications of scientific findings. In particular, it will address the dynamics of corporate R&D, innovation, competitiveness and economic growth.

 Thus, the main objectives are:

• To provide a platform for discussing corporate R&D (from analytical / research perspectives) and the way to stimulate spending on R&D via policy initiatives
• To bring the community of researchers, policy analysts and policy makers as well as industry representatives together, share their specific knowledge on the subject and translate the individual insights into sound support to policy making
• To provide relevant input and sound support to the European policy making and to outline blank spots for further investigation

The Conference will take place on 3rd – 4th of March 2010 in Seville (Spain); with the first day being a forum for academics and practitioners and the second devoted to the policy dimension of corporate R&D, based on the most relevant outcomes of the first day.

The three thematic strands of the first day of the Conference (Academic Forum) will be:

• Impact of R&D on firm productivity and market performance
• Globalising economies & internationalisation of corporate R&D
• The link between corporate R&D, innovation, and employment

Across all strands, the impact of the current economic and financial crisis on R&D and innovation, sectoral specifics or particularities e.g. in terms of SME's and NTBF's are seen as cross-cutting issues. Please see the Call for Abstracts for further information.

All submitted abstracts will be subject to a peer review. The selection process will be carried out by the academic representatives of the Conference's Programme Committee. Click here to see the composition of the Programme Committee.

The main strands of the second day of the Conference (Policy Makers' Forum) will be: 

• Relation between employment, business performance, and R&D
• Public services to support R&D and innovation in SME
• Strategies and policies to attract, stimulate, and leverage spending on R&D in the light of a globalizing world 

For further information on the Conference, see: http://iri.jrc.ec.europa.eu/concord-2010/

Source: e-mail by organisers: JRC-IPTS-IRI@ec.europa.eu