According to EU policy and the Lisbon Agenda, boosting innovation is the key determinant of the ability of an enterprise, sector, region or country to remain competitive. Improving the education of human resources, their skills, and the capacity to innovate as well as increasing business expenditure in RTD and early stage venture capital for innovative SMEs are the main challenges of European policy for innovation.

WBC-INCO.NET’s core objectives are to support the bi-regional dialogue between the EU, Associated FP7 Countries and the Western Balkan countries (WBCs) and to enhance the participation of WBC researchers in European RTD projects by structural measures. It is aimed, e.g., to identify research areas of mutual benefit in an inclusive and comprehensive manner.

Moreover, WBC-INCO.NET monitors the take-up of identified research areas into forthcoming RTD programmes and the participation of WBC researchers in collaborative FP7 projects. As described in the previous article (page 2), existing cooperation patterns are being analysed by social network methodologies, while barriers to cooperation are being explored by empirical investigations. WBC-INCO.NET also emphasises the building of capacities and the facilitation of networking opportunities for researchers in order to improve absorption quantities and qualities and to enhance a better international recognition of existing WBC potentials. Several renowned European NCPorganisations and research agencies have committed their capacities to join WBC-INCO.NET and to support the integration of the WBCs into the ERA.

In this framework, actions taken so far prove that in the WBCs, SMEs strongly contribute to job creation and economic development. They are fostering the expansion of all services that are driving the economic growth in those regions. Emerging SME clusters operating in high-value added operations are spreading innovation throughout many parts of the WBCs.

Thus, the expansion of the WBC-INCO.NET towards the field of innovation currently seems very necessary. Therefore, a new workpackage (WP) is being proposed for funding to the EC, aiming at

• Dialogue on Regional Research and Innovation Area
• Definition of Future Innovation Activities

The WP and task leadership will be appointed to partners of the WBC-INCO.NET with strong activity in the region.

Authors: Elke Dall/Kelly Vavasi