"Mission
The mission of the Research, Innovation and Business Network (RIBN) for Central and South-Eastern Europe is to act as an interface between the various levels and types of stakeholders along the value chain of the economies of Central and South-Eastern Europe.

Objectives

In line with the objective of enhancing knowledge-based competitiveness:

• The Network is to encourage and facilitate interaction between its members and related bodies at local, regional, national, cross-border and pan-European levels;
• The Network aims to mobilize and combine dispersed efforts and realize synergies of expertise and resources particularly from economic actors and research bodies in the region.

The Network will attempt to:

• assist regional stakeholders in finding partners, contacts and information sources in Central and South-Eastern Europe;
• inform members on information sources to be used in partner searches and in identifying suitable EU programmes;
• monitor for project and investment opportunities;
• facilitate members in mobilizing resources for the creation of new value-added products and services through dissemination of research results, handbooks, directories and other professional literature.

Through its activities, the Network will contribute to a more competitive Europe by:

• integration of RIBN members and their regions into the European Research Area;
• enhancing member’s innovation potential;
• supporting successful integration of regional stakeholders into the European single market."

Source: RIBN Website, as accessed in May 2007.