European and African consortium to develop open innovation in various industries in Southern Mediterranean areaJuly 12, 2016 |
A large international group of innovation stakeholders has gathered on to stimulate and foster open innovation the energy, water and agriculture sectors in the Southern Mediterranean area. Over the course of the next four years, 24 innovation actors, representing ministries, universities, and service companies will jointly (1) build a bridge between innovation and policies to open new markets in the energy, agriculture and water management; (2) support key players in the innovative sectors through a common political action plan; (3) facilitate the access to the use of infrastructures, scientific facilities, and laboratories in the Mediterranean area targeting academic researchers and business; (4) promote the development of R&D and entrepreneurship in the agriculture, water and energy sector and increase the participation of Mediterranean partners in the European Research Area. This large group of partners, came together on July 11th and 12th, including representatives of the Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre, namely Mihai Melonari and Arno Meerman, to discuss the initial steps in achieving these ambitious goals. All this will take place under the Horizon2020 funding scheme, as part of the "Quintuple Helix Approach to Targeted Open Innovation in Energy, Water and Agriculture in the South Mediterranean Neighborhood” project, coordinated by the Department of Chemistry of the University Autonomy of Barcelona (UAB). With more than 15 involved countries, namely Italy, Belgium, Germany, the UK, France, Austria, Lebanon, Palestine, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Turkey, Jordan and Libya, the project is the perfect environment to improve the relationships between public and private institutions and setting up an innovation ecosystem in the Mediterranean and European area. |