News

The IPA4SME call that supports and facilitates the use of Intellectual Property by SMEs has been re-opened on 8 July 2019, given the overwhelming response to the first cut-off date of the IPA4SME Action, and the initially allocated budget not being sufficient to provide support to all of the services requested by the applicants. For this reason, new Rules for Implementation are being defined in order to increase budget flexibility in the future.

We encourage eligible applicants to apply as soon as possible. Parties that have submitted an application to the first cut-off date will have the option to resubmit their previous application. The new cut-off date is Thursday 26 September 2019.

Dr. Oana M. Driha, Assist. Professor, Department of Applied Economics International Economy, Institute of Tourism Research and OGPI Senior Project Manager, Noelia López, participated from the 12th until the 14th of June 2019, in the 3rd TOURIST project management meeting that took place at Payap University in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The first two days were devoted to discuss the progress of the project and to fully concentrate on the technical and operational implementation of the seven competence centres at partner universities as well as the creation of an international network to increase impacts of sustainability in tourism.
The third day of the meeting was dedicated to a study visit that focused on getting to more know about community-based tourism in the area of Chiang Mai.

Members of the EMINENT project participated in succeeding Study Visits in Vienna (Austria) and Cork (Ireland) from May 27^th to May 31^st. These activities have been devised with the intention to generate a space to share practices and foster mutual learning between the European and Haitian partners within the framework of capacity building action.

As such, during the first segment of the Study Visits in Vienna (Austria), EMINENT partners were hosted by  Agency for Quality Assurance and Accreditation in Austria (AQ Austria). For two days, Haitian, Irish and Spanish colleagues were introduced to accreditation and audit practices within the field of Quality Assurance in Higher Education. EMINENT consortium made the most of the opportunity to build upon the shared expertise, reflecting and orientating project activities within the area of Quality Assurance units definition as well as networking frameworks.

The IPA4SME campaign has been launched and is looking for SMEs in need of assistance with their Intellectual Property (IP) valorisation. IPA4SME (“Boosting the use of IP with an action specifically designed for Innovative SMEs”) is a unique business opportunity for SMEs to acquire IP Valorisation and Protection, through a variety related services.

The beneficiaries of these Intellectual Property services are SMEs that have been awarded the Seal of Excellence from the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument, and they can apply for the following:

• Free IP Pre-diagnostics: a customised report by a verified IP Expert on your business strategy related to IP with recommendations on achieving a secure and efficient exploitation of your assets. The service is available to SMEs registered in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Spain and Sweden.
• Financial reimbursement of IP protection costs, specifically eligible costs of qualified IP attorney and European patent application fees, for all EU and COSME countries.