To address the low start-up survival rate and the lack of funding in “modest” and “moderate” innovation ecosystems within Europe – namely in Central and Eastern European countries - the consortium (led by EIT Health in collaboration with InnoStars, Civitta and other entities, as well as an advisory board including the EIF) will use their individual expertise to implement activities that build critical mass on both the investor and venture-building front. Given the investment challenges in early-stage ventures, the Project will seek to collaborate with local start-up support organizations to provide capacity building initiatives as well as to derisk local innovators to set the foundations for modest and moderate regions to become sustainable and competitive with more dynamic regions within the European ecosystem. The project will be structured around the impact pathway methodology (scoping, engaging and implementing). The specific objectives are: 1) to build robust and sustainable early-stage investment ecosystems and increase critical mass; 2) to increase venture investments through a) cultivating life sciences local investment and b) attracting foreign investors into the local innovation ecosystem; 3) to provide de-risking and investment readiness support for Dealflow exchange to increase syndication, and 4) to disseminate and implement project outcomes, create European foundation to address fragmentation in EU market and support cross-border investments In addition to said objectives, as well as the expected outcomes set out in the call, the Project will aim to impact wider European goals, including furthering the European Innovation Agenda, increasing investment competitiveness, start-up as wells as job creation, knowledge transfer, and widening European outreach. Furthermore, project results are expected to be applicable to other regions and non-health related industries and scope a Pan-European funding initiative for health tech ventures rich in assets.

The main objective of the proposed conference REinEU2016 is to highlight and discuss the contribution of innovation to economic development in general, and the agenda of re-industrialisation in particular. Picking up on discussions at similar events during Luxembourg and the Dutch Presidency, our event will focus on the synergistic topic of the role of innovation in more traditional industries, and its effect on competitiveness. Based on that, the proposal stipulates three general objectives: developing expert discussion on the role of innovation in re-industrialisation, focusing on the intersection between novel technologies, approaches, etc. and traditional industries; contributing to better policy making in the areas of innovation support and industrial policies by providing evidence-based inputs, and feed-back from a wide range of stakeholders; and helping to widen the participation in Horizon 2020 and other actions, aimed at supporting innovation, especially by research institutions and companies from the Danube region and Poland, including non-EU countries participating in the Danube Strategy. Planned activities include plenaries and panel discussions with international keynote speakers, parallel thematic sessions, workshops and seminars, matchmaking for SMEs and research institutions, exhibitions of innovative companies, successful R&I projects and excellent research institutions, and public outreach activities, supported by a robust communication campaign.

<< Objectives >>Project goals:1) Creation of a new educational methodology for startupists 1x2) Creation of a new digital course for 250 people 1x<< Implementation >>1) Project management2) Preparation of a new educational methodology3) Creating educational videos and starting educational activities4) Addressing campaign and publicity of the project5) Project evaluation<< Results >>Outputs:15 x educational videos of successful and unsuccessful starupsDevelopment of entrepreneurial skills in 250 people who will participate in all courses (what skills)Increasing the viability of startups in our country and in Slovakia by 1 year compared to the current average

SPARKS is an awareness-raising and engagement project to promote Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) across 29 European countries (EU members plus Switzerland). It gathers 33 organisations as partners and linked Third Parties. SPARKS will organise an interactive touring exhibition and 232 innovative participatory activities on RRI (science cafés, pop-up Science Shops, incubation activities and scenario workshops) across Europe. The European dimension of the project is paired with a strong emphasis on local implementation through 29 experienced science communicators (one per country) that will adapt the exhibition and activities to their contexts and establish local multi-stakeholder collaborative partnerships. SPARKS will deploy complementary dissemination tools and actions to maximise its outreach and impact. It will collect and analyse important data on RRI throughout Europe and build on its learning to: - Further build the capacity of science actors and policy makers to promote RRI; - Better understand society’s vision, interests and readiness concerning RRI in health; - Provide policy recommendations to feed R&I policies with societal inputs and facilitate RRI; - Develop the capacity of a group of European stakeholders to participate in RRI. SPARKS will use the appealing topic “technology shifts in health and medicine” to reach out to a wider public, make the RRI concept meaningful to it and establish a direct link with one of the priority societal challenges of Horizon 2020. Creative disruptions —in the form of artistic inputs and questioning— will help it to engage more stakeholders. SPARKS builds upon a number of relevant EU projects —from RRI Tools to PERARES, from PLACES to VOICES or Twist— and powerful European/ international networks —the European Network of Science Centres and Museums (Ecsite), the international network of Science Shops (Living Knowledge) and the European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN).