KAPPA-Health means "Key Performance Factor Assessment and Valorisation for Successful EU-FP Project Participation of Innovative SMEs in the area of Health research".

KAPPA-Health project endeavours to assess and valorise the success of small and medium-sized biomedical companies (SMEs), which have received funds from the European Union Framework Programmes 6 and 7 (FP6 and 7) for research and technological development.

The project includes 7 Participants. Five of them are SMEs. They provide complementary knowledge on Framework Programmes, managerial issues, financial market and awareness of the challenges that SMEs are facing in their perspective of achieving commercial success out of their research results.

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On June 7, 2010, the day before the FP7 Health - Open Information Day & Brokerage event, in Brussels, the KAPPA-Health project organised the networking event "FP7 Support Actions & Services: Knowledge exchange and networking event".

In total, more than fifty participants from the Health research intensive SMEs; FP7 Research intermediaries, Support actions projects & stakeholders, NCPs, Funding and investment funds as well as other FP7 expert organisations joined the event.

Jacques Viseur, coordinator of the KAPPA-Health project moderated the session and invited the participants to take the opportunity to optimise their chances of success by collaborating with experts in FP7 Health research thematic. Several presentations gave an overview of  current support actions for successful project submission and implementation,  and an interactive working session allowed to promote  synergies between current projects and match project initiatives between participants.

Further information: http://www.kappa-health.org

Jacques Viseur will be a speaker at the session "EU-funded Health research: Creating opportunities for SMEs & Innovation" and will present the results of KAPPA-Health, the Key Success Factors for SME's participating in FP Projects.

"It is assumed that for every successful Small-Medium Enterprise (SME) that participated in FP6 Life Sciences and Health (LSH) Priority and/or FP7 Health Theme projects, there are qualitative and quantitative key performance factors for success.

Knowing more about these success factors, and considering them when dealing with other fund providers, can demonstrate sustainable value and greatly increase the chances of receiving further funding. To determine and summarise these success factors, the KAPPA-Health project team has analysed over 200 Research Intensive SMEs. Preliminary findings of this analysis will be presented and discussed, and the experiences of the successful SMEs shared, in this presentation.

For more information, please visit the KAPPA-Health website.

This year's Europe INNOVA Annual Partnering Event was organised in Heraklion, Crete from 20 to 22 September 2009. It was the official launch event for, and the introduction of, the second phase of the Europe INNOVA initiative, based on a renewed approach. The new set of Europe INNOVA actions are based on European Innovation Platforms in the three high priority policy areas of transnational cluster cooperation, knowledge-intensive services and eco-innovation.

The event was an opportunity for the Europe INNOVA and PRO INNO Europe networks to come together, exchange information and discuss the latest developments in innovation within the EU. Annual Partnering Events during the first phase of the initiative have proved to be virtual hotspots for innovation support practitioners to network, learn about the latest developments in innovation and exchange information with their peers.

Euro Top co-organised the event with the Heraklion Chamber of Commerce and Logotech SA. The Annual Partnering Event is seen as one of the top innovation events of the year!

Further information: www.europe-innova.eu

Euro Top Cooperation Partners is now in charge of facilitating the communication and match-making activities in the 3-year project "SMEs go Health".

"SMEs go Health" is an initiative designed to support small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and academic researchers interested in research cooperation and participation in the 7th EU Framework Programme (FP7), particularly in the Health-related area.

This initiative is co-financed by the European Commission. It is a continuation of the successful project "SMEs go LifeSciences" which was carried out with the focus on Life Science topics in the 6th EU Framework Programme and in which Euro Top already had a similar role. The project focuses on information and training, as well as in consortium building and matchmaking of SMEs and researchers preparing EU project proposals in the Health area.

Euro Top's activities play a central role in creating services for SMEs and academia to successfully connect from all over Europe and abroad.

The 27April 2009, Euro Top supported the SMEs go Health International Information and Training Workshop in Istanbul, Turkey. This training day was addressed to companies, Research Institutes, Universities, Hospitals and other fields of Health, Life Sciences, Genomics and Biotechnology. The event took place at the occasion of the12th World Public Health Congress www.worldpublichealth2009.org . The presentations offered a broad overview on the 7th Framework Programme and the Health theme as they contained information on successful proposal preparation, evaluation procedures, success stories and specific knowledge of upcoming initiatives in the area of Health.

Dr Jacques Viseur, Managing Director of Euro Top commented:

Euro Top has been appointed as coordinator of the KAPPA-Health project, a new EC-Funded project under FP7 (Health thematic).

KAPPA-Health means "Key Performance Factor Assessment and Valorisation for Successful EU-FP Project Participation of Innovative SMEs in the area of Health research".

The 1st Funding Forum for Research & Technological Development Conference was organised as a two day event to inform the research community and High-Tech and Producing SMEs about "Where to get funds/grants for R&D and how to deal with funds". Euro Top organised this event in order to reach the objectives of the Funding Forum:

• Support Life scientists and others in getting funds/grants for R&D
• Connect science investigators to investors
• Stimulate international science cooperation & networking
• Improve scientific progress across Europe

KAPPA-Health project endeavours to assess and valorise the success of small and medium-sized biomedical companies (SMEs), which have received funds from the European Union Framework Programmes 6 and 7 (FP6 and 7) for research and technological development.

The project includes 7 Participants. Five of them are SMEs. They provide complementary knowledge on Framework Programmes, managerial issues, financial market and awareness of the challenges that SMEs are facing in their perspective of achieving commercial success out of their research results.

Objectives:

In the European economy, SMEs in biomedical sectors such as healthcare, biotechnology and medical technology are important contributors to competitiveness and growth. Despite the incredible potential of these SMEs to provide solutions for the cure of debilitating diseases and to improve citizens' quality of life, public and private funding for biomedical research and design is declining - a trend that could jeopardize efforts to develop improved treatments against life-threatening illnesses.

Although public funding by the European Union Framework Programmes accounts only for 4-5% of the total investment in R&D, the FP projects bring together the critical mass of stakeholders with the aim to improve the health of European citizens and to boost European economy.

In almost all cases, additional capital from other public sources, private investors or public-private partnerships is needed to bring biomedical discoveries towards the market.

Further information: www.kappa-health.org

"Eco-innovation means all forms of innovation activities resulting in or aimed at significantly improving environmental protection. Eco-innovation includes new production processes, new products or services, and new management and business methods, the use or implementation of which is likely to prevent or substantially reduce the risks to the environment, pollution and any other negative impact of the use of resources throughout the lifecycle of related activities."

Eco-innovation becomes a key parameter in developing national and regional innovation policies and it is in the core of European policy thinking.

Euro Top today is organizing through Europe INNOVA initiative the eco-innovation panel that aims at identifying barriers and drivers for the support of eco-innovation and the identification of key challenges, strategies and lead markets in the area.

EuroTop took the lead to prepare the content, and co-organise the first Thematic Workshop on the Theme "Standards for innovative SMEs - From lessons to actions" which took place in CEN Premises (Brussels) on 3 June 2009.

The workshop gathered around 40 invited delegates of European and National Standardisation Organisations, standardisation experts and other innovation stakeholders to discuss how to better leverage standards in opening markets for innovative SMEs.

As project manager of Europe INNOVA Communications, EuroTop developed a specific online Management and Communication Tool for the project management and partners' internal communication. The aim of this Management and Communication Tool (MCT) is to decentralise and simplify the development of the project in terms of planning and communications. The Xtranet-ISA also helped to manage and processed all the information collected and documents produced in the course of implementation. In this context, the aim of this web-based working tool was to maximize the results of this specific support action.

Euro Top Cooperation Partners is now in charge of facilitating the communication and match-making activities in the 3-year project "SMEs go Health".

"SMEs go Health" is an initiative designed to support small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and academic researchers interested in research cooperation and participation in the 7th EU Framework Programme (FP7), particularly in the Health-related area.

This initiative is co-financed by the European Commission. It is a continuation of the successful project "SMEs go LifeSciences" which was carried out with the focus on Life Science topics in the 6th EU Framework Programme and in which Euro Top already had a similar role. The project focuses on information and training, as well as in consortium building and matchmaking of SMEs and researchers preparing EU project proposals in the Health area.

Euro Top's activities play a central role in creating services for SMEs and academia to successfully connect from all over Europe and abroad.

Dr Jacques Viseur, Managing Director of Euro Top commented:

We are very pleased to be WP leader in this project which is the reference for 27 Health National Contact Points supporting the participation of academics and SMES in health theme of the FP7 EU programme. Due to our extensive experience in project management and communication, we have been asked by the project Coordinator, FFG - the Austrian Research Promotion Agency, to develop the match making facilities and provide support in management and communication by providing the Xtranet-ISA online management application to the network.

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