APRE, www.apre.it, is a no-profit research organization created in 1989 as a joint initiative of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR) and of some public and private bodies, to meet the growing demand for information on European research programmes. First reality of its kind, APRE’ mission is to support the scientific and the industrial communities along the path to Europe and beyond, by providing information, training and assistance activities on the Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. APRE is at the heart of a network of almost 130 members from the academia to private sector, including: Public and Private Research centres, Universities, Scientific Parks, Public Administrations, Trade associations, Finance, Chambers of Commerce, Technological Districts, enterprises: http://www.apre.it/en/what-isapre/ apre-members/ APRE can rely on this network to enhance and foster exchange of experiences and best practices and to ensure a sound advocacy for its members at national and European level. In order to strengthen the networking potential and raise the awareness on European research at local, APRE has established a network of 19 Regional Help Desks throughout Italy. In addition, APRE Liaison Office in Brussels acts as a strategic hub intended to promote and involve more effectively its Members straight into the hearth of EU Research and Innovation policies and programmes. APRE is coordinator of the GIURI Group (Informal Group of the Italian Offices in Brussels), an informal platform of more than 50 Italian Brusselsbased representation offices representing research organizations, business organizations, national/regional institutional bodies and financial intermediaries, actively dealing with EU R&I policies. APRE is member of the Enterprise Europe Network (more than 600 member organisations involved) helping SMEs to make the most of the European marketplace. APRE counts on more than 65.000 users registered in its database including both public and private research centres, more than 50 universities, industries (10.000 of which related to SMEs), industrial associations, chambers of commerce, science parks and civil society organisations. APRE Social media networks with a constituency of more than 7.000 users: Twitter: 965 followers; Facebook: 3500 followers; Linkedin: 2785 followers. APRE has a long-lasting experience in the EC Framework Programmes, which started with the Third Framework Programme (FP3). Since then and during its almost 30 years of activities APRE has been participating to more than 150 projects co-financed by the European Commission (DG Research, DG Education, DG HOME, DG GROWTH, DG CONNECT and DG Enterprise), mainly for supporting and coordinating research in Europe and beyond through policy recommendations, organization of events and performing trainings. In the Seventh Framework Programme and in Horizon 2020, APRE has been appointed, by the Italian Ministry of Research, host organization of the Italian National Contact Points for all the themes and sectors. APRE is partner or coordinator in all the 17 NCPs Network projects in both FP7 and H2020. Since 2001 APRE is compliant with ISO EN 9001:2000 Quality Certification for the management of the project, training and promotion activities.
FVA is an Italian SME operating since 1990 in the field of new media communication and advanced ICT for research and organizations contexts. Since 1998 FVA is involved in EU financed research projects as partner expert in: Strategic Dissemination and Communication to promote science; Media and New Media production; Social media strategies and ICT solutions (Applications, Widgets, Animated Commercials, E-games); Serious games, advergames and entertainment; Technology Enhanced training platforms; ICT solutions; Graphic design and 3D modelling and animation; HCI and interface design In the following domains: Learning, Health, SSH Social Sciences and Humanities, Social innovation and security, Security, Bio Based Products.
ZSI is a private non-profit trans-disciplinary social science research institute, established 1990. It is among Austria’s largest social science organisations and Austria’s most successful social scientific research institute in FP7. ZSI’s key activities are clustered in three dedicated units: (1) Work and Equal Opportunities, (2) Research Policy and Development, and (3) Technology and Knowledge. All departments are involved in networking and dialogue activities, bringing stakeholders together to enable and enhance social innovation. Also Responsible Research and Innovation is a cross-cutting issue being addressed in several ZSI projects (e.g. RRI Tools, ICT-RRI Forum and SMART-Map). ZSI frequently coordinates both research and innovation actions (RIA) as well as coordination and support actions (CSA). ZSI is engaged in the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) topic via the FP7/H2020 projects RRI Tools (among other tasks also leading the evaluation), SMART-Map, NanOpinion, and RRI-ICT Forum and in bio-economy in BLOOM. ZSI works in knowledge generation, knowledge implementation and knowledge diffusion, i.e. in research and application, which includes network coordination, consulting as well as education and evaluation. ZSI team members are engaged in a wide variety of innovative, high-impact educational experiences and evaluation methods as ZSI researchers teach at universities, universities of applied sciences and in other educational organisations, give academic and applied presentations with a very high international outreach and they (co-) organise at annual average more than 70 professional events during the last five years. In general the ZSI offers analyses and concepts for promoting and implementing social innovation in its thematically focused areas from a transdisciplinary perspective. In a number of open science, RRI and technology assessment projects (lately, for instance, Smartmap or RRI Tools), ZSI has successfully developed and employed participatory techniques and models of stakeholder inclusion. ZSI has been at the forefront of European-level discussions on open and citizen science (ZSI experts co-authored the White Paper on Citizen Science in Europe). Our experts have a strong focus on research at the interface between technology and users/society: how to develop technology in order to be of use for diverse groups (acceptance, usability, design for all approach, participative methods, empowerment and creation of ownership); as well as to understand the implications of certain technologies (e.g. via constructive technology assessment approaches).
LOBA is a business and marketing consulting company based in Portugal and operating throughout Europe and Africa. Established in 2000, Globaz has branches in 3 countries with more than 30 qualified staff members, including senior executives, consultants and researchers. Globaz delivers consultancy and management services and is specialist in implementing innovation strategies in organisations (innovation processes, organisational development, technology and innovation audits), dissemination activities, technology watch, project management (planning, organising, directing, controlling) and project financing. LOBA main enabler is the ability to combine their expertise with critique and conceptual repertoire, based on an extensive visual culture, social and psychological perspectives. They are a creative driver that aims at a communicational objective. The services offered by Globaz are divided into seven main areas: design (visual identity, graphic supports, editorial design, product design), multimedia (multimedia applications, multimedia management system, video, iPaper); websites (institutional websites, portals , e-commerce sites Mobile), web marketing (email marketing, search engine marketing, social web marketing, search engine optimization, website management); web applications (intranet and extranet, content management system, web hosting, web domains) and two secondary areas: consulting (marketing plans, communication plan, branding and naming, design communication, content); events (trade show management, corporate events, team building). Globaz is geographically established in a region where the industrial tissue its very focused in textiles, shoes and moulding, keeping with these sectors and trustable and sustainable relationship.
PEDAL Consulting is the leading independent management consultancy in Slovakia and Czech Republic specialised in EU funds and international business development. Since 2009, the company has been serving European and international associations and companies, and contributed significantly to the creation and growth of several businesses. Up to date, PEDAL consultants have successfully implemented about 40 FP7/H2020/COSME/Erasmus plus projects from the position of partner, subcontractor and coordinator. PEDAL is also managing the Tenderio (www.tenderio.com) platform which helps European SMEs to access new public markets abroad. PEDAL is a member of the Bioeconomy Cluster Slovakia (http://bioeconomy.sk/).
Q-PLAN is an innovation and management consulting company that focuses its activities in: a) The provision of business and innovation support services to entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs in various major business sectors (like Agriculture, Environment, Manufacturing, Transport, Health, ICT, etc.) in the design and implementation of their innovation strategies; b) The design and management of entrepreneurial and business innovation support related European research projects, support actions and policy studies in various business sectors and technological areas, including Agriculture, Energy (including bio-energy), Transport, Advanced materials and manufacturing, Information and Communication Technologies, Environment, etc. and their related vertical and horizontal business networks and value chains – more than 25 EU-funded projects and policy studies, mainly as coordinator; and c) The development and implementation of Management Systems according to respective standards and regulations (e.g. ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 17025, ISO 15189, ISO 22000, ISO 27001, ISO 13485, GLPs, etc.) where is the market leader in Greece with more than 1400 certified/ accredited systems from all business sectors; The company possesses close linkages and in depth expertise in the Agriculture field, both at national and international level, through a set of well-tailored innovation support and management services spanning from the design and implementation of highly specialized management systems for agri-food companies and organisations, to much more mainstream innovation, SME and business support services focusing on addressing market penetration, commercialization and valorisation aspects of bio-based products and applications addressing the end-customers’ needs and concerns.
BIOCOM is a leading specialised communication and information company focused on the life sciences. For more than 30 years, an expert team of scientists, journalists and communication specialists analyse the development of the bioeconomy sectors in Europe. Their findings have been aggregated and structured in proprietary databases, and their results utilised in studies and publications. As a leading information specialist for life sciences in Europe, BIOCOM has extensive knowledge and decades of experience, from basic research to the market. Based on this, BIOCOM offers the whole range of communication and publication services. Competent and experienced staff take on both technical and organisational assignments. International conferences, videos, social media campaigns or print publications for example, are not only designed, but also implemented and produced by BIOCOM. This applies in particular to long-term projects, such as communication and dissemination for EU research projects. BIOCOM is also an active publishing house with a readership across Europe e.g. through the quarterly „European Biotechnology Magazine“ and the related website www.european-biotechnology.com
Based in five campuses (Bologna, Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna, Rimini), with a branch in Buenos Aires, UNIBO offers a teaching catalogue diversified and tailored to the needs of present-day society: over 200 degree programmes among its 32 Departments and 11 Schools are offered to over 81,000 students, 5,000 graduates are enrolled in PhDs and 3rd cycle programmes. Thanks to its scientific excellence and a central Project Management support working closely, UNIBO has gained a considerable experience in International and European research projects and successfully participated in FP7 with 274 projects funded in 2007-2013 (58 as coordinator) and 87,8M€ of funding. In Horizon 2020, UNIBO is so far involved in 238 funded projects (59 as coordinator) with more than 97,6M€ of funding. In the framework of the Societal Challenge II – BioEconomy and related- initiatives, UNIBO is coordinating 7 projects (PROVIDE, CIRCLES, TROPICSAFE, OLEUM, CONSOLE, FOOD-E & NewTechAqua), and committed as a partner in 37 bioeconomy projects (6 under BBI JTI, 30 under SC2 and 1 under LEIT-BIOTEC) with a total EU contribution of over 17M€. In addition, UNIBO is involved as a partner in 3 projects under SC5-Circular Economy, with a total EU contribution of over 1M€. At EU level, UNIBO is part of the Scientific Advisory boards of JPI HDHL and FACCE JPI, member of the EIP AGRI Focus Group Water & Agriculture, ETP Ocean and Biofuels and RTO member of the BIC Consortium supporting the JTI Biobased Industry. UNIBO pays a special attention to the Blue Growth and the Mediterranean participating to the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Med Area (PRIMA), being involved in the BLUEMED initiative and coordinating the Thematic Steering Group on Blue Growth of the EU STRATEGY FOR THE ADRIATICIONIAN REGION (EUSAIR) initiative. From November 2017, UNIBO has committed to play an active role as partner in the CSA FIT4FOOD2030, aiming at implementing the EU FOOD 2030 Strategy. Moreover, UNIBO is an affiliate member in the Climate-KIC and core member of the EIT Raw Materials. At National level, UNIBO ranks second for competitive research funding from the Italian Government, is part of the National Technological Cluster on Agrifood (CLAN) board of directors, the SPRING National Technological Cluster on Green Chemistry and the Blue Italian Growth National Technological Cluster. From July 2019, UNIBO is funding member of the European Bioeconomy University, an alliance of the six leading research universities in the field of bioeconomy, whose aim is to foster the transition to a sustainable bioeconomy in Europe through innovations in the education, research, innovation and public engagement.
