TOWER pays 525,000 Euros to three new sub-projects!
On Tuesday 4 th of October the European programme TOWER approved three new sub-projects within TOWER INTERREG IIIC Operation. This funding will support projects to encourage business development, develop services to innovative SME’s, and also to promote best practice in the development of regional growth strategies.
At the TOWER Monitoring and Steering Committee held in Szeged, Hungary, some 525,000 Euros was allocated to three development projects within the five TOWER partner regions. The meeting was hosted by our Hungarian partner in the Del-Alfold region, South Great Plain Regional Development Agency. A total of five applications were recieved in this the second application round.
“The cooperation between these five partner regions is very stimulating and is now showing fruit”, said Deputy Governor of Östergötland, Magnus Holgersson, Chairman of the Monitoring and Steering Committee. “Theese regions are really devoted to this work on the subject of regional growth, and are clearly willing to invest in international development projects.”
“The programme has had a good start and the interest to work together and participate in sub-projects is growing”, says Anna Jacobson, programme manager. We have seen a number of interesting projects so far, and we are happy to see that several new proposals are under development.”
The following three applications were approved from the second call:
Rhône-Alpes, East Central Sweden and Gelderland
ABBA – Accelerative Bio Business ActivityDuring the coming two years this project will exchange experience and develop methods and tools for business development within the field of Life Science. The project is a cooperation between the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Lyon (FR), Development Agency East Netherlands (NL) and Universitetsholding I Linköping AB (SE). The aim is to develop and apply methods and strategies to improve business development in Life Science. ABBA covers two components focusing on early business development from idea to incubation, as well as issues related to business development in established companies. Within ABBA the three regions want to exchange experiences and learn from their differences (caused by regional circumstances and the development phase of a company or product). The methodology will be transferred to all types of SME’s. 265,000 Euros was allocated to the ABBA project, with a total budget of 530,000 Euros. ABBA is a cooperation between three of the five TOWER regions.
Contact information:
Gilles Gaquere, CCI Lyon, ph: +33 4 72 40 57 22, email: gaquere@lyon.cci.fr
North East England, South Great Plain, Gelderland, Rhône-Alpes and East Central Sweden
AFP – Analysis, Forecasting, PlanningThe objective is to examine and analyse the processes and mechanisms for the development of regional growth strategies. AFP will also look at tools and techniques for turning strategies into action. Within the partner regions regional toolkits will be developed for improved development strategies. This project is a wide cooperation between all of the five TOWER partner regions. Seven partners meet in this project to share experience and improve heir work with regional development processes. AFP was allocated 101,300 Euros with a total budget of 189,000 euros for 1 ½ years. The partnership is led by Cumbria County Council, and involved partners are: South Great Plain Regional Development Agency (HU), Development Agency East Netherlands (NL), Lyon Commerce International (FR) and from East Central Sweden Sörmland Regional Council, Uppsala Regional Council, and Örebro County Administrative Board.
Contact information:
Ian Hill, Cumbria County Council, ph: +44 19 00 32 59 22, email: ian@rstcumbria.org.uk
Rhône-Alpes , North West England , and South Great Plain
InnoCenter – Innovation CenterThe objective is to develop innovation centers, creating a central point of contact for providing services for SME’s developing new products. The partnership will develop an international pattern of Innovation Centers in order to improve the transmission of an innovation culture in SME’s. The methodology will be transferable to several types of structures. The project is a cooperation between the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Lyon (FR), Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Békés County (HU), and Eurofocus Cumbria Ltd (UK). By analysis and exchange of experience this project will build up regional innovation centers. The objective is also to build networks between public and private consultants and between public/private R&D and SME’s needs. The project was allocated 160,000 Euros for two years.
Contact information:
Stéphane Barbier, CCI Lyon, ph: +33 4 72 40 57 22, email: barbier@lyon.cci.fr
Short facts about TOWER:
TOWER - Towards Sustainable Excellence by Innovating regions - is a INTERREG IIIC programme in cooperation between five European regions with the overall objective to share and improve methods and tools for sustainable economic growth, to encourage long-term collaboration, and to improve economic growth strategies and programmes.
TOWER - Towards Sustainable Excellence by Innovating regions - is a co-operation between the regions of East Central Sweden, Sweden; South Great Plain, Hungary; North West England, the United Kingdom; Gelderland, the Netherlands and Rhône-Alpes, France. It is financed by the EU Interreg IIIC programme, which promotes co-operation between European regions on issues of regional development.
Within the TOWER programme, interregional sub-projects are the tools for developing innovative strategies and methods through exchange of experience and best practise between our partner regions. The programme focus on four thematic components:
- Strategies for sustainable economic growth in regions
- Strengthened technology infrastructure in regions and transfer to SME's
- Competitive and knowledgebased entrepreneurship
- Sustainable SME's
The programme runs for the period 2005-2007. Some 12 sub-projects will be financed by the TOWER programme, focusing on improvement of tools for stimulating entrepreneurship and sustainability, previously tested in national contexts. Each sub-project must involve partners from at least two partner regions. More information about TOWER can be found on the programme website: www.towerprogramme.com