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EIT ICT Labs: Danube Innovation Summit held in Budapest

Over 80 representatives of more than 10 countries took part at the first Danube Innovation Summit in Budapest, on the 4-5th of December, 2014. The main objective of the conference was to provide a forum for all stakeholders of the innovation eco-system in the Danube region, including the industrial, academic, and governmental sectors. Participants represented R&D institutions, innovative SMEs, and European and regional research and innovation programmes and projects.

The conference was opened by the welcome speech of Professor László Vajta, Dean of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics of BME, followed by the presentation of Professor Zoltán Horváth, Director of the Budapest Associate Partners Group of ICT Labs, the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) established the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). The programme continued with presentations by the Hungarian National Innovation Office, the Ministry of Human Capacities, FILAB Association and the Mobility and Multimedia Cluster. Presentations by representatives of international organisation, including EIT ICT Labs, Digital Factory, Demola Open Innovation Platform and Fraunhofer Foundation were received with great interest. There were interesting presentations about European programmes and projects, including the current H2020 opportunities, the FIWARE accelerator, and EUREKAEurostart. The web platform, developed by the SEETechnology project, was also presented, that connects innovative enterprises, projects and R&D institutions in the South-East European region.

The many positive feedbacks, received from the participants after the event, support the organisers’ intention to continue this initiative, not only with organising the second Summit in 2015, but also with creating a permanent framework for cooperation in the Danube region, the Danube Innovation Community.