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SMEs
go Health Newsletter |
Newsletter Volume 2, No 6 - August 2008|
In this
issue
part in FP7
Project
coordinator is |
UPCOMING EVENTS
The second Virtual Brokerage Event took place early June 2008
 SMEs go Health International Information and Training Workshop on FP7 at EuroBIO 2008 (7 October 2008 - Paris)
If your organization is a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), research institute, university, industry or association, or if you are a representative of bio-clusters or bio-incubators, use this opportunity to become well trained and prepared for a participation in FP7 research projects! For those who would like to participate in small European industrial projects in the field of biotechnology, please note that there will be a presentation of the EUROTRANS-BIO Programme on the 8th of October 2008, at 11:30. More information here. Publication of the Third HEALTH Call postponed to September
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The SMEs go Health team of experts in 29 countries organised the second Virtual Brokerage Event on 9-13 June with the aim to contact individually potential partners from SMEs, R&D Centres and Universities in order to stimulate new project ideas and new consortia for the 3rd HEALTH Call for Proposals. 
Get a one-day training on participation in FP7 research projects - free of charge! Be trained by experts via the SMEs go Health initiative: In this training, comprehensive information about FP7 will be provided with focus on the research areas in HEALTH. Success stories from coordinators as well as experiences from an evaluator will give a closer insight into the advantages and challenges of EU-projects. A special focus is given on financial aspects: tips and tricks for cost planning including a calculation example! 
Due to internal consultation procedures within the European Commission, the publication of the 3rd Call for the HEALTH Theme has been postponed to September 2008. According to the new schedule, the publication date will most likely be the 3rd of September 2008, with a deadline for submissions on the 3rd 
EFBIC Red, an EU-project aiming to strengthen the cooperation between Chinese and European scientists in the area of life sciences, health and biotechnology, has launched a call for Expressions of Interest (EoI) for "Action 2: Reciprocal exchanges of scientists and policy makers".NEW PROFILES
New profiles uploaded during the Virtual Brokerage Event
159 new profiles were registered and 35 new Partner Searches have been entered in the SMEs go Health database during the Virtual Brokerage Event period from 9 June to 13 June, 2008.
You can access the profiles and partner searches at:
www.smesgohealth.org/common/ContactsLogin.asp
The "SMEs go Health" network was created in order to assist SMEs and academia in their European R&D strategy and successful participation in FP7. The Virtual Brokerage Event (VBE) is a valuable instrument in this context to support the building of competitive FP7 consortia. Feedback from participants in the last VBE shows that around 52 % felt that they profited from this event. 54 % of participants received profiles that were relevant to their research, and 95 % aim to participate in the next VBE 2009.
TIPS & TRICKS TO TAKE PART IN FP7
Two successful SMEs go Health European Partnering Days in Krakow and London!
The Partnering Days offered a brilliant opportunity to bring SMEs, academia and other research institutions together from all over Europe aiming at initiating cooperation for joint research projects for the upcoming 3rd HEALTH Call. The first Partnering Day took place on 17th June 2008 at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, whereas the second Partnering Day followed shortly after on 20th June 2008 at the King’s College in London, UK. Our invitation led to a remarkable response, with participations from around 50 delegates in Krakow and 75 delegates in London, arriving from countries all over Europe.
During the morning session, the participants profited from very interesting presentations given by different experts. Most importantly, Mrs. Beatrice Lucaroni and Mr. Jean-Luc Sanne from the European Commission gave a clear and informative insight into the HEALTH theme and the upcoming 3rd HEALTH Call. Amongst other speakers, two SMEs reported their experiences from participating in or coordinating an EU-funded project. In addition, two evaluators presented how a good project should be
prepared and how projects are evaluated – as a view from the "other side".
In the afternoon, the participants had the opportunity to take part in bilateral meetings that were arranged prior to the events via a specific online matching tool. Two participants sat together at a table for 30 minutes, discussed their expertise and project idea, and then moved on to the next bilateral meeting. The feedback was enormously positive, as the meetings offered the chance to meet a lot of different researchers from all over Europe in only one single day.
Organizers, speakers and participants were all very satisfied with the Partnering Days. For all those who could not participate or would like to be informed about the event, the programme and presentations in .pdf format are available for download on the SMEs go Health website here.
Success stories / quotes from clients...
TOBI - Targeting OBesity-driven Inflammation
TOBI is a Collaborative Project (Small or medium-scale focused research project) funded in the first HEALTH call of the Seventh EU Framework Programme (FP7). It focuses on a problem of epidemic proportions in industrialized countries: Obesity. Specifically, TOBI sets out to analyse how obesity can trigger chronic inflammation, and aims to identify novel drug targets which could help to counteract the obesity-associated inflammatory processes.
TOBI started in January 2008 and will last for three years, until December 2010. The project is coordinated by the Medical University of Vienna and the consortium is composed by ten partners, three of which are SMEs. Daniel Mascher from Pharm-Analyt, one of the SME partners in the consortium, emphasises the interdisciplinarity of the project: "Since I am a physicist/chemist and not a medical doctor, I could not have come up with such a project proposal on my own".
The TOBI coordinator, Thomas Stulnig, characterizes the task of "coordinating the interests and activities of expert partners and focussing them to a single project within given financial constraints" as a "very exciting experience". Because of several questions on the call topic and formal requirements that had to be clarified during the preparation of the proposal, the support of the “SMEs go Health” partner as “link to the EU” was highly appreciated. Based on the successful "TOBI" experience, Thomas Stulnig provides two recommendations for "FP7 newcomers": To start as early as possible to look for potential project partners, and to involve a professional project management/grant writing agency in the consortium.
Newsletter by EuroTop.
