On April 22th 2015 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, ICT Cluster presented to companies - members of the ICT Cluster Plovdiv funding opportunities for innovative projects under EU programs.

Speakers at the seminar were Peter Stattev, Anna Naydenova and Krasimira Shindarov.

To the participants were presented the objectives, specific requirements, practical application guidelines and evaluation criteria of the SME instrument under the Horizon 2020 programme and EUREKA programme

The event attracted great interest and broad discussion among participants.

Presentation for Horizont 2020 programme
Presentation for EUREK programme

Transnational competition "DORA - DonauRaum App Award" for young talents from the Danube region.
Young talents from the Danube region are invited to submit their idea of an app and a first prototype or concept. A high-level jury will judge the applications and choose the best ideas.
The finalists will be invited to an Award Ceremony and to a workshop which are likely to take place as  part of the Annual Forum of the European Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR).
The best three ideas will be awarded a prize.
1st place:        3000,-€
2nd place:        2000,-€
3rd place:        1000,-€

Information and news: www.donauraumapp.blogspot.de
Application: www.donauraumapp2015.istart.org
Application period: March, 31st - June, 1st 2015
Announcement of the finalists: End of July 2015
Workshop & Award Ceremony: likely to take place as part of the Annual Forum of the EUSDR on October 29th, 2015 in Ulm/Germany

The USAID Partnership for Innovation (PI) project from BiH, together with the USAID REG project and the GIZ Open Regional Fund project for supporting the regional IT Promotion, are organizing a SEE IT conference, that will be held in Sarajevo, BiH, on 21st and 22nd of May, 2015.
SEE IT (South-East European Information Technology) conference will gather ICT clusters / associations, both mature and young ICT firms, and companies from other industry sectors that use ICT technologies in their business.
The goal of this conference is to broaden cooperation among participating business entities to implement joint projects with companies (of all sizes) abroad, as subcontractors for product development or as implementers of software products. .
Мost of the leading IT associations / clusters / centers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece,  Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania and Serbia have confirmed participation for the event. They are also recruiting their member companies and as soon as there is interest/participants from the target markets, we will match them for tailored one-on-one meetings!
Please invite companies to register on the B2B matchmaking platform: http://seeitcon.talkb2b.net/
The conference will gather participants also from Netherlands, Norway, Slovenia, Sweden and Turkey.
Conference agenda http://seeit.ba/program/
Register your participation here http://seeit.ba/event-registration/
The participation at the conference is free of charge..
For accommodation details, please refer to the contacts listed here: http://seeit.ba/contact-page/

 Brussels, 16 February 2015 - PIN-SME responded to the public consultation of the European Commission on the interplay between patents and standards. The document aims at giving an SME perspective on complex issues that regard the treatment of patents in standards, such as the pricing of royalties, the transparency of licensing negotiations, patent pools, fair competition etc. Read the PIN-SME Position Patents & Standards. http://goo.gl/UOM4Y1

Standards make available new technologies by disclosing and sharing innovation. As such different companies, including SMEs, can implement and contribute to a complex technological ecosystems. The success of standardization in complex technological sectors depends on the willingness of companies to disclose and share their proprietary solutions. Inevitable tensions exist between those who own the intellectual property and the vendors who implement the standards into sellable products. The right balance between these conflicting business models is necessary in order to encourage all parties to invest in standardization and implement the standardised technologies.

Telecommunication and consumer electronics industries have been particularly affected by the patents and standards debate. In the last years, the so-called “standard essential patents” (SEP) have spurred disputes and litigation among giants. Companies such as Apple, Intel, Ericson and Nokia among others are at the centre of this debate. Although SMEs are less visible, they are important stakeholders since many of them need standards to build their products and they are in many cases contributors to standards.

Besides the disputes that are happening in courts and the debate that is public on the media, Standards Setting Organisations are moderating the discussions among their members with a view of adapting their patent policies. At the same time, the European Commission has launched a public consultation by which it aims at gathering information and views on the interplay between standardisation and intellectual property rights (IPR).

The ETSI special committee on IPR is the body where ETSI members, in particular manufactures and telecom operators, discuss the IPR policy of the organisation. Currently, an important item of discussion is aimed at giving better guidance on the meaning of Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory (FRAND) licencing terms that every member who contributes to a standard commits to respect. Indeed, the lack of a unique and transparent way of interpreting FRAND is a big obstacle for SMEs who implement standards since they are incapable of predicting the licencing costs related to the placement on the market of a new product.

This month IEEE, an international standards body that releases commonly used technical specifications for some ICT fields such as WiFi, announced significant changes to its IPR rules. A very controversial issue is that IEEE wants patent charges to be based on a percentage of component price, not whole device price, as has been the norm. If this will save vendors billions of dollars between them, on the other hand it will hit significant holders of IPR with a risk to discourage future contributions to standards.

On its side, the European Commission closed its public consultation on 15 February. All the major players and other stakeholders, including PIN-SME, submitted their contributions. For the time being it is still not known what will be the next decisions of the Commission on this topic. The hopes of PIN-SME on behalf of the SME community are that the Commission helps to streamline a framework where great uncertainty combined with high legal costs create barriers for SMEs.

Cluj Innovation Days 2015 will take place on March 19th and 20th. This is the third edition of this annual event organized by our cluster, an event which has been profiled as one of the most important of its kind this part of the European continent. This edition is dedicated entirely to the subject of technological transfer under the conference motto "From Knowledge to Market Value".

More information is available on the conference website at www.clujinnovationdays.com, which will be constantly updated.

You can become a speaker in one of the tracks, either in the business focused one or in the technical one. There are two conditions all speakers must fulfill:
1. have good command of English
2. propose a subject that has practical values. It’s expected a study case which showcases very well a completed technological transfer process. By that we mean concrete examples of products or services that are already or are about to be marketed in a business environment and which were generated in a research initiative or are result of a innovation process.

For such a proposal please send them to Bianca Muntean, at speakers@clujit.ro, she will handle your proposals. For any other questions regarding Cluj Innovation Days please contact: iustinian.sovrea@clujit.ro

На 10 февруари 2015 г. в залата на община Пловдив се състоя първата среща клъстерите в Южна България.

В срещата взеха участие клъстери-членове на АБК, клъстери от Южна България, представители на различни институции – инж. Иван Тотев – кмет на Община Пловдив, проф. д-р Михаил Петров – директор на ТУ София – клон Пловдив, н.с. Георги Врагов – Институт по математика и информатика БАН и представител на ФНТС Пловдив, Петър Ганев – старши икономист в Института за пазарна икономика.

След представяне на клъстерите участници в срещата се състояха няколко дискусьонни панела. Бяха обсъдени теми за клъстерното развитие, включващи: „Политика на ЕС за развите на конкурентоспособни клъстери“, „Рамковите програми на ЕК касаещи бизнес клъстерите и конкурентоспособността на бизнеса“, „Предизвикателства и перспективи за развитие на бизнес клъстери в Южна България“ и др.

Срещата завърши с пешеходен тур – „Пловдив Античност с Бъдеще“, последван от нетуъркинг джаз-сешън „Българският клъстерен бизнес по световния път на пловдивския джаз“ – Бели, Зелени, Червени / Огнян Видев, специално организирани за всички участници.

The aim of the memorandum is to establish a closer cooperation between the two organizations which are committed to work in the field of intelligent transport and "green" economy in Bulgaria and in the region.

The two clusters will examine the possibilities of developing national, regional and international partnerships in various areas related to the implementation of innovations and intelligent solutions in the field of transport, leading to increase the efficiency of the sector and to increase the impact of the environmental protection and reduction of the carbon emissions.

The business organizations will focus on the implementation of projects and transfer of European and international best practices in the field of intelligent transport systems.

Cluster Green Freight Transportation was founded in 2011, Sofia as the first Union of vertically integrated business operations in Bulgaria in the field of mobility of cargoes. The cluster combines all transport modalities in the country - terminals, forwarders, brokers and operators. Strategic goal for the development of Cluster Green Freight Transportation in the long term is a possible natural development as Bulgarian intermodal operator to fill the gap between shippers, consignees and rail transport.

On 12 December 2014, in Istanbul Turkey, ICT Cluster has organized the kick off meeting of the Balkanand Black Sea ICT Clusters Network. The meeting gave opportunity to partners to meet each other,present their organizations and activities and discussed future development of the Network.

The presentations from the meeting you can find here:
BBS ICT Clusters Network Kick off Meeting, Istanbul, Turky, 12.12.204
Alena Palasheva - ICT Cluster Plovdiv
Brano Vujicic - ICT Association of Chamber of Commerce FBiH
Burcu Uslu - ODTÜ Teknokent
Dritan Mezini - Albanian IT Association
Marina Blagojevic - Serbian Clusters
Milena Terzieva - Bulgarian Cluster Telecommunications
Nektaria Berikou - Corallia
Rustu Arseven - Tübifed
Peter Statev - ICT Cluster
Yiannis Kotsis-Giannarakis - HAMAC
Zana Karkin - BIT Alliance

In Brussels, 19 Nov 2014 - The European Telecommunication Standards Institute members elected Mr. Peter Statev as Vice Chairman of the ETSI General Assembly.

The same day, Mr. Sebastiano Toffaletti was elected as member of ETSI Board. Mr. Statev and Mr. Toffaletti were canditated by Small Business Standards (the European association representing SMEs in the standard making process at European and international levels).  The candidates represent SBS’ network and work in the ICT sector, particularly focusing on representing SME interests at European level.

Upon his election, Mr. Statev said: “My duty will be to use my knowledge, experience and professional network in order to represent the interest of all European SMEs and ICT entrepreneurs in ETSI, as well as continue the positive dialogue with the large industry players. Interoperability and standards are necessary to create the conditions for European SMEs to grow.”

ICT Cluster is a partner in the project “Bridging business and vocational training”- Bulgarian-German project to improve employment opportunities for young people in Bulgaria.

The project aims to improve the quality of education and access to employment in Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine. The "European integration of Southeast Europe" supports educational reforms in these countries through the development of qualifications and credit systems in accordance with EU requirements, allowing transparency and comparability of diplomas and qualifications across Europe. Thus partners acquire competencies to develop new educational programs. Supported by a number of representatives of industry and business organizations, universities and the National Agency for Vocational Education and Training.

The project is implemented by both Bulgaria and a numerous countries such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine.

A meeting of the Working group for ICT of “Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation” was held on November 8th 2014 in Yerevan, Armenia. Mr. Peter Statev – Chairman of the Managing board of ICT Cluster, presented the “Balkan and Black Sea ICT Clusters Network” before the representatives of the countries members of BSEC. The initiative was supported by Bulgaria, Rоmania and Turkey. It is expected the other countries members to state their position, soon.

The “Balkan and Black Sea ICT Clusters Network” was launched at ICT conference in April organized by ICT Cluster and “Ministry of Transport Information Technology and Communications” in the framework of  the Bulgarian chairmanship of “Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation”. The network has 16 members from Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Serbia, Rоmania, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

You can showcase your best use of information and communication technologies in front of our judges and Europe, and win our Jubilee 20 years Discobolos award.

JISA - Union of ICT Societies in cooperation with the CEPIS - Council of European Professional Informatics Societies, EEIG - European Economic Chamber of Trade Commerce and Industry, regional chambers of commerce, information technology associations and numerous ICT experts compiled an international jury that will announce the most interesting solutions in use of information technologies in the following categories: Production, Project, Management, Public services, Finance, Health, Education, Services, Web achievements, Professional ICT conferences, Radio and TV Shows, ICT Publishing and Global partners.

Your APPLICATION must be filled on the website www.jisa.rs and should contain a brief description of the solution in desired category. It will be distributed among all members of the eminent jury for analyses, and by the collecting their points we will get this year's main and special awards.

The competition is open until 15th November 2014.
The award ceremony: is scheduled for 10th December 2014, Belgrade city Assembly Old Castle, in the presence of eminent guests from Europe and Serbian government.