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Innovation Relay Centre

In January 1998 MATIMOP began coordinating the Israeli IRC - Innovation Relay Centre as a part of the EU RTD Framework Programme. The Centre is an independent office partially funded by the EU Innovation programme. IRC-IL is linked to a network of centres across Europe.

• What is an Innovation Relay Centre?

• Inside an IRC

• How your IRC helps you do Better Business

• Your Link to Technologies and Partners across Europe

• Innovation Relay Networks

• Technology Transfer Projects

• Contact Information

What is an Innovation Relay Centre?

The Innovation Relay Centre advises organisations - especially small businesses - on technology and innovation. It also helps them identify technology needs; identify suitable technologies to match these needs; give assistance on exploitation and advice on the EU Research and Technology programmes.

Each Relay Centre is an independent office backed by funding from the European Union's Innovation Programme. Through each centre companies and institutions have links to many other relay centres located across Europe.

The primary goal of all Innovation Relay Centres is to create an exchange of information between organisations across Europe. This gives your organisation a direct link to partners and potential buyers of the technologies that you have developed, or potential sellers of the technologies you may need.

Inside an IRC

Each Innovation Relay Centre is staffed by professionals with experience in business and technology. The Centres have been selected to represent the European Union Innovation Programme in your area for several reasons:

• Because they have in-depth knowledge of the technology needs of local industry - especially Small and Medium-sized Enterprises

• Because they have been evaluated as the best resource in each region for advising organisations on technology transfer, innovation and related business questions.

• Because they have displayed the ability to develop services that meet the specific needs of the industrial fabric in your region.

• Because they have in-depth knowledge of the European Union Research and Technology Programmes.

How your IRC helps you do Better Business

Your link to companies and institutions across Europe,the Network of lnnovation Relay Centres helps information and contacts flow in two directions. Outward - from your organisation to interested partners or buyers for your technologies; and Inward - toward you from the Centres in other European regions.
The IRC can distribute details of your organisation's innovative products, processes and technologies through the network of Relay Centres across Europe.
Other services include advice on the exploitation of technologies in your market; training and consulting services tailored to the specific region served by each centre.
In addition to reacting to your requests, the staff of your Relay Centre also plays an active role in the local business community. Their task is to examine the specific needs of your region's industrial community and propose services to help local organisations compete more effectively in export markets.

These services can include:

• Research - Providing market research and survey information.

• Training - Organising training sessions on new technologies, legislation or market developments.

• Networking - Holding meetings to bring your organisation into contact with other companies or institutions.

• Exchange of ideas - Sponsoring seminars to help you inform your staff of business techniques such as Total Quality Management, Value Management, patent and intellectual property rights, environmental responsibility; and presentations on new technologies, etc.

Your Link to Technologies and Partners across Europe

The Innovation Relay Centres can provide you with fast and clear answers to these questions.

Have questions like these have ever crossed your mind? If you have been thinking about how your organisation can tap into a network of organisations in other European regions, to cooperate on projects and exchange technologies, the European network of Innovation Relay Centres is your first contact point.

The Relay Centre Network

The network of IRC's has become one of the cornerstones of a European infrastructure for the dissemination of scientific and technological know-how, the aim of which is to promote the transfer and exploitation of research results and technologies in accordance with the needs expressed by the local industrial fabric. Priority - but not exclusivity - is given to Community results.

The network is composed of individual IRC's, placed where possible in existing organizations with experience in exploitation of research and technology transfer. They are selected in such a way as to assure optimum geographical coverage. The network is coordinated by a central unit, managed by the Commission, and where appropriate, by national coordinators at national level.

The tasks of the IRC include:

• promotion of awareness of exploitation of R&D and technology transfer;

• examination of the scientific and technological needs of local industry;

• active diffusion of information and promotion of the exploitation of R&D results and technology transfer corresponding to needs expressed at local level;

• assistance to local R&D players for the promotion of their results and technologies at transnational level;

• provision of information on relevant regional, national and Community financial support schemes for exploitation, technology transfer and innovation;

• training activities on the exploitation of research and technology transfer;

• the organization of actions aimed at facilitating a better appreciation of technology availability and demand (technology transfer days, VACRO days, etc.).

Furthermore, measures have been taken to allow an exchange of good practice and technologies through the network, to provide the network with information on Community RTD programmes and results and to provide an interface between the IRC's and specific programmes. These measures provide another avenue for the exploitation of R&D results facilitating interalia, the search for partners and the eventual signing of licensing agreements.

Technology Transfer Projects

Technology transfer projects (TTPs) are intended to promote the diffusion of technologies within the Union and, in particular, to provide technological solutions to the needs perceived by industry and to overcome the obstacles to the circulation of technologies. They should promote efficient cross border transfer mechanisms (sector to sector, region to region), complementing initiatives laid down in the Member States, of facilitating technology propagation via demonstration and of fostering a general understanding of the transfer process.