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The 7th Balkan & Black Sea Conference “DofC 2016” is a definitely grown into a leading cluster-based economic development event in the SEE. The DofC on the topic “Creating Cluster-Based Economic Development for a Sustainable Region“ will be held from 22th to 24th September, 2016 in Ohrid in Hotel “Inex Gorica”.

With the rise of ever more advanced, digital technologies, policy makers and high-level management in both the public and private sectors, need to fully understand the effects and social, economic and regulatory implications brought about by these technologies. Policy makers need to move from traditional, fixed policy designs, towards more flexible, technology-neutral designs that would allow developing future-proof policies adapted to a changing environment.

The European Commission's Research and Innovation Observatory (RIO) at the Joint Research Centre has published the second edition of the RIO country reports, which assess the evolution of national research and innovation systems and identify key challenges. These country reports provide a wealth of knowledge by detailing the policy developments in the R&I area at national level, analysing the level of public and private funding for R&D, assessing the quality of the science base and the level of implementation of the European Research Area (ERA) priorities, describing the framework conditions for research and innovation (R&I) and the links between industry and academia.

New data and features have been added to the European Structural and Investment Funds open data platform.  These include visualisations for all 533 ESIF programmes 2014-2020 (accessible via the country pages) including financing and expected achievements based on common indicators (where available), finances dataset updated to reflect adopted programmes as at June 2016,

A digital compass for decision makers: toolkit on disruptive technologies, impact and areas for action.

The information day addresses potential applicants to the Horizon 2020 'Smart, green and integrated transport' calls for project proposals under the 2016-2017 Work programme. Presentations will cover the various topics open for submission and the application procedure, as well as provide detailed information on the calls.  

The aim of the event is to give the research community an overview of ongoing activities in the following PPPs : Factories of the Future, Energy-efficient Buildings, Sustainable Process Industry and European Green Vehicles Initiative. Support will be given for the preparation of proposals for the 2017 calls. The event will be web streamed and recorded. After the event, all presentations and links to the recordings will be published on this page.

The Knowledge Centre for Migration and Demography (KCMD) is a new European Commission initiative on better knowledge management for sound EU policy making. To strengthen the Commission’s overall response to the opportunities and challenges related to migration, the KCMD aims to be the point of reference to support the work of Commission services and Member States on migration and related issues. It will allow for analytical and networking activities accompanied by a repository of relevant research and new initiatives to deepen knowledge and understanding.

Europe has a long history of pioneering. Europe has an established tradition of breaking new ground, exploring unchartered territories and discovering new options in scientific research, in the arts, in political governance and new systems for organizing society and addressing societal challenges. Throughout history, individual pioneers – the many names we know from schoolbooks and heroic stories – and diverse pioneering cities and regions have excelled in creating breakthroughs that have changed society and led to our modern world.

Policy labs have an important role to play in the modernisation of public administrations and the ways policies are shaped and delivered. With user-centred, experimental and holistic approaches they can be instrumental in ensuring that public policies and services can meet citizens’ needs and expectations.

Innovation is not a phenomenon that occurs in a vacuum, it is intimately linked to local conditions and eco-systems and one of its key drivers is the complex interaction between the economic, scientific, academic, human and intellectual capital stock of a given area or region. The Macro-Regional Innovation Week intends to focus on the exchange of best practices and knowledge among local and international policy and decision makers, academics, financial actors and various types of innovation and technology transfer practitioners.

Today, we announce the finalists for the 2016 edition of the RegioStars Awards, the yearly competition honouring Europe's most inspiring and innovating regional projects supported by EU Cohesion Policy Funds. 

An independent RegioStars Awards Jury, led by MEP Lambert Van Nistelrooij as Jury President, selected 23 finalists from 104 entries on the basis of four key criteria: innovation, impact, sustainability and partnership.