In 2000, at the Lisbon European summit, the European Union defined the objective to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge economy on a worldwide scale. This woud be achieved by acquiring considerable resources from a 55 billion dollar increase in the Research & Development budget for the 2007-2013 period. In the European parliament's latest proposals, the objective is to double the budget allocated to European research and innovation programmes for the next financial period, 2014-2020, in order to meet the challenge of the current financial crisis and address major common issues, but at the same time to define more precisely the general funding system and in-depth research, education and innovation integration.
R&D funding represents a significant potential source of funds for companies. However these funds can be difficult to access for two reasons. Firstly an in-depth knowledge is required of European and national funding instruments. Secondly it requires a thorough understanding of fiscal incentives that are made available through local laws and legislations.
In order to optimize the gains of these direct and indirect funding instruments, multi-disciplinary expertise is essential as it includes financial, fiscal and scientific elements.
Speakers: Damiano Nesi, Martinho Santos Silva, François Le Stang and Jean Trimbour (Kurt Salmon)