“IST-BONUS” Services to Facilitate Participation in the EU Framework Programs

ARC Fund has joined an international IST-BONUS consortium supported by the European Commission (under the FP6 IST Program) which will support organizations from the new EU member states (NMS) and accession candidate countries (ACC) in identifying appropriate projects, forming research partnerships and project consortia, and benefiting from the EU funding opportunities to develop new technologies, products and applications in the areas of e-business and e-work.

The kick-off meeting of this project (see agenda here) took place in Thessaloniki (Greece) on 18-19 April 2005. The project is being implemented by 12 partners with complementary competencies and practical expertise, including the International Environment and Quality Services North Greece Ltd. (Q-Plan N.G.) as coordinator of the initiative, the University of Bremen (BIBA) in Germany, the Middle East Technical University (SRDC) in Ankara, Turkey, the University of Ulster (NIKEL) in the UK, ALTEC S.A. Information and Communication Systems from Greece, the Business Innovation Centre (BIC) Bratislava, the Politechnika Wroclawska WCTT in Poland, the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (OMIKK), Asociatia Romana pentru Industria Electronica si Software (ARIES) in Romania, Hill & Knowlton Eesti AS in Estonia, and Santucci & Brown International of Malta.

The IST-BONUS project is mostly targeted at upgrading the participation of organizations from the NMS & ACC into the IST Priority of the Sixth, and the future Seventh Framework Programs of the European Commission (starting in 2007) both in quantitative and qualitative terms, particularly regarding two wide areas: e-business and e-working technologies and related state-of-the-art applications; which can have significant impact on Europe’s competitiveness, sustainability and societal cohesion. IST-BONUS aims to facilitate the transition of competent NMS & ACC organizations from ‘research followers’ (that is partners with low capability to influence the course of research) to ‘research leaders’ (coordinators or major partners of European RTD projects). To achieve this ambitious endeavour IST-BONUS implements actions divided in two groups: (i) conventional’ activities - targeting a large number of interested organizations in the participant countries, and (ii) ‘go beyond’ activities based on a set of ‘Research BONUS’ Services (incl. research audits, SWOTs, PR research profiles, elaboration of Action plans and Roadmaps to excellence in IST, networking with EU-15 research leaders and EC services) – targeting only a selective number of highly motivated and competent organizations. The ‘conventional’ activities will concentrate on increasing participation mainly in quantitative terms. Under the chosen approach, the project activities will evolve in three levels of maturity: (a) Promotion / publicity and awareness creation, (b) Info-days and practical tutorials, and (c) Networking / brokerage events within the context of international IST conferences. The ‘go beyond’ activities will focus particularly on qualitative objectives targeting to increase the number of (i) highly networked organizations from the NMS & ACC, (ii) major research players, and (iii) competent coordinators focusing primarily on the new instruments launched by the European Commission in the current 6FP – Integrated Projects (IPs) and Networks of Excellence (NoE). To maximize its impact the project is supported by a web-portalincluding a user-oriented database of organizations to facilitate networking and provide valuable information. The IST-BONUS tasks will be implemented over a period of 24 months (officially starting in March 2005).

The IST-BONUS contact person for Bulgaria is Ms. Dinka Dinkova, Program Director of ARC Fund.

IST-BONUS is only one in a portfolio of projects which ARC Fund is currently implementing with the goal to better inform, sensitize and prepare the Bulgarian research community and innovative SMEs to participate more actively in the European programs for research and technological development. Participation in such programs is considered a strong incentive for innovation and greater competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy.



Other related projects:

- EuropeanIST
- Get-IN