High level meeting on Innovation, Information and Communication Technologies: Supporting SMEs development through access to innovation and ICT
UfM Headquarters, Barcelona, 5-6 October 2015
Innovation is at the heart of economic and social development as it helps improve productivity and competitiveness. The economies of the Mediterranean countries have made progress in developing innovation policy frameworks. Nonetheless, one of the remaining challenges is increasing the level of integration of SMEs in networks supporting the introduction of new technologies.
In this context, the Secretariat of the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM) and the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) are co-organising a high level meeting on “Innovation, Information and Communication Technologies” on the 5th and 6th of October 2015 in the Headquarters of the UfM Secretariat in Barcelona.
In view of supporting SMEs access to innovation, the meeting aims at sharing ideas and best practices that could inspire private and public actors of the region as well as other stakeholders to develop frameworks and tools that can further promote the use of the information and communication technologies for entrepreneurship and job creation in the Mediterranean.
Participating actors and experts from the region will discuss how policy-makers can develop and reinforce a business and inner friendly ecosystems favourable to innovation.
The meeting is organized in the framework of the UfM Mediterranean Initiative for Jobs – Med4Jobs. Developed by the UfM Secretariat, Med4Jobs is a cross-sector initiative driven by the need for an integrated regional initiative in the area of job creation, aiming at increasing the employability of youth and women, closing the gap between labour demand and supply, and fostering a culture of entrepreneurship and private sector development. In particular this action falls under one of the three pillars of the initiative: “Start-ups enablers”, being the other two “Employability” and “Job Intermediation”.
The event will be structured around four main sessions:
- Overview of the ecosystem of innovation and ICTs
- How to improve the skills and enhance policies to foster innovation
- Exploring new means of funding for technological innovation
- Best practices and success stories
