Turn your (business) ideas into reality

The first call for innovative R&D project proposals from Maltese manufacturing companies has just been made by Malta Enterprise during a presentation launching 'Eureka', a pan-European Network for innovation.

Addressing entrepreneurs, Ing. Evan Stringos, Eureka's national programme co-ordinator at Malta Enterprise, explained that this was the first ever Eureka call inviting companies to come forward to be considered for the subsidy of their research and development costs under the Eureka scheme. Projects would start after next June and the call for applications closes at the end of April.

This initial call is a pilot one, he explained, until Malta became a full member of the Eureka network, hopefully after Eureka's ministerial conference in June. After that, there would be more frequent calls since Malta Enterprise would then host the national Eureka office in Malta and the national project co-ordinator, in line with its view of supporting development of the local industrial sector, as was also explained by Ing. Ray Muscat, Malta Enterprise CEO, in his opening presentation at the launch itself, where he explained that Eureka helped companies to hook up to large programme platforms.

The afternoon event also saw the active participation of Christine Simeone from the Eureka Secretariat in Brussels and by Dr Mike Beunder from Cavendish Kinetics, who gave an overview of Eureka and a case study of a Eureka project, respectively.

They both referred to Eureka as a catalyst for turning one's ideas into reality and gaining access to national public funding. Further information about Eureka can be obtained from Ing. Stringos at Malta Enterprise or at www.maltaenterprise.com/eureka.