European Innovation Week in Taiwan a great success! – TGN

The ECCT participated in a number of activities from 30 May to 3 June 2016 that were part of European Innovation Week (EIW), a series of Information and Communication Technology (ICT)-focused events. EIW was organised by the European Commission in cooperation with Silicon Europe Worldwide and the European Cluster Collaboration Platform and key partners in Taiwan related to ICT, both from competent government agencies and research institutes including the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the Board of Foreign Trade (BoFT) and the Department of Industrial Technology (DOIT) under the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and from industry, the ECCT, the Taiwan Computer Association (TCA) and the Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (TEEMA).

To participate in EIW, the European Commission led a delegation to Taipei consisting of representatives from business, main ICT clusters in Europe, officials from the Directorate General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW) and the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT). They participated, together with government, academic and business representatives from Taiwan, in seminars on the subjects of smart industry, smart mobility, smart healthcare, 5G and nano-electronics. Additional seminars also covered opportunities for EU-Taiwan cooperation in ICT under the EU’s Research and Innovation Framework Programme, Horizon 2020 (which runs from 2014-2020) and is the EU’s largest ever funding programme dedicated to research and innovation with a budget of €77 billion.

In addition to seminars, business to business (B2B), business to consumer (B2C) and cluster to cluster (C2C) matchmaking meetings were organised between the European delegation’s companies and cluster members and Taiwanese companies and clusters registered for the event. These meetings were organised through the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) platform, a network of around 600 business support organisations from more than 60 countries, which helps SME’s realise business opportunities in the EU. Taiwan has been an EEN member since 2015 through a consortium comprising TAITRA, ITRI, TEEMA, NarLabs and the ECCT.

The opening ceremony featured remarks by guests of honour representing the organisers and supporting organisations. They were Antti Peltomäki, Deputy Director General, DG GROW; Dr Lee Chih-kung, Minister, MoEA; Francis Liang, Chairman, TAITRA; Richard Lee, Managing Director, TEEMA; Giuseppe Izzo, Vice Chairman, ECCT & General Manager, ST Microelectronics; Simon Hwang, CEO, TCA and Peter Simkens, Chairman, Silicon Europe Worldwide. Full story to follow.