Danube Academies meet in Ulm
From 16 to 17 of April 2015, high-level representatives of 11 Academies of Science met in Ulm. The 6th Danube Academies Conference focused on Innovation and Technology. Special attention was given on funding opportunities of EU programs H2020, EUREKA as well as to the Danube Strategy. Around 40 guests, among them scientists, industrial representatives, policy advisers and representatives of the EU-institutions participated in the event. Among them also Danube-INCO.NET representatives.
Jürgen Raizner, Director of Steinbeis Danube Center, and member of Danube-INCO.NET consortium pointed out in his presentation that innovation needs more than research. The economy and society have to be taken into account. This is one subject that is covered by Danube-INCO.NET: to linking stakeholders and decision makers from science, economy and public sector in order to solve societal challenges.
Funding opportunities, given by EUREKA have been presented by entrepreneurs who showed on concrete examples how they benefit from the funds. Clear message to participants was that both programs should be taken into account while EUREKA procedures are easier to understand and to manage than the Horizon program. The two day event also covered various and important aspects from social and political area. The European identity through migration and culture evolution was discussed as well as water-ethics and de-contamination.
Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner for European Neighbourhood Policy & Enlargement Negotiations, expressed his support towards the Danube Academies of Science via video message. He also took the chance to express his gratitude to all the people involved in the process of developing the Danube Region and their devotion to finding the best solutions to harness it at its true potential.
The 6th Danube Academy Conference was organised by the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Salzburg and the University of Ulm. Next Conference is foreseen to take place in Ljubljana 2016.
