Collaborative Approaches in City Development
The call for Eco-innovation proposals 2013 is now open and waits for your proposals until the 5th of September 2013. The total budget available for the 2013 Call is almost 31.6 Million Euros.
Eco-innovation Programme which was launced in 2008 as a sub-programme of EIP (Entrepreneurship and Innovation Programme) under the wider CIP (Competitiveness and Innovation Programme). The motto of the Eco-innovation programme actually explains well the subject of the programme: “When business meets the environment…” so Eco-innovation initiative supports the projects which have impact on both environmental objectives and economic growth.
The aim of the programme is to prevent or reduce the environmental impacts and to contribute to the optimal use of resources. Therefore, the good ideas are expected for innovative products, services and processes that protect the environment. There isn’t any sector restriction to apply the programme. However, specific priorities are given for the sectors below:
- Materials Recycling
- Sustainable Building Products
- Food and Drink Sector
- Water
- Greening businesses
Besides the sectors below, a special priority will be given to the projects which includes SMEs in the consortium of the Project and which can be replicated across the EU. The people who wants to apply to this call, firstly should pay attention that Eco-innovation projects are not the research Projects and they should be ready for the use of business and industry after the Project ended.
The deadline of submission of the proposals is September 5, 2013. Almost 31.6 Million Euros are allocated for this year’s call and the projects will be funded by 50% of the eligible Project costs. Since the launch of the programme, nearly 200 projects have been funded by the EC and Turkish Organizations are in 10 of these projects. If we have a look at the statistics of the call of the last year; 284 proposals have been submitted in the Call 2012 and 45 of them have been funded due to the limited budget of the call (34,83 million euro). Around 67% of the participants are SMEs in the submitted proposals and 64% in the selected. This shows that the Call 2012 notably succeeded in covering the priority given to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).[1] According to five priority areas, the highest share was on Green Business (33%) and it was followed by Recycling, Water, Buildings, and Food and Drink in the Call 2012.
If you are planning to prepare a proposal or to participate in a consortium for the Eco-Innovation Call 2013, firstly it is highly recommended you to visit the official website of the programme (http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/index_en.htm) and look into the previous funded projects and then attend to the European Information Day 2013 which will be held on May 27, 2013 in Brussels.
Aslihan Kagnici, May 21, 2013
References: http://ec.europa.eu/environment/eco-innovation/index_en.htm
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