1 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Opportunities for women in business to get involved in European research projects Funded under the ETI scheme of the DG Research Program on Research and Innovation

2 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Promoting participation of women entrepreneurs to FP 6 Funded under the ETI scheme of the DG Research Program on Research and Innovation WomEn2FP6 Predecessor Project: WomEn2FP6 Contact

3 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Regions that participated in WomEn2FP6 Germany / Baden-Württemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs BW and as Co-ordinator: Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum IRC Belgium / Brussels Brussels Enterprise Agency –IRC and CERACTION Sweden / Möndal Industrial Research and Development Corporation-IRC Swedish National Federation of Resource Centres for Women NE Ireland / Dundalk Institute of Technology East Poland, Warsaw Information Processing Centre -IRC Poland East Hungary, Hungary Technology Transfer and Software Development Enginneering Ltd. France / Brittany Bretagne Innovation Italy / Rome, Innova S.p.A. Regione dell Umbria Spain / Aragon Instituto tecnológico de Aragón - IRC UK / Yorkshire and Humber Beta-Technology Ltd Germany / Thuringia, THÜRINGEN innovativ GmbH 60 regional stakeholders WomEn2FP6

4 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Challenge of WomEn2FP6 1.Why is the WE´s* participation in European Projects low 2.How to reach WEs? *WE = women entrepreneurs WomEn2FP6

5 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Challenge of WomEn2FP6 Why is the WE´s* participation in European Projects low?  WE are not reached by mainstream information and support schemes for European Research and Technological Development (EU-RTD)  WE are not reached by standard presentations, EU slogans, EU acronyms, EU language  No adequate awareness measures  Once interest is raised, WE have no space for explicit questions on the procedures, the risks and the resources needed *WE = women entrepreneurs WomEn2FP6

6 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Lessons learned in WomEn2FP6 How to improve WE´s participation in European Projects?  WE are reached via regional networks they are familiar with and use  WE specific schemes of “awareness raising” and “training” should be developed:  Targeted information events/information days for WE with presentations on FP 7 -showing benefits to the business -showing examples, success stories -building trust for networks and consulting services -showing no EU slogans, no EU acronyms, EU language -having space for questions on the procedures, the risks and the resources needed WomEn2FP6

7 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Lessons learned in WomEn2FP6 How to improve WE´s participation in European Projects?  Gender awareness for National Contact Points  Links in websites with information on EU-RTD events and calls  Database with WE profiles from interested countries covering multiple expertises (Life Sciencee/Health, ICT, socio-economic etc.) WomEn2FP6

8 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Impact for the WE in the regions Awareness on EU RTD lead to  Significant increase of participation of WE in mainstream information events on EU RTD  Participation in EU RTD projects  Participation in other EU projects like Interreg, eContent, etc  General interest in cross-border cooperation Women Entrepreneurs have learned: WE are important actors in European Research and Innovation WomEn2FP6

9 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Impact of WomEn2FP6  on FP 6 project applications  55 times WE integrated in FP 6 proposals  44 different proposals submitted 6 IP, 13 Strep,15 SSA, 7 CRAFT, 2 Collective  14 proposals successfully approved 3 IP, 3 Strep, 6 SSA, 1 CRAFT, 1 Collective (1st stage)  Output concerning regional stakeholders  61 commitments  Output concerning Women Entrepreneurs  800 trained in innovation and EU RTD  175 expertise profiles disseminated  255 matching of proposals and WE profiles  55 integrations of WE into proposals WomEn2FP6

10 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Other Impacts – Impact on stakeholders / policy making…  Formation of a group of stakeholders on regional and national level to integrate gender issues into research, innovation and technology policies (Sweden, Hungary)  Raised awareness for regional and economic development stakeholders on potential of WE  Raised awareness for women in science on EU RTD / FP 7 opportunities WomEn2FP6

11 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey The challenge of WE-Mentor Apply experiences gained in WomEn2FP6 in “how to motivate women entrepreneurs to participate in European projects and trans-national cooperation” to 4 “mentee countries”:  2 candidate countries (Romania,Turkey)  1 associated country (Israel) and  1 third country (India) via 4 experienced “Mentor countries”:  Belgium, Germany, Italy and United Kingdom WE-Mentor

12 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Participating Regions in WE-Mentor Germany / Stuttgart Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum/IRC (SEZ) Belgium / Brussels Brussels Enterprise Agency/IRC (Bea) Italy / Rome Innova S.p.A. (Innova) Romania / Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR) Turkey / Istanbul Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGIDER) Mentor regions Mentee regions UK / Doncaster Beta-Technology Ltd (Beta) Israel / Kiryat-Shmona Galilee Technology Center (MIGAL) India / Bangalore Interactive Technology, Software and Media Association (ITSMA) WE-Mentor

13 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Twinning of the 4 mentor and mentee regions: India / Bangalore Interactive Technology, Software and Media Association (ITSMA) Israel / Kiryat-Shmona Galilee Technology Center (MIGAL) Romania / Bucharest Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania (CCIR) Turkey / Istanbul Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGIDER) Germany / Stuttgart Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum/IRC (SEZ) Belgium / Brussels, Brussels Enterprise Agency/IRC (Bea) Italy / Rome Innova S.p.A. (Innova) Belgium / Brussels, Brussels Enterprise Agency (Bea) UK / Doncaster Beta-Technology Ltd (Beta) Germany / Stuttgart Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum/IRC (SEZ) Participating Regions in WE-Mentor Main mentor Assisting mentor WE-Mentor

14 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Why trans-national research co-operation? Multiple advantages of trans-national research cooperation: access to innovate products and processes sharing development risks with European project partners whilst reducing costs transfer of know-how between competent European research gateway to new markets intercultural exchange of methodologies and strategies WE-Mentor

15 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey The way forward for the mentee regions 1.Mentors visit the mentee regions  To understand about regional environment and existing infrastructure  To support measures for WE  With emphasis on WE working in areas which are likely to benefit from technology research WE from companies engaged in research or development Women managing companies interested in using new and innovative technologies WE interested in new product development WE-Mentor

16 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey The way forward for the mentee regions 2.Each mentee designs a regional consortium of stakeholders to support the project for the implementation of the workshops and activities in the mentee regions. Incubators National Contact Points WE-Mentor „Women and Job“ WE Associations Chambers Governmental Bodies WE-Mentor

17 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey The way forward for the mentee regions 3.Mentors visit the mentee regions to train regional stakeholders with focus on:  How to participate in a European Research Project  How to find project partners  How to write a successful proposal 4.Training sessions in the mentee regions for WE will be organised by the regional WE-Mentee project partner and the stakeholders that have been trained before. 5.WEs will include their cooperation profiles in a specific internet database to find project partners for European cooperation 5.Stakeholders from the mentee regions will participate in 2 study tours to learn about measures supporting WE a.Germany / Stuttgart b.United Kingdom / Doncaster WE-Mentor

18 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Women in business Get involved in European projects! WE-Mentor

19 WE-Mentor Enterprising women in European Research mentoring India/Israel/Romania/Turkey Contact webpage under construction: Co-ordinator Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum Innovation Relay Centre Willi-Bleicher-Str Stuttgart / Germany Dr. Petra Püchner/Valerie Bahr Phone: +49 (0)711/ Supported by the EC / DG Research Under the Economic and Technological Intelligence (ETI) scheme of the Sixth Framework Programme Project Officer: Dr Iphigenia Pottaki, Unit M4 Research and SMEs WE-Mentor