Draft Report of the Expert Group on International STI Cooperation to ...

o<strong>the</strong>r across <strong>the</strong>ir various locations and fields - create new channels for information
and discussing new perspectives. This is a role that is perfectly designed for industryspecific
PROs.
3. Absorb transaction costs which make partnering with non-EU partners costly.
Specific recommendations:
The additional survey on SMEs conducted as part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> EGs work (see annex 5) highlighted
several recommendations in line with <strong>the</strong> above principle discussion:
• SMEs need mediation for finding non-EU partners. This mediation should be sectorspecific,
facilitating <strong>the</strong> communication between potential partners, <strong>the</strong> exchange <strong>of</strong>
know-how, as well as <strong>the</strong> access to information. This could be achieved through
improving <strong>the</strong> services <strong>of</strong> Enterprise Europe Network by making <strong>the</strong> way <strong>of</strong>
contacting companies more efficient and by improving <strong>the</strong> match-making services <strong>of</strong>
<strong>the</strong> Network for identifying relevant partners for international STI collaboration (prescreening).
Improved, qualified assistance for project applicants, e.g. at EEN nodes,
should be available. Ano<strong>the</strong>r possible option is networking <strong>of</strong> networks -
collaboration with o<strong>the</strong>r non-European networks similar to EEN. The initial focus
should be on mapping such networks outside Europe, <strong>the</strong>ir coverage and mandate and
identifying opportunities for collaboration. Some examples are <strong>the</strong> networks
supported by <strong>the</strong> World Bank, and <strong>the</strong> regional networks <strong>of</strong> UNIDO.
• Building pilot infrastructures in non-European markets in order to better understand
<strong>the</strong>ir specific requirements. Some efforts on <strong>the</strong> EU level should be focused on
collecting appropriate information and statistics about <strong>the</strong> different industries and <strong>the</strong>
different markets.
• Information about <strong>the</strong> respective non-European international cooperation programmes
should be available.
• Reduction <strong>of</strong> red tape when applying for STI cooperation with partners from foreign
countries would be beneficial. Overhead for funded international cooperation is even
higher than for EU cooperation, so that <strong>the</strong> cost-benefit-relationship <strong>of</strong>ten is not in
favour <strong>of</strong> a proposal/participation. This should be considered in <strong>the</strong> funding schemes
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> EC for SMEs. Current bureaucracy is too complex, especially for SMEs. The
barrier to understand <strong>the</strong> requirements and <strong>the</strong> processes are too high to interest more
SMEs in participating in international STI. Therefore, ei<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> bureaucracy for
SMEs is reduced and simplified, or <strong>the</strong> provided support at <strong>the</strong> proposal phase for
SMEs is improved to accelerate interest in <strong>the</strong> international EC programmes.
• A promising approach to supporting international STI partnerships would lie in
supporting/establishing global Networks <strong>of</strong> Excellence in several technological fields
where <strong>the</strong> most important players in this field come toge<strong>the</strong>r and build trust.
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