Spain is maintained as European power in the Eureka programme.

-The General Secretary of science, technology and innovation, Román Arjona, has welcomed the good results

-Spain appears as the third European power of this program, behind Germany and France

– this position is based on the quality of the Spanish proposalsrecognized in the EUREKA Awards with three Spanish companies finalists

Spain, July 2012.- the past Friday June 22 has held the XXVI Eureka Ministerial Conference, which has brought together the ministries responsible for the Pan-European initiative of collaboration technology EUREKA, composed of 40 countries and representatives of the European Commission. The Conference closes the Hungarian Presidency (July 2011 – June 2012) with a strong impetus both to the governance of the programme and initiatives associated with it.

The Ministerial Conference has recognized the success of Eureka as essential instrument to promote the competitiveness of European industry, in particular SMEs, through its model of r & d to market-oriented transnational cooperation.

The General Secretary of science, technology and innovation, Román Arjona, headed the Spanish delegation and at the end of the Conference was pleased by the results and the excellent trajectory of Spain’s participation in this program. It also reiterated the importance of Eureka to strengthen the competitiveness of Spanish companies, SMEs in particular, in line with the national strategy Spanish.

During the Ministerial Conference highlighted two main points: the need to promote access to new financing instruments promoting greater involvement at the regional level in Eureka, and the role of the Eurostars programme, as a priority instrument for the financing of innovative SMEs.

In relation to these two points, the Secretary-General stressed the need to promote the smart specialisation ” as means to improve the use of the financing for the available r & d both at the regional, national and European level, as well as Spain supporting the program Eurostars 2.

To date, the EUREKA programme has allowed implementation of 4.452 innovative projects with a budget of 30.294 million euros.

Eureka Innovation Award 2012

Spanish companies are betting on EUREKA: 1.054 4.452 projects approved to date, have Spanish participation, with a budget associated large 27% of our participants more than 1,869 million euros, in which 48% of members are SMEs, companies, 14% research centres and 8% universities. Number of generated projects, Spain is located behind Germany and France, becoming one of the engines of this initiative.

This year the BLACKSPOT project, led by the Spanish company Isidro de la Cal-Fresco, S.L. has obtained the Eureka Innovation Award 2012 award, which rewards that project Eureka whose development has had an outstanding achievement of technological and commercial, as well as a significant social impact.

Isidro de la Cal-Fresco, S.L. has developed, in collaboration with the company Nutreco, a technology for the cultivation of the sea bream, transferable to the industrial sector, which makes it possible to introduce this marine fish as a new species for aquaculture in Europe and also allows their exploitation on an industrial scale.

Is noteworthy that this year the two finalists of the EUREKA Innovation Award 2012 ” are Spanish: Rodau, S.L. and food industries from Navarra, S.A., and have led the projects EUROAGRI+OLEA and HPREADY MEAL, respectively.