The approval of five proposals (from a total of 12 submitted by respective Regions in the country) for the Poles of Innovation of the Operational Programme 'Competitiveness' was announced by the Ministry of Development. The approved proposals are from the Regions of Western Greece, Western Macedonia, Thessaly, Central Macedonia and Crete.
A committee, made up of European researchers acting as experts of the EUs Directorate-General for Research, was responsible for evaluating the Poles of Innovation. As mentioned in the relevant announcement, the above proposals were deemed mature and are being put forward for financing. The proposal of the Region of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace required further elaboration in order to receive funding, whereas proposals from the remaining Regions were deemed as lacking in maturity or sustainability in order to be recommended for funding in their current form.
The General Secretariat for Research and Technology is expected to proceed shortly to legal and administrative procedures so that the Poles of innovation, their administrative plan and their financing can all take place as soon as possible and within the time limits of the CSF III.
Regarding non-financed proposals from the remaining Regions of the country, the goal of the Ministry of Development is to create a web of research-entrepreneurial and innovative structures for the entire country, homogeneously distributed across the land. Based on this policy, the Ministry will re-announce the Programme 'Poles of Innovation' in the 4th Community Support Framework. These Poles of Innovation will constitute a continued project in the operational Programme 'Entrepreneurship/Competitiveness'.
The Regional Poles of Innovation constitute associations of agencies from the private and general public sector created with the goal of boosting technological and innovative performance in the Regions of the nation and increasing competitiveness of the regional economy. Participating agencies are Universities, Technological Education Institutes, enterprises, chambers and other agencies that develop activities relevant to the above goal in the Regions. With this intervention, cooperation at the Regional level between manufacturing agencies and knowledge-producing agencies, as well as other agencies such as associations of enterprises or service-providing agencies, are being sought. The programme concerns all the countrys Regions except Attica.