1st EAI MEETING

Verona, Italy

The 1st meeting to discuss the possibility of forming a European Alliance for Innovation took place on 16-17, February 2009 in the beautiful city of Verona, in Northern Italy. The meeting lasted one day and a half, in which the participants had the chance to exchange ideas in regards to the European state of innovation and ways to improve it.The meeting was attended by the following organisations ETSI, CEPIS, Informatics Europe, COST, CREATE-NET, PSCE, ICST, the Open Living Labs, EIT which addressed the current situation in the European innovation scene.

The meeting identified and recognized a set of key principles and action items necessary for fostering innovation (as seen in the summary report). Participants in the meeting agreed to share these recommendations with key players in Europe including regulatory bodies such as the European Commission, organizations and institutions expressing interest in the outcome of this meeting, among whom are EATCS, EICTA, Engineering/Nessi, Focus Fraunhofer, EVCA, EUREKA, EIFN, PBN, CREATECH, Gesellschaft für Informatik, plus other key actors in Europe whose contributions are necessary for a successful drive for European innovation, research promotion and research exploitation.

The participants agreed to move forward with an Alliance in support of the Lyon initiative through actions (listed in the summary report) that can be implemented in the near term by providing a concrete set of proposals and action items necessary to realize the grassroots vision that was formulated in Lyon: In particular, the participants at the meeting in Verona proposed that a grassroots movement for research and innovation be fostered through the establishment of an Alliance founded on a highly collaborative Web 2.0 environment.