Eureka is a European initiative to support R & D cooperative transnational, which aims to promote international projects aimed at developing a product, process or service with a clear commercial interest.

Currently there are 38 countries with European Union members in good standing of Eureka: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Croatia, Denmark, Slovenia, Spain, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, European Union; Countries National Information Points (NIP) as Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgaria, and associated states such as South Korea.

Objectives

The Eureka program of technology cooperation is aimed at boosting the competitiveness of European companies through joint implementation projects implemented technological development, aimed at developing products, processes and / or services with a clear commercial interest in the international market based on innovative technologies.

Types of projects

EUREKA projects must meet the following characteristics: innovation, market potential, partnership firms, research centers, consortia European technological and bottom-up approach. " That is, are generated from the bottom up, participants devise and decide on project characteristics and the scope and resources.

These projects can cover any area and are of various types:

• Standard projects.
• Large Projects.
• Umbrellas projects.
• Cluster Projects.

However, certain guidelines can make a program through umbrella projects, defined as scenarios that cover related thematic technological areas considered of strategic importance for governments and industries.

Eligibility

• Participation of companies from at least two full members countries Eureka.
• Develop a technological cooperation project on a topic of common interest
• for participants, and for the benefit of their countries.
• The result should be a product, process or service of a civil nature, innovative and close to the market.
• Adequate technical, financial and organizational participants, to ensure the technological and commercial success.

Financing

Each country takes over the financing of their enterprises and institutes. EUREKA supports the approved projects through a seal of quality that, in addition to being a promotional and recognition of the technological level of the promoter, the creditor makes public funding, which in the case of Spain is particularly favorable.

Therefore, finance is decentralized and each country informed the participants about the different national funding instruments available.

Management

The EUREKA program is permanently open call and requires a minimum of bureaucracy that runs on a decentralized basis through the Eureka office of each country participating in the project. The Eureka National Project Coordinator (NPC) review the relevance of proposals submitted under this program.

More information: EUREKA Network CDTI