Innovation and Entrepreneurship

= Agreements and Action Items = ''These notes capture main agreements reached during the meeting. Minister Lucian Isar commented on all topics listed down the list, but only comments relevant for the cluster Entrepreneurship and Innovation are listed here. ''

Romania is undergoing quite some changes, including
 * the establishment of clusters
 * privatisation of public companies

Areas of relevant clusters
 * Cluj - Physical and virtual presence
 * Bucharest - IT industry
 * Timis - ??
 * ?? - Medical technologies (close relation to Moldavia and Ukraina)
 * Magureli(??) - Physics R&D, laser

The Norwegian way of entrepreneurship through "open" collaboration needs adjustments in order to become an operational model in Romania. Aspects are individual success versus cluster thinking, copyright, privacy of intellectual goods, investor network. A short discussion addressed the aim/process of becoming an innovation city.

The following action items were agreed on:
 * Bjarne/Truls to provide the process and contract for an Inner Circle membership to Cezar
 * Frank to provide a one page information on the NCE cluster in South Norway
 * Frank to provide the overview over the University network
 * Bjarne/Josef to provide a 3-5 page overview over the way to create clusters in Norway

= Agenda for Meeting on Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2. July 2012, 14:30-16:30h = Intro Welcome and Table Round (14:30-14:45)
 * Welcome (Josef)
 * Table-round (all)
 * Expectation of the meeting
 * Lucian Isar
 * Josef Noll

Session I: Innovation and Entrepreneurship (14:45-15:45h)
 * The Movation way for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Bjarne) - 10min
 * Business Accelerator Program (Bryan) - 10min
 * CWI: Academic and Industry Research (Frank) - 10min
 * Wider Technology View (Jonas) -10min
 * Innovation in Finance (Pelle) -10 min
 * Summary and Discussion

Session II: Cooperation and Projects (15:45-16:30h)
 * Romania as bridge-head for the Mediteranean and Eastern Europe (Bjarne) - 5min (no slides)
 * Area LifeScience: the cooperation outview (Jonas) - 5min (no slides)
 * Area Green Industry: envisaged projects (Josef) - 5min (no slides)
 * Open Discussion on further topics

End of Meeting 16:30h = Participants =
 * Lucian Isar (Minister of Economy, Commerce and business environment)
 * Cezar Armeanu (Minister Counselor, Commercial & Economic Promotion Office)
 * Dumitru Radoi, (Head of Department for Non-EU Countries, Minister of Economy, Commerce and business environment)
 * Radu Zaharia, (General Director, Government of Romania, Departement of Foreign Trade)
 * Bjarne Haugen (CEO Movation),
 * Josef Noll (Head of Research, Movation)
 * Frank Reichert (Dean, Faculty of Engineering & Science, UiA; Director of Center for Wireless Innovation Norway, CWI Norway)
 * Per Harald Strøm (Director of Innovation, NETS)
 * Brian Weissberg (Partner, Beta Factory)
 * Jonas Haavik (CTO and Partner, Caretech)

Other Topics

 * European Gateway Platform
 * 1. Port of Constanta
 * 2. Intermodal transport
 * 3. Logistics base factors (focus on VAT and customs)
 * European Strategy for Danube Region, focused on Romanian sector.
 * The new government concept about the privatization of state-owned enterprises, including some large state-owned energy companies and other industries.
 * The new growth poles in Romania: in Brasov - focus on the aviation industry, Iasi - R&D, medical regional hub, Cluj - IT concentration (Silicon Valley type), Constanta - logistics, re-export and transport; those will be followed by other growth poles to be released soon in Timisoara and Satu-Mare / Baia Mare.
 * The PPP's policy of the Romanian Government, designed to support incoming investors and business development.
 * The new cereals commodity exchange to be relaunched in Constanta area.
 * The Norwegian grants and a few projects linked on European Funds are on the proposed discussion Agenda of Mister Lucian Isar.
 * Other opportunities for bilateral relationships.

= Related links =
 * Information on EEA and Norway grants
 * Research opportunities identified in May/June 2012 between Romania and Norway