Europa Media's Blog

FP7-Winter Academy 2012

europamedia — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:16:51 +0000

We spent last week at the Velence lake, which is approximately an hour away from Budapest next to Székesfehérvár. It’s still not clear to me if this would be the second or third largest lake in Hungary (wikipeida tells it’s the 3^rd) but what is clear is that it was a very nice, interesting and fun week

As the name suggests, FP7 Winter Academy is mainly about FP7 at least day time. Evening time was spent in the spa, in the restaurant and in the bar or at the ping pong table. The weather conditions helped to give the real feeling of a Winter Academy, the lake was frozen and it was all beautiful white outside.

One evening we went for a tour to Budapest with a guide, and I also learnt something new, in addition what I already knew about Hungarian history and culture. It was about the Hungarian language. Apparently it’s a visual language and an example to illustrate could be the word „Egészség” which means health, but literally means „the state of being complete”. This was very interesting for me.

Personally, I also learnt many other things from hours of conversations, all kind of topics and lots of joking. I’ve told it before, but for me the greatest thing with the trainings must be all the people with different background and from different countries coming together for a few days to enjoy each others’ company and share experiences. I also somewhat improved my ping pong skills even if not enough to win the tournament. Maybe next time

Bodil

The power of information

europamedia — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 04:55:12 +0000

I woke up before 5am today with a slightly paranoid idea in my head. It is still there, so I am wondering if anyone has a hypothetical solution.

What if the coordinator withholds information from the partners that they should know? It is not an existing case, but because of a friendly discussion I had a few days ago the idea does not want to go away.

Let’s say that you will have a reporting deadline coming up and you have this feeling in your gut that should know about a problem the EC has with the project. I was thinking of a few reasons why the coordinator would not share.

Well, the first is the worst, which is that they are incompetent and let’s say they choose rather not to deal with the problem then getting embarrassed. Then there is the option that they do not want to bother the partners with problems, they will solve it because this is what coordinators do.

Or, they want to wait till they figure out the solution and then present the problem and the solution together to the partners. I am sure I could come up with something more creative, but it is too early for that.

So besides the fact that the coordinator has the contractual obligation to share the information with the partners what else I can come up with? Because of a gut feeling I do not go around and contact the officer, I might cause more troubles.

The psychological phases the partners are going through in such a case could be an interesting topic for analysis. Joking? Yes, but why not? Comments are welcome.

Gabriella

The perfection in the imperfection or the art of looking naturally good in the right moment :)

europamedia — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:18:37 +0000

Stand there, turn a bit, back and down with your shoulders, relax, smile, open your eyes, make your hair more lively but less wild, turn your head here and there, and just look NATURAL…

Last Friday was an unusual day at the office, Erika and Zsolt from Filmkovacs and even a make-up artist came to make photos of all the team for the new design of our website.

They were really nice and I especially admire their patience… I think at least I was not the easiest target, it is not so easy to look naturally good on command. Somehow, I always found something which I wanted differently with the picture. I guess I just wanted it PERFECT, but the perfection is in the imperfection, right?

The fun part has been the brainstorming for the new structure, text and design – everyone with ideas on what would be useful and what would look good, suggestions, contradictions and compromises, like it should be

So, now we are just waiting to get the pictures and in the meanwhile we are finalising the other parts of the site, I cannot wait to see the result!

/ Bodil

ICT Finance MarketPlace news

europamedia — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 08:02:27 +0000

The ICT Finance MarketPlace is an initiative delivered by three EU funded projects (YMIR, ICT VentureGate and ACCESS ICT) which aims to improve access to venture capital and other investment finance for innovative ICT SMEs and ICT research teams across Europe. The initiative facilitates the introduction of SMEs, which are active in EU funded ICT research and looking for financial partners to commercialise new technologies, to business angels, venture capital and to other investors seeking enterprises with innovative projects, which have the potential to become marketable products.

Read ICT-FMP_Newsletter and find the remaining upcoming events and activities in the programmes of each project as well as the main achievements accomplished over the last two years.

€ 21 million EU funding for trans-European energy networks

europamedia — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 09:21:21 +0000

2012 call for proposals under the trans-European networks (TEN)– area of energy infrastructures (TEN-E) – has been published.
Grants will be allocated to gas or electricity infrastructure projects and only to “projects of common interest” (as listed under Annex III of the guidelines for TEN-E) in the trans-European energy network. The goal is to encourage the effective operation and development of the internal market, reinforce the security of supplies and the diversification of energy suppliers and routes, facilitate the development and reducing the isolation of less-favoured regions, contribute to sustainable development and protection of the environment, inter alia by involving renewable energies. The TEN-E programme also aims to promote interconnection, interoperability and development of trans-European energy networks and access to such networks in accordance with current EU law.

Read more here in the official call page:
http://bit.ly/w31kEK

We also very much recommend to consult to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) to understand better which entities can participate, what type of projects are eligible, etc.
http://bit.ly/Aa19mf

The deadline for submitting project proposals is 29 February 2012.

European English…

europamedia — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:05:34 +0000

There are few native English speakers, or put it differently there are many more of us who have another mother tongue than English. Still we are working and communicating every day in English. We all use the grammar we’ve learnt in school, the words we’ve learnt from American movies and the technical terms from University books and by working. So far so good, but what do we really mean? What is a “good” and what does a deadline mean..? As the name suggests, the deadline should possibly be the last time to provide the information, but of course some deadlines are more flexible than other… Communication is cultural and I think the way we express ourselves in English is largely influenced by where we come from and our mother tongue. My favorite word is “however”, it suits well my Swedish inspired way of communicating or is it just me??

This picture I saw on facebook, check out what our native English friends really mean and what we understand..:)

Have a nice weekend!
Bodil

The pleasure of helping

europamedia — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:00:07 +0000

Someone recently asked me what I like the most with my job. One really good thing is to have the possibility to help people. To help people to obtain funding to implement their ideas, and to assist the implementation of the projects, to give advice for big and small issues. Of course lots of information is available but how to find it and how to interpret it? And isn’t it a bit crazy that the rules and procedures can be so different between the different EC funding programmes?

This is also why I like the trainings, people from all over come together for a few days to of course listen to the lectures and take part in the workshops, but also to learn from each others’ experiences. And actually EU projects is all about that, the best and surely most enjoyable projects are the ones where people are really cooperating and helping each other to obtain the goals.

I really liked this short movie, a nice reminder of the pleasure of helping and how we together can make it better.

Have a look and get inspired

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc8ZbVcdHpg

Bodil

Some days you need a funny joke…

europamedia — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 15:43:57 +0000

Sometimes you need to cheer up a colleauge. As today felt I had run out of jokes ( at least the funny ones… ) , I typed „funny jokes” in google, and this is what I found…

A man joins a big corporate empire as a trainee.

On his very first day of work, he dials the pantry and shouts into the phone – “Get me a coffee, quickly!”
The voice from the other side responded, “You fool you’ve dialed the wrong extension! Do you know who you’re talking to, dumbo?”

“No,” replied the trainee.
“It’s the CEO of the company, you fool!”

The trainee shouts back, “And do YOU know who YOU are talking to, you fool?!”
“No.” replied the CEO indignantly.

“Good!” replied the trainee, and puts down the phone.

http://www.jokesgalore.com/The-Trainee….html

Bodil

Presidency of the European Union – Denmark

europamedia — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:42:22 +0000

2012 has started and Denmark has taken over the Presidency of the European Union for the next six months.
The EU Presidency has mainly two tasks; to plan and chair the meetings in the Council of Europe and represent the Council towards the other EU Institutions (mainly EU Commission and the European Parliament. This work is done closely with the Permanent President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton.

Holding the Presidency gives some extra chance to influence the EU Agenda and the four priorities set by Denmark are the following:

A responsible Europe – sustainable growth and job creation requires sustainable public finances and necessary structural reforms.

A dynamic Europe – return of growth and higher employment in short and long term – the importance of a sustainable Single market.

A green Europe – enhance the transition to a green economy and focus on sustainability

A safe Europe – cooperation to ensure the security of European citizens and to solve cross border issues.

Green, dynamic, responsible, it sounds promising right, but let’s see in June what they have achieved.
And I think I’m not alone to feel worried for the implications of creating a safer Europe…
You can follow the Presidency activities at http://eu2012.dk/en

Bodil

Happy New Year and Welcome Moldova to FP7!

europamedia — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:45:12 +0000

Welcome Moldova to FP7!

As announced in October last year (official press release available here) the Republic of Moldova is an Associated country to the Seventh Framework Programme since 1^st January 2012.

FP7 is basically open for the whole world, but different rules apply to different categories of countries as well as the level of funding. The Associated countries are considered like “members of FP7” and can participate on the same conditions as EU Member States. In return they contribute financially to the overall FP7 budget.

Moldova is the 14^th country associated to FP7.
The others are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Faroe Islands, FYROM, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey.

According to the information available online, Moldova is not yet a partner in any FP7 funded projects, so let hope that this new step will help them to participate in bringing European science forward.
Welcome Moldova!