Public Participation in Developing a Common Framework for the Assessment and Management of Sustainable Innovation

ARC Fund is a premier Bulgarian research NGO, established in 1991, active in the field of research and innovation policy, as well as the promotion of the knowledge-based economy. ARC Fund is engaged in applied research and analyses, public policy support and advocacy, capacity building, training, and innovation brokerage in various areas such as environment, energy, food quality and safety. Relevant projects in these fields in which ARC Fund was a partner include SPRING - Scoping China’s Environmental Research Excellence and Major Infrastructure: Foresight, Potentials and Roadmaps, whose aim was to promote research collaboration between Europe and China in order to address common environmental challenges, as well as SWITCH4FOOD - Services for Water and Integrated Techniques for Food Industry, which aimed at identifying methods for more efficiency utilizing wastewater and recovering energy from the food production process. Recently, the organisation has began work on a SEE project, EnVision2020 - Energy Vision 2020 for South East European Cities, which aims to assess the energy sector and energy consumption in South East European cities.

Furthermore, ARC Fund has established numerous contacts with the most relevant research organisations in Bulgaria, and has a sound network of contacts with more than 5,000 enterprises. ARC Fund has a track-record of successful international projects supported by the European Commission (FP4, FP5, FP6, FP7, CIP, Interreg IVC, South-East Europe), the World Bank, UNDP, USAID, and the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). Since 2001, ARC Fund has been developing its institutional capacity in the field of foresight as a new tool in science and innovation policy making. Over the years, ARC Fund has contributed to more than a dozen projects at EU level, applying foresight methods in fields like environment and new energy sources, research infrastructure, food quality and safety, participation of citizens in identifying future research priorities.. Relevant projects: ForeTech – Technology and Innovation Foresight for Bulgaria and Romania, FP5; FutureFood6, sectoral foresight for the future of food industry in 6 New Member States, FP6; CIVISTI, Citizen Visions on Science, Technology and Innovation, FP7; PACITA, Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment, FP7; CCIC – Complex challenges, Innovative Cities, focus on innovation in the public sector, Interreg IVC; RIFI, Research Infrastructures – Foresight and Impact, FP7. ARC Fund is a member of the ERAWATCH Network. It publishes an annual assessment report on the national innovation performance Innovation.bg following its own assessment methodology.

ARC Fund’s employees to be involved in the project implementatio:

Zoya Damianova is a Programme Director with 18 years of EU project management experience, with more than 60 projects in which she has been either the coordinator or member of the team. She is as well in charge of the strategic development of ARC Fund. Her current research focus is on: innovation in the public sector, social innovation, workplace innovation, environment and energy foresight studies and technology assessment. She is currently involved in the following projects: PACITA - Parliaments and Civil Societies for Technology Assessment; CCIC - Complex Challenges – Innovative Cities; EnVision’2020 - Energy Vision 2020 for South East European Cities; Eval-Inno - Fostering Evaluation Competencies in Research, Technology and Innovation in the SEE Region; BooGames - Boosting European Games Industry; and SPRING - Scoping China’s Environmental Research Excellence and Major Infrastructure: foresight, Potentials and Roadmaps. Zoya is a MSc in power generation and a MBA in corporate finance. She is as well an evaluator in FP7 and Erasmus-Mundus programmes.

Assoc. Prof. Teodora Georgieva has been a senior fellow at ARC Fund since 2008. She coordinates the work on the annual Innovation.bg report and takes part in the implementation of a number of EU projects under FP7. Her main projects include: ‘Inter Regional Cooperation for Valorisation of Research Results’; ‘Enhancing Bulgaria’s Competitiveness through Innovation’, ‘A Study on the Trends in Public and Private Investments in ICT R&D in Bulgaria and Romania’, and ‘The Contribution of Policies at the Regional Level to the Realization of the European Research Area’. Ms. Georgieva participates in the work of the Expert Council on Innovation at ARC Fund. In this role, she works on the preparation of analyses of the national innovation policy and the development of the national innovation potential.

Dr. Todor Galev is a senior fellow at ARC Fund. He is a sociologist and obtained PhD in the interrelated fields of science technology studies and sociology of innovations at the Technology Studies Group, Institute of Sociology (TSG - IS). He has over 10 years of experience in managing research and coordination projects in the field of science and technology development, innovation performance and corresponding national and EU policies. He is responsible particularly for research design of surveys and qualitative research studies, production of policy-oriented reports, and consulting policy makers.

Ventseslav Kozarev is a senior project officer at ARC Fund, he currently works on 7FP-funded “Parliaments and Civil Societies for Technology Assessment” project (PACITA) and the INTERREG-IVC funded “Complex Challenges – Innovative Cities” project (CCIC). His main areas of focus include the promotion of the concept and practice of technology assessment in public policy and decision-making both at the executive and legislative level, and the analysis of the potential for and realisation strategies for public sector innovation, its implications for citizens, communities, and businesses, particularly at the local level. Ventseslav Kozarev is currently pursuing his PhD in Management Studies, and has focused his research on the social responsibility aspects of strategic technology and innovation management.

Adriana Dimova is a project officer at ARC Fund, involved in research activities in the area of environment. Ms. Dimova also participates in the development and implementation of projects, focusing on domains like energy, innovation, sustainable surface transport, foresight, research collaboration and transfer of knowledge and know-how among member states as well as member states and third countries. Such projects, funded by the Seventh Framework Program and other financial instruments of the European Commission, include: “Energy Vision 2020 for South East European Cities,” (EnVision 2020), “Scoping China’s Environmental Research Excellence and Major Infrastructure: Foresights, Potentials and Roadmaps” (SPRING), “Transport EU-Western Balkan Network for Training, Support and Promotion of Cooperation in FP7 research activities,” (TransBonus), “Civisti – citizens’ involvement in identifying new research priorities for FP8.” Adriana Dimova holds a bachelor’s degree in European Studies from the American University in Bulgaria as well as a master’s degree in European Public Affairs from the Maastricht University, the Netherlands.

Blagovesta Chonkova is a project officer at ARC Fund, focusing on various topics related to innovation, most recently innovation in the public sector and social innovation. Ms. Chonkova is mainly involved in the preparation and coordination phase of EU-funded projects, currently working on Parliaments and Civil Society in Technology Assessment (PACITA) and Complex Challenges, Innovative Cities (CCIC). Blagovesta Chonkova has bachelor’s degrees in Economics and European Studies from American University in Bulgaria and a master’s degree in Public Policy from Central European University, Budapest.

Mr. Robert Hickey is a project officer at ARC Fund and has been involved in a number of projects focusing on technology transfer, environmental and energy policy, the evaluation of innovation systems, and overcoming regional barriers to research collaboration. His involvement in projects focusing on environment and energy include ‘Energy Vision 2020 for South East European Cities’ (EnVision2020), which focuses on developing technology roadmaps, policy implementation plans and joint energy priorities for the SEE partner cities as well as recommendations to relevant EU institutions. It also includes ‘Scoping China’s Environmental Research Excellence and Major Infrastructures: Foresight, Potentials and Roadmaps’ (SPRING) which focuses on achieving synergies between the different environmental topics under the 7th Framework Programme with Chinese research results and on providing guidance for Horizon 2020. He was also a member of the Working Group for the 2012 Innovation.bg report, ARC Fund’s annual assessment of the innovation performance and potential of the Bulgarian economy. He is a PhD candidate and his research focuses on the economics of energy efficiency in buildings.

Coventry University Enterprises Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Coventry University Higher Education Corporation. CUE operates under the Financial Regulations of the Higher Education Corporation (HEC). The Higher Education Corporation is required to present corporate accounts, i.e. accounts which state the activities of the higher education institution and its wholly-owned subsidiaries. To achieve this objective, certain rules and regulations must be followed, effectively defining a framework to allow the HEC to discharge all its financial reporting obligations. These rules are stated in Financial Regulations. The aspects that are covered in the regulations include separation of duties, audit, banking and cash, securities and assets, coding, payroll, purchasing, VAT and contracts which are externally audited. The accounting system used by Coventry University enables the HEC to comply with Higher Education Funding Council for England and HESA financial reporting rules. The Coding system enables income and revenue to be assigned to a particular project with the appropriate legal entity within the group.

CUE Ltd is an incorporated company and publishes its own annual accounts. All employees are employed by Coventry University. Staff and their costs associated with project/CUE activity are transferred to projects using timesheets and project specific codes. Staff who normally work within the University can work (with their employment costs transferred) with CUE and vice-versa, with the lead organisation determined by the type of project being delivered. This is the way in which the organisation can draw on the most appropriate expertise for the delivery of projects. The activity and experience of the University group should therefore be considered as CUE is able to draw on this alongside its own extensive experience to support project delivery.

Coventry University Enterprises Ltd (CUE) financial systems (i.e. ledger) are consolidated into the Coventry University group accounts. CUE has its own accountant as well as its own bank account. Activities, including projects activity delivered by CUE operate in and with project specific codes allowing clear identification of costs. CUE is part of a VAT group with CU and other subsidiaries and does not cross charge VAT.

Coventry University Enterprises (CUE) is the organisation through which the University runs much of its commercial, income-generating and business-partnership work. Coventry University is a forward-looking and modern university with a proud tradition of providing high quality learning and applied research, and an established presence regionally, nationally and internationally with over 13,000 students and 1,800 staff. Coventry University and its trading arm, Coventry University Enterprises (CUE), have extensive previous experience in the delivery of EU-funded activity; Framework experience dates from FP2, with further European collaborative management experience from lead and partner roles on CIP, Leonardo, INTAS, Socrates, INFO 2000, MLIS, Promise and EuropeAid projects.

Coventry University has outlined its contribution to tackling global issues in a new strategy. Six global issues – Grand Challenges – have been identified where applied research is needed and where the University’s expertise can have a significant impact. These are: integrated transport and logistics, digital media, ageing society, low impact buildings, sustainable agriculture and food and low carbon vehicles. CUE is one of the largest university enterprise organisations in Europe. It delivers business support to over 9500 businesses per year, offering an activity portfolio covering a broad spectrum from pre-incubation and incubation through to spin-out company formation and development, with internationalisation business advice. Coventry University will be a third party in this project, linked to Coventry University Enterprises Ltd.

Staff from CUE Ltd. to be involved includes:

Dr Clive Winters is the Assistant Director of CUE Ltd. He currently has responsibility for the delivery of projects related to business-university co-operation and the development of business support projects that link with the strategic direction of applied research at the University. He is a senior higher education commercial director with over 12 years of experience with current and past experience of working with funding agencies on research, enterprise support and technology transfer, and new venture creation within a Science and Technology Park and Higher Education innovation system environment.

The DBT is the parliamentary technology assessment institution of Denmark. It is an independent, non-profit, common good, corporative foundation SME, committed to technology assessment, foresight, knowledge-based decision-making, parliamentary advisory activities on science, technology and innovation, collaborative democracy and methodological research. The DBT works with a local, regional, national, as well as international perspective. It is specialised into interactive methodologies, involving trans-disciplinary research, stakeholder involvement, citizen participation, political deliberation and advice, and public communication. Especially in the domain of stakeholder and citizen consultation, connected to policy analysis, the DBT aims at being at the forefront of praxis. The DBT employs 10 researchers and 10 research assistants.

A number of experiences of relevance to the CASI project, and especially the tasks of which the DBT is responsible, should be mentioned. These include the fact that the DBT is the coordinator of PACITA under FP7, which is aimed at increasing European wide capacity and enhancing the institutional foundation for knowledge-based policy-making on issues involving science, technology and innovation using a range of methods such as cross-disciplinary expert studies, stakeholder involvement, citizen consultation and parliamentary discourse. The DBT was coordinator of the EUROPTA project under FP5, which established a globally recognised theoretical framework for public participation in technology assessment. The DBT has developed and implemented methodologies for participatory strategic analysis of climate adaptation strategies on a local/municipality/regional level. For example in the Baltic EU project BaltCICA. The DBT has been partner in several projects under FP5, FP6 and FP7, as for example ADAPTA, TAMI, CIPAST, PATH, MoM, PRISE, ForSociety, SurPRISE, BaltCICA, Resagora and BASE. The director of the

DBT was a member of the EU High-Level Expert Group on Foresight, and was coordinator of the long-term foresight FP7 project CIVISTI.

The DBT research team for CASI will consist of the following members of the DBT team, all highly experienced in methods for interactive technology assessment:

Director of DBT, Mr. Lars KLÜVER, MSc. Biology/Ecology. Lars Klüver has a status as an international expert in TA and foresight methodology, and has been advisor on a multitude of national and international research, foresight and technology assessment activities.

Researcher/ senior project manager at DBT Mr. Anders JACOBI, MSc. Sociology. Anders Jacobi has led several projects with sociological methods involving participation, interviews and questionnaire techniques. He is the coordinator of the FP7 project PACITA (Parliaments and civil society in Technology Assessment).

Project Manager at DBT Ms. Marie Louise JØRGENSEN, MSc in Public Administration. She has experience with national and international stakeholders, citizen engagement and public policy development. She is also a coordination team member of the global citizen consultation World Wide Views on Biodiversity.

Researcher / project manager at DBT Mr. Rasmus Øjvind NIELSEN, MA Philosophy. He specialises in transdisciplinary research on international technology governance. He currently participates in two FP7 projects on this subject, EST-Frame and Res-AGorA, and is preparing for his PhD. Previously self-employed project consultant in research and innovation.

Contact:

Head of Center, DBT International
Bjørn Bedsted
bb@tekno.dk

The Consumer Society Research Centre is research centre at the Department of Political and Economic Studies in the University of Helsinki in Finland. The University of Helsinki is one of the best multidisciplinary research universities in the world. The high-quality research carried out by the university creates new knowledge for educating diverse specialists in various fields, and for utilisation in social decision-making and the business sector. The University of Helsinki is an international academic community of 40,000 students and staff members. It operates on four campuses in Helsinki and at 17 other locations.

With its staff of 24 researchers with backgrounds in consumers studies, political science, economics and sociology, the Consumer Society Research Centre studies the development of the consumer society from the perspectives of societal structures and consumers. A problem-oriented and multi-disciplinary approach best describes the nature of research conducted. The centre makes critical use of participatory methods in its research work, conducts action research, and supports development of innovations by means of research. It also studies the impact of economic phenomena and politics on consumers and the consumer society.

The Consumer Society Research Centre (as National Consumer Research Centre 1990-2014 under the Ministry of Employment and the Economy before being merged into the University of Helsinki) has a long track record in policy-relevant research for national, European and international bodies. One of the main research areas at the centre is that of ‘Sustainable Living Environments and Innovations’. This research area investigates sustainable living and energy innovations, the life cycle in residential areas, the opportunities for citizens to participate in decision-making and how products developed by companies meet end-user goals. The research approach involves a user oriented approach involving various actors within society to steer the research at the centre. This research fits in quite nicely with the activities that will be undertaken within this action, as the connections between consumption and production must be fully understood. While sustainable innovation is not completely understood, both regulatory ‘push’, as well as market ‘pull’, are clearly both very important factors which exist in tandem. The centre has done much work to recognise this fact through its participation in the following select projects: Local adaptation and innovation-in-practice in energy efficiency and carbon neutrality (LAICA), Citizens’ forum – Sade, Contextualising behavioural change in energy programmes involving intermediaries and policymaking organisations working towards changing behavior (CHANGING BEHAVIOUR), Monitoring policy and research activities on science in society in Europe (Masis), and Strategic platform for innovation and research in intelligent power – iPower.

Dr. Petteri Repo (Title of Docent) works as a University Researcher at the centre. He has lead research groups focusing on living environment and innovations which have addressed topics relating to user-oriented technology assessment and user innovations for a sustainable knowledge society. He holds a PhD (Economics, 2000) from the Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration in Finland and is Adjunct Professor (Docent) at the Aalto University School of Business. He has published research on consumer policy and foresight, use of interactive services and user participation in product development. He has also co-edited a book on the domestication of new technologies.

Dr. Kaisa Matschoss works as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the centre. Her particular research focus relates to energy and environmental issues. Her current research interests lie in the fields of sustainable consumption and energy systems. Lately, she has explored emerging customer needs for smart grid applications. She has conducted surveys and focus group discussions studying consumer behaviour and decision making. Currently she is studying energy retrofit decision making, its barriers and drivers, of the existing building stock and the market potential of new energy efficiency services.

Dr. Minna Kaarakainen works as a University Researcher at the centre. She has a background in social sciences and welfare studies. Her recent research themes have focused welfare and social politics, client orientation and foresight. She has taught these themes mainly in the University of Eastern Finland. She is interested in social innovations and evaluation studies and also knowledge of tensions and trends that shape the role of the society. She has experience of several national EU regional projects and policy analysis and evaluation.

Dr. Mikko Rask (Title of Docent) works as a University Researcher at the centre. He has experience of several national and EU projects on citizen deliberation, technology assessment, foresight and sustainability policy. He has published widely on these themes in international journals, taught courses on futures studies and lectured in several universities. Currently he works in the project Transnational Deliberation – Elements of Influence in Transnational Deliberative Democratic Processes. Some of his previous projects include CIVISTI, CHANGING BEHAVIOUR, World Wide Views on Global Warming and the Future Concepts of Urban Housing.

Sozialforschungsstelle is a central scientific institute belonging to Technische Universität Dortmund (TUDo) (“Technical University of Dortmund”) as the legal entity. Founded in 1946, Sozialforschungsstelle is one of the oldest and - employing 40 researchers and 80 employees in total - it is one of the largest German research institutes in social sciences. Every year, Sozialforschungsstelle runs about 10-20 new projects, many of them European. Since the mid-1980’s sfs has carried out or participated in more than 100 European projects in cooperation with partners in nearly all countries of the European Union.

With its social scientific orientation, TU Dortmund’s Sozialforschungsstelle combines excellent research with active participation in the shaping of regional and organisational innovation processes. sfs projects are dedicated to the profound modernisation processes of work and labour towards the knowledge society considering aspects like new concepts of work and organisation, education and training, climate change and resource efficiency, knowledge management and new technologies. sfs works with and in networks and is fostering the European discussion on "social innovation".

Sfs has a long-term experience working in different fields of regional development, both in national and European contexts, especially focusing on labour policy, education and training. It undertakes joint-efforts with regional (in particular Dortmund) and national development agencies and policy makers in building networks and alliances and supporting their work. ICT-based or distance learning have always been in the focus. Today’s focus is on social innovation research, often in connection with environmental sustainability and climate change. Project examples are “Dynaklim” (focusing on dynamic adaptation of regional planning and development processes to climatic change), “Greening Technical VET” (focusing on the implementation of environmental awareness and green skills in the European steel industry) and “EdilMAP” (focusing on green skills in the construction sector). Staff of TUDo to be involved in the project include:

Jürgen Schultze is a senior researcher at Sozialforschungsstelle, co-ordinating the research area “Sustainable Shaping of Organisations and Technologies”. His main fields of work are sustainable (economic) development, strategic networking, social innovation in value added chains and clusters, and innovation dialogues for climatic adaptation and green production.

Antonius Schröder is a senior researcher and member of management board of Sozialforschungsstelle, responsible for European research. He is working in the research area “Work and Education in Europe” and has worked in and managed several European projects in the fields of social innovation (especially with regard to regional innovation strategies and green skills development), industrial change and social dialogue, continuous vocational training, evaluation, organisational and personnel development. He is a member of the European Steel Technology Platform ESTEP.

Mona Markmann is a research assistant at Sozialforschungsstelle. She works in the research areas “Sustainable Shapings of Organisations and Technologies“ and “Education and Labour in Europe”. Aside from CASI she focuses on the aspect of economic underpinnings of social innovation and on the inclusion of marginalized groups.

Despite the fact that the University of Primorska (UP) is a relatively young university, the Science and Research Centre of Koper (UP ZRS) has much experience and competences in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation. Members from both the Faculty of Management as well as from the Science and Research Centre, (especially from the Centre for Cooperation with Economy) have been involved in several projects oriented at strengthening innovation and cooperation between the private and public sectors. Both organisations have participated in different Eufinanced projects and have experience in many different territorial Cooperation and Structural Fund financed projects. (“Centre for Cooperation with Economy” is a department of the “Science and Research Centre of Koper.” “Science and Research Centre of Koper” and the “Faculty of Management” are both part of the UNIVERZA NA PRIMORSKEM UNIVERSITA DEL LITORALE, which is one and only legal entity for the CASI project.) Here is list of some of recent and most relevant projects:

• Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP) Enterprise Europe Network 1 (2007-2009, 2010-2012, 2013-2014) – Advisory Services for strengthening EU-based Business cooperation, Technology and knowledge transfer and R&D cooperation;
• CIP Specific Action UHO (Let's listen to the Entrepreneurs) (2009-2012) Interactive policy making-feedback mechanism;
• Project FIDES - From Intellectual Property to Business: Developing an Environment for Start- Up companies, project within IPA CBC programme Slovenia-Croatia 2007-13 (on-going);
• FP6 SS-ERCsocial Sciences and European Research Capacities (2006-2009). Strengthening the role of social sciences in order to improve the quality of scientific and technological research, an area of the knowledge-based society;

University of Primorska and Science and Research Centre of Koper’s staff to be involved in the project includes:

Aleš Lipnik is the head of the Centre for Cooperation with the Economy at the University of Primorska, Science and Research Centre. His main field of work and research is oriented at innovation policy studies and services for supporting entrepreneurs (especially SMEs) and cooperation between industry and academia. He was/is a member of different regional, national and EU-based working and expert groups from the field of innovation and economy. He has much experience in different EU based projects in the fields of innovation and economics.

Prof. Dr. Mitja Ruzzier is an associate professor of entrepreneurship and international business at the University of Primorska. He was appointed Vice Dean at the same faculty for Research and Scientific Work. He teaches different courses about entrepreneurship and international business at the undergraduate and postgraduate level. His research interest lies in the areas of Internationalisation, international marketing, branding, innovation, SMEs and entrepreneurship and IKT in support for SMEs. He has many practical experiences and he works part time as consultant for many companies. His papers were published in different academic journals such as Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Transformations in Business and Economics, Managing Global Transition, Canadian Journal of Administrative Science, Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development and others. He has published also various books about entrepreneurship.

The Adam Mickiewicz University Foundation (AMUF) is a non-profit organisation with the mission to stimulate collaboration between science and industry in order to activate the regional development via innovation, technology transfer and international cooperation. The main department of AMUF is Poznan Science and Technology Park (PSTP), established in 1995. PSTP is a very important part of AMUF, because it is the unit, which is leading innovation support and is shaping and implementing the regional innovation policy in collaboration with Regional Government (RG) in the region of Wielkopolska. PSTS is also developing strategic documents on the basis of the process of collaboration and consensus with regional actors and Wielkopolska citizens.

PSTP runs a number of activities directed to regional and local authorities, SMEs, research organisations, and other organisations on regional and national level related to innovation, technology transfer, participation in EU framework programs and innovative entrepreneurship. PSTP is experienced in many European projects from the 5th, 6th and 7th Framework Programmes as well as INTERREG IIIC, IVC, IVB (Baltic Sea and Central Europe). PSTP also implemented several projects financed by Structural Funds within regional and national operational programmes for the periods 2004-2006 and 2007-2013 as a leader (in a majority cases) but also as a partner.

PSTP and the Wielkopolska region have several years of experience in building the regional policy in the area of innovation and knowledge economy and will be able to share the experience with the partners as well as benefit from learning from project partner regions. Relevant projects in area of innovation assessment include: Monitoring of Regional innovation Strategy for Wielkopolska, a regional operational programme, ARRGOS 3% - Advance of European Regions’ R&D Governance Systems to reach the 3% objective, FP6, SCINNOPOLI - SCanning INNOvation POLicy Impact, INTERREG IVC. Relevant projects in area of the animation of stakeholders and the elaboration of recommendations/action plans include: RIS "Innovative Wielkopolska", FP5, Building consensus for vision of Innovative Wielkopolska, also a regional operational programme. Poznan Science and Technology Park staff to be involved in the project, include:

Elzbieta Ksiazek is Member of the Board of the Adam Mickiewicz University Foundation as well as a deputy director of the Poznan Science and Technology Park. She is experienced in the EU’s 5th, 6th, 7th FP in project coordination as well as evaluation. Between 2004 and 2008 she managed the Innovating Regions in Europe Network Secretariat, a service funded by the EC to support European regions in the process of developing regional innovation policies and schemes. Before 2004, she was engaged in numerous activities related to innovation support in the region of Wielkopolska (PL). She was also a manager of a Regional Contact Point for European RTDI programmes and chief editor of a national newsletter related to this theme. She also worked for the Innovation Relay Centre West Poland.

Kamila Dobek is Manager of Innovation Support Instruments Department in PSTP, with 12 years of experience in project management with an emphasis on domestic (ERDF and EFS) and international (FP5, FP6, INTERREG) innovation projects. She is a specialist in research and evaluation projects, the preparation of research methodologies and tools, analytical work, development of reports and analysis. She is also experienced also in regional innovation policies and foresight exercises.

Malgorzata Piotrowicz, senior expert, 11 years in PSTP, experienced in coordination and preparation of research projects, preparation of research methodologies, analytical work, development of reports and analysis. Malgorzata is a member of IRE Working Group “European Observatory of Regional Innovation (EORI)” (2008), is a member of IRE Network Working Group “Effective Regional Innovation System” (2008) and is mostly focused on the evaluation and assessment of innovation policy.

INOVA+ (www.inovamais.eu) is the Portuguese leading company in the field of the promotion and management of international projects on Innovation, Training and Research & Technological Development. The company’s mission is to provide the knowledge, the management capacity, the partnerships and the technical and financial support needed for the development of innovation projects.

Counting with more than 16 years of experience, INOVA+ employs a highly qualified team of more than 40 consultants based in its various offices, such as Porto (headquarters), Lisbon, Brussels, Luxembourg and Warsaw. INOVA+ is also linked to a wide network of partners, which include Universities, Research Centers, Municipalities, Brokerage Institutions and European Bodies.

In the last years the company has achieved several milestones:

• it has managed over 40 international innovation projects, and is the private organisation in Portugal with the largest participation in the European Commission Framework Programme for Research, Development and Innovation;
• it provides strategic consultancy services in innovation and technology to the European Commission, the European Space Agency, the European Institute of Technology, the Portuguese Cabinet for the Lisbon Strategy and several Innovation Agencies across Europe;
• it has become the innovation partner and services provider of over 50 companies in Portugal, to which it manages innovation strategies and projects on a long term basis;
• it works with the main universities in Portugal, in the design and implementation of market oriented technology transfer activities;
• it has launched a seed capital fund to support the start-up and initial development of new technology based firms.

INOVA+ is internally divided into four main departments:

• International Cooperation Unit – supporting the development and promotion of international innovative initiatives and frequently providing its services to the European Commission and related EU bodies;
• Consultancy Unit, whose mission is to support Portuguese oragnisations in identifying opportunities of public financing to support and valorise R&D activities (inlc. Technology Transfer Department), and to promote RTD projects, at national and European level and to support to the creation of new companies of technological basis;
• RTD Unit – aiming to actively participate in the improvement of companies’ competitiveness through research, development and technology transfer, by developing applied research and research services s in the areas of health, security and defense, industrial and business automation, in partnerships with other scientific institutions and end customers;
• Training Unit – managing all types of training activities stimulating innovation.

Team Description

Eurico Neves
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of INOVA+, he is specialized in European policies on research & development, innovation and information technologies. For several years worked as an Expert intra-muros at the European Commission in Luxembourg, DG XIII, assisting the European Commission in the conception and implementation of programmes and actions within the scope of the research and development policy, innovation and regional development, and participating in the deployment and promotion of the “Green Book on Innovation”. Eurico Neves has a Degree in electronic engineering with a specialization in computing systems and a Master in Management and International Markets.

Catarina Azevedo
Director of the International Cooperation Unit at INOVA+, she is responsible for managing the activities of the Unit in addition to her direct involvement coordinating various European funded projects and studies on research and innovation. Catarina Azevedo holds a Master degree in Management and Marketing from Warsaw School of Economics in Poland, with part of her studies completed at Aarhus School of Business, Denmark. Additionally, she holds a diploma of European Studies, by International Relations Institute of Warsaw School of Economics.

Candela Bravo
Project manager at INOVA+, responsible for activities related to developing and managing research and innovation funded projects at European level and she was recently (2013) involved in ex-post evaluation projects and impact assessments for the European Commission. Candela Bravo holds two degrees, Marketing and Sociology, the former obtained at Rochester Institute of Technology, United States of America, and the latter at Universidad de Salamanca, Spain.

META Group is an international company with a long track-record in fostering entrepreneurship as a driver for growth and social well-being. META Group capitalises on the operational know-how gained in managing seed capital funds and entrepreneurship and regional development related initiatives, alone and in partnership with relevant players such as the Kauffman Foundation, INSME, IASP, EURADA and EBN.

The META Group's team ensures key expertise on regional knowledge intensive development, entrepreneurship and related services, energy sector and related investments, strategies and support. META Group’s experience will be used for the effective analysis of regional ecosystems on sustainable innovation and for the involvement of, and dialogue with, relevant stakeholders. In fact, META Group can count on its experience gained through the definition and implementation of various regional innovation strategies all around the world.

In the period 2003-2006 META Group participated to the RENEW Transnet project, funded under the FP5, whose aim was to increase the development and the commercialisation on the European market of products or technologies for the sector of the renewable energies (“Low carbon related technologies”). During the implementation of the project, the partners developed and tested services and technical assistance for the demonstration and the transfer on the market of the technologies for a selected group of SMEs.

As more recent examples, META Group has been assigned to develop a strategic framework and an implementation roadmap for the Energy Entrepreneurship Initiative to accelerate the process of company creation and SMEs development within the renewable and nuclear energy value chains in Saudi Arabia.

In the period 2009-2012 META Group also coordinated the ECOLINK+ project, which is the horizontal action of EUROPE INNOVA, responding to the challenge of overcoming the fragmentation of initiatives in the field of Eco-innovation, Green Technologies and the Environment support. In addition to the coordinating tasks, META Group was responsible for: supporting and assisting eco-innovation projects in exploiting synergies and capitalising results; assessing newly developed support services for eco innovators; creating and animating a EU-wide business club of top performing and most promising eco innovators; feeding policy debate and distilling of policy lessons from eco innovation support practices; positioning the European Eco-innovation Platform (Eco-IP) in the eco innovation domain; promoting innovative tools in support of eco innovation among service providers and end users. The action tackled the complexity of the Eco-innovation universe by acting as a platform for the EU Eco-innovation community.

Staff to be involved in the project includes:

Andrea Di Anselmo is Vice President of META Group. He has 20 years of work experience in innovation, entrepreneurship, regional policy and company creation gained by the participation in international assignments as senior advisor and project director, and by influencing strategic addresses as member of several expert groups and BoDs of various organizations, including TII (European Association for Innovation and Technology Transfer), INSME (International Network of SMEs), and the IBAN (Italian Business Angels Network). Recent activities focus on initiatives dealing with innovation in EU countries including Slovenia, Hungary, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Italy, cross border investments and promotion of entrepreneurship.

Alessia Melasecche Germini graduated from the University of Studies of Perugia, Faculty of Economics in 2001 in Economy and Business. She achieved her Doctoral Degree (Ph.D) in territorial marketing in the “Internationalisation of SMEs”. Since 2005 up to 2011, Alessia Melasecche Germini is a Professor of “Marketing” and “Public and Non-Profit Companies Organization” at the Faculty of Economy and Business, University of Studies of Perugia, Italy. She is on the Board of Directors of META Group, and provides strategic advice on innovation based development, with specialized services targeting the acceleration of knowledge intensive companies and the management of dedicated early stage financial tools (seed-funds), with which she collaborates as Expert and Chief Operating Officer. She is Member of the Reseau du Pays du Groupe Visegrad, the Association of European Universities and Research Centres dealing with the transformations in the European economic, social and cultural systems. She is running, since 2008, the Global Entrepreneurship Week (www.unleashingideas.org) in Italy. She is on the Jury D’honneur of TII, which is Europe's premier independent association of technology transfer and innovation support professionals.

Anita Tregner-Mlinaric is a senior consultant with over 18 years of experience in local/regional development, capacity building and association strengthening, economic planning, access to finance, capital markets, central bank institutional strengthening, deposit insurance, payment systems reform, corporate governance, risk management, and training and capacity development. She has over 12 years of working experience on donor-funded economic growth and development projects in Croatia, South East Europe and Eurasia (USAID, UNDP, U.S. Embassy); and more then 5 years of professional working experience working in the field of SME development sector (growth, policy, pipeline, strategies, analysis); knowledge of EU programs and procedures. Anita is also an experienced fund manager in the field of real estate and was in charge of development of four complex projects in Croatia. She achieved a degree in High Business Management, PR and Marketing at the High Business Management School “Experta” in Zagreb, Croatia and is in preparation of obtaining the PMP international degree. Anita is currently involved in the implementation of some FP7 projects (CASI, Mirris) and also in the preparation of international proposals.

IncreaseTime (iTime) is a Portuguese technology based start-up offering its clients efficient, low cost and easy to deploy solutions for Home Health information Systems for Ambient Assisted Living, Medical Telemetry for continuous Healthcare with wireless sensors and innovative solutions for healthcare of elderly and people of chronicle diseases. iTime recently released the beta version of its KeepCare Mobile App in the Google Play store. This application, to be released in during the first semester of 2013 is the corner stone of a solution for health care, capable of providing continuous monitoring and vigilance of elderly and people with special needs, that will be piloted in a Portuguese municipality in the first semester of 2013.

The iTime portfolio includes monitoring solutions for emergency based healthcare, tele-monitoring for ambulatory and AAL, wireless sensing of vital signs, location, physical activities, routines and is particularly specialized in the design of detection algorithms for alert generation and in server based healthcare monitoring.

These solutions can take the form of a service (SaaS) for domestic users or a complete solution for assisted living residences. iTime is currently formalising some partnerships with a few European, African and Latin American countries in order to internationalize the company in the near future.

Gil Gonçalves, iTime CEO, is also a lecturer at the Department of Informatics Engineering at Porto University in Portugal and a researcher at the Institute for Systems and Robotics. He holds an M. Sc. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering. He participated in more than 15 R&D projects and has been the scientific manager of several of them.

Raquel Sousa has a master’s degree in Network and Information Systems Engineering (University of Porto). She has participated in several research projects in the ICT for Health area, with expertise in telemetry and sensor networks. At iTime, since its creation, Raquel Sousa has been a Senior Engineer and Project Manager.

Monza is a city in the Lombardy region. In 2009, it became the capital of the Province of Monza and Brianza. About 120,000 people live in Monza and it is the third largest city in Lombardy. Retired persons make up 22.8% of inhabitants, against the national average of 20.23%. Foreigners in the region are 13,238 persons, which makes up 11% of the inhabitants. They come from 121 nations, with the largest number coming from Romania (11.68%), Equador and Peru (8.30%), and Albania (8.14%). Monza is 15 km away from Milan and it is linked to it by a railway and several bus lines. Monza owns part of the one of the largest parks in Europe (about 685 hectares). It plays host to F1 Italian Grand Prix (Gran Premio d'Italia), the “Villa Reale” built in 1777 for the Hapsburg empress Maria Teresa, and many other architectonical, natural and historical attractions. Monza lays in a very industrialized territory composed most of all by SMEs, especially furniture and manufacturing plants. The Municipality of Monza is very interested in applying a system of monitoring and evaluation, and an integrated multi-level system of global land sustainability which respects social, economic, environmental challenges.

Recent economic issues in the country and in the region have resulted in many companies going bankrupt or on the brink of bankruptcy. Many job losses resulting from the economic issues have caused an employment crisis in the region, with many unemployed needing intervention and support. Many young people leave the education system early. Women, adults with low educational levels, and immigrants, are at particular economic and social risk. Educational levels in the region are inadequate when compared to European averages. Within this context, it is important to look for ways to integrate residents into the labour market. Most important to this integration is to develop human capital in the region to help improve its competitiveness, and ultimately increase innovation levels in both the public and the private sector. With these needs in mind, the Municipality of Monza has embarked on a number of activities.. One of these actions, entitled ‘Sustainable Business Growth Based on Innovation and Knowledge’ (INNOVA) supported under the EU-funded URBACT programme, does just that. The project aims to help its target cities incorporate actions and strategies into their activities, and thus establish new models for policy-making based on an environmental, social and economic equilibrium. The idea behind this is that such a model of policy-making will be more socially cohesive, through the use of processes based on citizens participation. Another relevant project, in which the Municipality of Monza is a partner, is the ‘Achieving Real CHange with Innovative transport MEasures Demonstrating Energy Savings’ (CIVITAS ARCHIMEDES) project. This project aims to develop and implement a number of policy tools that will introduce innovative, integrated and ambitious strategies for energy-efficient and sustainable transport that meets the needs of residents. In doing so, the participating cities will tap into their existing networks to train and educate citizens to increase dialogue and increase acceptance of new tools, services and technologies which will make urban transport more sustainable.

Other related projects within which the Municipality of Monza participates include:

• INTERREG Cooperazione transfrontaliera Italia Svizzera (Coopsussi);
• Health determinants lifestyle (SHAPE UP);
• FERS: Sustainable mobility projects for structural funds;
• FSE: Multi-misura;
• Equal social and labor integration;
• FSE “PINTO” project for the orientation in the province of Monza and Brianza;
• Vocational training projects for young people and adults from 1996 to present

Mario Spoto is General Secretary and General Director of the Administration - Municipality of Monza. He graduated in Law and has participated in a training course for chief executive officers (SSPAL Lombardy) and in a course for the answering of group A and achievement of its suitability (year 2007)

Pontiggia Luca is a Manager of the Financial Sector, Economic Planning and Tributes of the Administration – Municipality of Monza. He graduated in Economics at the Catholic University of Milan.

Espinho City Council (in Portuguese, Câmara Municipal de Espinho) is the governmental organ of the municipality of Espinho, located on the Atlantic coast on the North of Portugal. Its main activities are fishery, manufacturing industries, and it is a reputed beach resort well known by its white-sand beaches. The population is mostly active in the secondary sector, which employs around half of the active population of Espinho. Among its many duties, include the improvement of the citizens’ well-being and the city’s infrastructures. In this respect, the city council has submitted several projects to structural funds programs to support the promotion of energy efficiency in the municipality the economic valorisation of the sea coast, a major asset of the touristic goals of the region. Under these programmes, the city has also developed the Multimedia Centre, a scientific and educational project to boost innovation within the region. The Multimedia Centre is an infrastructure that includes a planetarium, an auditorium that doubles as a cinema, a gallery, an astronomical observatory, a cafeteria and several classrooms to support events that take place there. The city council has also several other projects with universities such as the University of Aveiro, a leading school in telecom and environmental technologies. This is an already running network will be most useful on the implementation of the CASI project.

Relevant previous experience includes:

• HydroFootPrint (2010) - Social Network for Hydrological Footprint, is a network to set-up all over Europe a multidisciplinary approach to the finding of innovative ICT solutions in the field of water for citizens, water distribution companies, public authorities and ICT companies operating on the field;
• Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Energy in Northern Portugal (2010) – within this programme, the city council promoted several actions to promote energy efficiency in the region, primarily targeting the infrastructures of the municipality (such as tennis centre, swimming pools, sports centre and public lighting) to reduce their energy consumption and the efficiency of these equipments.
• Action Plan for Protection Valorisation of Coastlines (2012-2015) is a vast plan for the valorisation of coastal environments and its landscapes; the program put into practice the skills and urbanization of the entire coastal front, understanding their structural character in urban redevelopment environmental and shoreline, in the search for a balanced relationship between nature and city the implementation of specific areas to support fishing and beaches, is performed to create the consistency and unity throughout the whole course of structuring actions carried out in the district.
• “Turismo do Porto e Norte de Portugal” (2009-11) is a network of city councils to promote innovative regional touristic information supported by regional programmes;
• European Researchers Night (2010) is the biggest European initiative for scientific dissemination which occurs simultaneously in several European countries. The Portuguese event was co-organised by the city council and joined about 2,500 people in the city of Espinho, on the 24th of September of 2010, in a group of activities, guided by scientists and researchers to raise awareness of scientific activities to young people and share in a linear way the scientific progress and demystify their work to the public in general.

Mr. Vicente Pinto holds a degree in Economics and is currently the Vice-President of the Espinho City Council, where he is in charge of all the maters regarding the municipality. Before that, he was responsible for the Education Department of the same municipality. He is a member of the Metropolitan Council of Education of the Greater Metropolitan Area of Porto, which is an organ dedicated to education, cultural tourism, security and environment. Within the Espinho City Council, he is in charge of the following areas: financial, security, human resources and education. He is also responsible for the management of the European funds. Currently the city council has an innovation plan for the region focused in the aeronautical area that includes a new university and the development of an industrial cluster in close cooperation with the Brazilian airplane manufacturer EMBRAER.

Fernanda Pinto Amorim is licensed and has a master's degree in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Aveiro. She began operating as a superior technician in the Municipality of Espinho in 1999. Since 2008 she is currently responsible for developing Management and Investment Projects of the city of Espinho. She is member of the Council for Strategic Planning in the metropolitan region of Greater Porto. Since 2011 has been involved in several European projects under the 7th Framework Programme, related to the topics Network of Urban Procurers and sustainable development, resource efficiency, fishing and combating climate change: Cities for Business Innovation - Network of Urban Procurers (C4bI) and Public Participation in Developing a Common Framework for Assessment and Management of Sustainable Innovation "(CASI); "Eu-Fin, European Union Fishing Network" and the Active Citizens for Active Climate Protection (Ac4acp) under the Program - Europe For Citizens.

Mr. Joaquim Moreira Sá, holds a degree Environmental Engineer, a postgraduation in Environmental Management and Policy and is currently the Head of the Division of Environment of the Espinho City Council, in charge of urban water services and sanitation, waste collection and treatment, green areas and beach management, among other areas. Mr. Sá started its collaboration with Espinho City council in 1999 and since then he has been in charge of several areas of the municipality, leading the Division of Public Hygiene, leading the Division of Public Water Supply and Head of Service of the Division of Environment and Solid Waste; in 2009 he was appointed as member of the Board for the Coordination of the Evaluation of Espinho Municipality. He is also member of several working groups, namely, the Coordinating Group for Improvement of Air Quality in the Porto Greater Area, the Coordinating Group of the Environment Strategic Plan for Porto Greater Area and the Working Group for the preparation of regulations for Waste Management Construction & Demolition. He has published several articles and is a regular speaker in conferences and workshops on environmental issues.

The Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) is an independent private non-profit institute, which was established in Vienna in 1990 to connect scientific and practical knowledge in support of social innovation and to foster an open and solidly united society. With some 60 employed experts, ZSI provides research, advisory services to public institutions and CSOs, network co-ordination, as well as education and training. These persons are experts in the fields of labour market, governance and partnerships, migration research, technology enhanced learning and other IT applications, European Research and Technology Development (RTD), science-technology-society studies, technology assessment and impact analysis. ZSI as research institute carries out fundamental and applied research in co-operation with universities, academic institutions, NGOs, industry and research facilities. It offers consulting services to public institutions, including administrative support, development and monitoring of research policies, e.g. for ministries in Europe and global networks. ZSI as educational institution provides teaching by its employees at universities, as well as in vocational education and eLearning, expanded through a postgraduate course of lectures on professional qualifications for international social scientific research. The work at ZSI is divided into 3 units, including: Development and Research Policy, Work and Equal Opportunities, and Technology and Knowledge. ZSI organizes high-level events and publishes extensively on research, technological development and innovation topics. A major asset of ZSI is its involvement in world-wide networks of science and research policy networks (through ERA-Net and INCO-Net projects), and its long standing record of collaborating not only across disciplines, but also with users and practitioners in many sectors (‘trans-disciplinarity’).

ZSI has extensive experience in project management and implementation, particularly within the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). One of their recent projects ‘Engaging Stakeholders in Debating Nanotechnology’ (NANOCHANNELS), focused on experimenting with a democratic dialogue with stakeholders around the potential applications of innovative nanotechnologies in addressing societal challenges. Other FP7 projects include: Global Linkage Over BroadbAnd Links (GLOBAL); Communicating Nanotechnology to Youth (NANOYOU); Connecting SSH Research on Knowledge Society in EU & Latin America (EULAKS); Citizens Visions on Science, Technology and Innovation (CIVISTI); STELLAR Network of Excellence (TEL); LEED Forum on Partnerships and Local Governance (for the OECD). Staff to be involved, include:

Dr. Prof. Josef Hochgerner is founder (1990) and scientific director of ZSI. Following vocational training in aeronautical engineering, studies in social sciences and economics in Vienna and Freiburg/D; M.A. 1974, PhD 1978, habilitation in sociology 1986. Work experience in research and social partners‘ organisations, national and European agencies and advisory boards on RTDI since 1974; lecturing in adult education and at various European and Austrian universities since 1980. Participation in more than 30 EU (co-) funded RTD projects in a wide range of thematic areas. Professor (since 1995 at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, later University of Vienna). Main focus in research, teaching and practice: Innovation and the particularities of social innovations; social use of knowledge and technology; working, learning and living in the global information society. Since 2004 member of the Jury awarding ‘SozialMarie’, the annual Austrian Social Innovation Prize.

Maria Schwarz-Woelzl has been Senior Researcher at Zentrum für Soziale Innovation, Vienna, since 1998 and has a M.A. in Sociology. Projects she worked on included corporate social responsibility, business ethics, corporate sustainability as well as diversity and energy issues. She carried out a number of projects contracted by several Austrian Federal Ministries and the European Commission. Among others, she was permanent journalist for the Austrian Sustainability Portal (http://www.nachhaltigkeit.at/) on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Life and she was involved in the FP5 project Voluntary Industrial Code of Practice for global eWork / VIP (https://www.zsi.at/en/object/project/582). In the context of the ZSI project ATX EASEY she developed a sustainability index for Austrian stock market enterprises. Currently she is partner in the IEE project Capacity building of local governments to advance Energy Action.

Dr. Klaus Schuch, born 1963 in Vienna, is expert on techno-globalisation, research and innovation policies, and evaluation in research and technology policy. He works for ZSI (Centre for Social Innovation) since April 2011. At present he is strategic research manager and senior scientist at the ZSI. Klaus has earned a PhD from the University of Vienna in the field of geography. In his capacity as ZSI senior researcher, Klaus also acts as managing director of the Austrian Platform Research and Technology Policy Evaluation and is Austrian delegate to the European RTD Evaluation Network. He is also member of the Austrian Association for Critical Geography. Klaus is and was engaged in a large number of national and international ZSI projects, many of which dealing with global challenges. In 2007 he was scientific expert of the CREST Working Group on internationalisation in science and technology and in 2012 he was member of the external expert group of the European Commission to advice on the new European RTI-internationalisation strategy. Klaus is also member of the Commission for Development Research at the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (former Commission of the Austrian Academy of Sciences) and advisor to several Austrian agencies and ministries dealing with development cooperation, research, innovation and technology. He is lecturer in several international summer schools and teaches in ZSI’s post-graduate SOQUA-course addressing young social scientists.

Dr. Christian Voigt, Senior Researcher at ZSI, has a background in information systems and educational design. He got his PhD from the University of South Australia on the topic of collaborative learning technologies and the need to balance associated efforts and benefits. His previous work experience includes organisational development, management consulting and the evaluation of software solutions meant to support cross jurisdictional collaboration of government agencies. Additionally he has been working on socio-economic impact analyses of e-Infrastructures. He is working in EU projects such as Stellar (Network of Excellence in Technology Enhanced Learning) and Telmap (Road mapping of future Learning Technologies).

The Interuniversity Research Centre on Public Services (CRISP) at the University of Milano- Bicocca (same legal entity), was founded in 1997, and consists of an interdisciplinary academic network conducting high profile research and studies in the field of services. The mission statement of the centre is: “Research and innovation in public services design, management and evaluation focused on human capital growth and development”. Over the last few years the centre has developed selected lines of research, focusing on methods and systems aimed at the management of information to support decision-making (Business Intelligence). Research on services have been applied to the sectors of employment, healthcare, education and training, and has been developed in recent years from two perspectives. The first relates to the socio-economic analysis of welfare services and human capital; the other develops innovative themes related to the use of technologies in the realm of public sector services. A variety of projects have been carried out with public and private partners, both within and outside academia, involving multiple themes and competences. At European level, CRISP has been a partner in the 6th FP Programme project “Single European Employment Market-Place” (SEEMP) (2006-2009). It is also a partner in the URBACT project - Sustainable business growth based on innovation and knowledge (INNOVA) (2012-2015) and in the PROGRESS project - The Skills Panorama – Achieving Regional and Local Impact (ARLI) (2013-2014). At national and local level, CRISP is involved in: evaluation of higher education attainments sponsored by a consortium of Italian universities; nationally-sponsored projects on the evaluation of activities and decisions in health-care systems; management of the Regional Labour Market Observatories Lombardy and Piedmont Regions; regionally-sponsored projects on the evaluation of learning; a regionally-sponsored project on the use of Web 2.0 technologies for innovation in government services; a regionally-sponsored project on the evaluation of active labour market policies, and a municipality sponsored project on the Statistical Information System for the analysis and design of social services. CRISP is also member of two scientific European networks, including the ENRLMM - European Network of Regional Labor Market Monitoring, and the RESER - European Association for Research on Services. Staff to be involved, include:

Prof. Dario Cavenago is the Vice Director of CRISP and full Professor of “Management” at University of Milan – Bicocca, Faculty of Sociology and Social Sciences. He teaches specialization and management courses regarding Public Management and collaborates with Academic and Public Institutions. He has dealt with several topics during his research and professional activities. His main research areas relate to the analysis of the choices and decisions made by individuals in the public context, within the conceptual framework provided by business administration and public management studies. More recently, he has focused on the management of non-profit organizations, on quasi-market systems, and on change management. He is author of several books, and of papers on journals and conference proceedings.

Benedetta Trivellato, PhD is a Research Fellow at the University of Milano Bicocca, Faculty of Sociology and Social Sciences, in the field of public management, and Research Associate at CRISP. She is a graduate of the University of Oxford, England (MSc), and the University of Milan – Bicocca (PhD). Her research interests and teaching activities focus on: public-private partnerships and public-sector networks; human and social capital; knowledge transfer; organization and strategy of labour market services; strategic urban planning.

Mattia Martini, PhD is a Research Fellow at the University of Milano Bicocca, Faculty of Sociology and Social Sciences, and Research Associate at CRISP in the field of organizational studies and the labour market. His research interests focus on the design, organization and evaluation of personal services for the labour market and health care fields, and on human capital development.

Cleantech Bulgaria is a not-for-profit organization that promotes sustainable development and the integration of clean technologies and green innovation into the business practices in Bulgaria. The organization is active in various social and economic fields, such as business, education, science, healthcare, technology and innovation. Its core activity is focused on the support and continuous development of expert networks, commercial and strategic partnerships among different clusters, associations and companies that work in the field of social innovations, the environment and education, connecting these elements into a single pivoting goal – to enabling sustainable change towards an eco-conscious culture, business and life.

In 2012 alone, the efforts of Cleantech Bulgaria resulted in the expansion of the expert network for clean technologies in Bulgaria to more than 200 active members. Alongside the on-line platform which provides a solid volume of information to the general public besides the specialized content available on log-in regime, Cleantech Bulgaria organizes an array of off-line initiatives to raise the awareness and sensitize the eco-consciousness of the public. Cleantech Bulgaria is active supporter and partners in a number of socially significant campaigns that align with the foundation’s long-term social impact targets. Cleantech Bulgaria was official partner of European Waste Week 2013 and 2012, The European Cleantech Challenge 2012 and also in the forthcoming “A world you like with a Climate you like”, European Commission 2013.

The organisation was awarded First Prize in the category “Green Bulgaria” by the Ministry of Environment and Water within the national Green Office Week campaign, which comes in recognition for the organisation’s efforts to build awareness among businesses for their impact on the environment, having covered more than 15,000 employees of various companies. Cleantech Bulgaria is also a pioneer in the promotion of crowd sourcing approaches to financing sustainable innovation ideas.

Typical activities of Cleantech Bulgaria include the management and organisation of open innovation competitions, the design and execution of crowd-sourcing projects, as well as the organisation and promotion of sustainable management events and awareness raising campaigns.

In terms of business impact, Cleantech Bulgaria aims to promote the sustainability concept including CSR, clean technologies, green business opportunities and on providing easy access to professional knowledge and networking. In 2013 the foundation established the first corporate club for sustainable business growth that aims to contribute to the creation of a community of resource conscious-business that shares common understanding and vision for the development of the Bulgarian economy and society. Cleantech Bulgaria is a member of the Global Cleantech Cluster Association, based in USA and through its network develops international relations for the emerging local leaders. For a second year in row, Cleantech Bulgaria is official representative of the Global Cleantech Leaders Later Stage Award for Bulgaria trying to promote Bulgarian green business projects in front of the international Cleantech investor and media community.

The final results of Cleantech Bulgaria’s efforts, partnerships and services are measured in progress towards low carbon economy, energy efficiency, waste management optimization for our clients and partners, promotion of green professions like facility manager, waste manager and eco-conscious behavior within the community and society in general.

As consultants, they have assisted many businesses with the design of corporate greening strategies, marketing entry strategies for sustainable products, and have served as a one-stop referral hub for business partner search and b2b marketplace organising across the EU.

Furthermore, an underlying feature of Cleantech Bulgaria’s approach, and its core strategic advantage, is the use of a Web 2.0-based online platform (www.cleantech.bg), which connects and develops opportunities with an outlook on innovation and sustainability within the Bulgarian “ecosystem”.

Mariyana Hamanova is the Founder and President of Cleantech Bulgaria. She graduated with a degree in sociology in Konstanz, Germany and also holds MBA degree. Mariyana brings extensive management skills and experience having been in charge complex projects in the field of innovation and technology transfer and collaboration with large cross-national groups of organizations, such as Cleantech member companies, universities, clusters and innovation networks. Her prior work includes the establishment of a technology centre in Sofia, thus integrating and adapting a highly successful and long-lasting German experience. Her professional background also includes the successful realization of two EU-funded projects in the field of youth employment and social inclusion.

Maria Alexandrova is a project and open innovation manager at Cleantech Bulgaria and is responsible for the strategic and operational development of the Web 2.0-based platform dedicated to the green business community (www.cleantech.bg). Maria has a degree in textile engineering technology from the Technical University in Sofia and a Master’s degree in International Economic Relations from the University of National and World Economy. She has extensive experience as a consultant on innovation development and technology transfer, and has managed a number of industry-focused European projects. Her professional interests include innovation potential assessment, foresight prognostic tool and environmental performance assessment.

MIOIR (formerly PREST) is one of the founding centres for the study of science, technology and innovation. The new Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIOIR) is based at the University of Manchester (UNIMAN) and builds on a 40- year-old tradition of study in the area (the University of Manchester is the legal entity and MIOIR is just a research institute within the university). With some 50 research staff, UNIMAN is now undoubtedly the leading global group working on the management of research and innovation policy. Research combines both fundamental research on the dynamics of innovation in modern knowledge based economies with highly-regarded consultancy for international, national and regional bodies and major firms.

Previous relevant experience

The Foresight (forward-looking) Team has a substantial experience in activities that take a prospective view of developments in science and technology in their economic, social, political and managerial context. Work in this domain includes methodological and applied projects, both with a broad scope and applied to particular areas of technology. MIOIR also offer a short, intensive course on Foresight for Sponsors, Organisers and Practitioners, drawing upon our experience of methodological and applied projects. Some relevant EU-funded Foresight and Horizon Scanning activities in which the institute is currently playing a major role either as project leader or main partner include: iKNOW, EFP, SANDERA, SESTI and FARHORIZON. MIOIR has long experience in the use of creative and interactive workshops and methods (both face-to-face and online) to generate new ideas around a specific area of interest.

Persons involved in this project

Dr Rafael Popper (PhD) – Principal Investigator in the CASI project– is a Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR) in The University of Manchester since 2002. He is trained as an economist, foresight methodologist, innovation policy analyst, and IT systems architecture designer. In 2008, Dr Popper was a member of the High Level Expert Group (HLEG) on European Research Area (ERA) Rationales. He has been Scientific Director of the EU funded iKNOW project interconnecting STI knowledge shaping ERA. He also leads the mapping of forward-looking activities of the European Foresight Platform (EFP). In 2009, he received two Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence for his outstanding and highly commended publications in the foresight area. He is also co-editor of an Edward Elgar’s Book of the Month: “The Handbook of Technology Foresight” (2008), which has been translated to Spanish in 2011. Dr Popper is also CEO and Innovation Director of the company Futures Diamond s.r.o (WP10 leader); however Dr. Popper will be involved in the project working exclusively for the University of Manchester and his costs will be claimed only by the University of Manchester.

Prof Ian Miles (DSocSci) graduated in psychology from The University of Manchester in 1969, and received a higher Doctorate in Social Science from the same University in 2011. He is Professor of Technological Innovation and Social Change at Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR), Manchester Business School (MBS) in The University of Manchester and Head of the Laboratory of Economics of Innovation at ISSEK, Higher School of Economics, Moscow (where he spends two months each year). He is also co-director of the Centre for Service Research at MBS.

Dr Effie Amanatidou (PhD) joined MIoIR as a full-time research associate in November 2011. Her first degree is in Applied Mathematics from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). She also has an MSc in Technical Change and Industrial Strategy (1996) and a PhD in foresight evaluation (2011) from the University of Manchester/MIoIR. She has been involved in several foresight projects looking at the areas of health and security like SESTI and EFMN. Her experience covers the fields of foresight studies, research and innovation policy analysis, research evaluation, impact assessment, and scientific advice for policy-making.

Dr Mercedes Bleda is a Research Fellow at the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR). She has a first degree in economics (University of Murcia, Spain), an MPhil in dynamic economics (Dept. of Quantitative Methods, University of Murcia, Spain), and a PhD in economics from CRIC (ESRC Centre for Research on Innovation and Competition Centre) at the University of Manchester in the UK. Her doctoral research centred on the analysis of how evolutionary explanations of socio economic change in general can benefit, conceptually and formally, from the adoption of a complexity perspective.

Dr Sally Randles is a Senior Research Fellow at MIoIR in The University of Manchester. She holds a First Class (Hons) degree in Management Sciences (Marketing, Economics and Law) from the University of Lancaster, an MBA and a PhD in comparative urban political-economy, researching Manchester (UK) and Lyons (France). Before returning to academia Sally worked in a wide range of social, economic and urban research and strategy roles across the private and public sector. These included commercial marketing and advertising for blue-chip clients; designing and managing social surveys for the UK Consumers Association, and as Principal Economic Development Officer for Bedfordshire County Council in Southern England.

Joe Ravetz is Research Fellow at the University of Manchester; he is Co-Director of the Centre for Urban & Regional Ecology at UNIMAN, and leads on sustainable cities and regions. His main books include ‘City-Region 2020’: and the forthcoming ‘Urban 3.0: synergistic pathways for a One Planet century’. He is on the editorial board of Foresight Journal; coordinator of the Greater Manchester Policy Exchange; Principal at SAMI Consulting; and delivers training, seminars, consultancy, keynotes, reviews and also graphic facilitation in many countries.

Guillermo Velasco (MPhil) is a PhD researcher at the University of Manchester, under the supervision of Prof Miles and Dr Popper – with a focus on foresight and horizon scanning activities.

He has a Master degree in Economics and Innovation Management and has been Assistant professor at the European University of Madrid. He works 20 hours per week in research projects mapping innovation studies in a variety of areas.

Barbara Jones (PhD) – is Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Manchester, and member of the European Work and Employment Research Centre. She supports research projects through documentary analysis and literature reviews commissioned on daily basis. She has been a member of ESRC/Medical Research Council Commissioning Panel for the Innovative Health Technologies Programme; research advisory board member of ESRC Cultural Industries and the City.

Deborah Cox studied social sciences at degree level and has a Master’s degree in Information Management from Sheffield University. She has been working in the field of STI policy research for over 18 years at Manchester and has experience of leading and managing successful transnational research projects. Deborah has co-authored a range of publications in the field of STI policy including journal articles, research reports and books, including the recently published edited volume Innovation Policy Challenges for the 21st Century (Routledge 2013). Deborah is a Research Fellow at MIoIR in The University of Manchester

The University of Leuven (KU Leuven) has been a centre of learning for almost six centuries. At present, KU Leuven caters to more than 31,000 students, around 12% of whom are international students from more than 120 nations. In terms of its personnel, there are 5,287 academic staff, 2,730 administrative and technical staff, and 8,172 university hospital staff members. The university is composed of 14 faculties. Within the Social Sciences Faculty, the Centre for Sociological Research (CeSO) consists of 11 professors and about 50 educational and research assistants, organised into nine research areas. The HIVA KU Leuven Research Organisation for Work and Society consists of 60 researchers and research managers, organised into 10 research groups. The research group ‘Work and Organisation’ at HIVA KU Leuven focuses on topics such as quality of work, organisational change, human resources managementand industrial relations. Within the domain of organisational change, both applied and fundamental research is conducted. The research group ‘Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development’ at HIVA KU Leuven has a broad experience in policy-relevant research on environmental policy and sustainable development. In the field of sustainable development, the research mainly focuses on transitions, i.e. fundamental changes in societal systems. Other research topics include environmental policy evaluation, adaptation to climate change and global environmental government. The research group CeSO has long-standing expertise in studying the relation between organisational design and technological innovation. Furthermore, the research group is involved in studying the connection between technological innovation and workplace innovation. Recently, the university won a bid to create a Learning Network on Workplace Innovation in Europe (EUWIN) for the Directorate-General of Enterprise and Industry.

KU Leuven staff to be involved in the project includes:

Prof. dr. Geert Van Hootegem is professor of Labour Organisation at the CeSO (KU Leuven). His research is mainly about workplace innovation, the labour market, teamwork, flexibility, organization design and quality of work. Apart from his research, he has been active in various research valorization initiatives towards private, public and social profit organisations, and towards organization consultants.

dr. Monique Ramioul is head of the research group ‘Work and Organisation’ at HIVA (KU Leuven). Her research mainly concerns the knowledge-based society and changes in work. Her research experiences include both the management and co-ordination of large-scale international projects, the management of a research team and a personal long-standing experience in scientific research on work and organisation.

Sarah Van Eynde is a research associate at the research group ‘Environmental Policy and Sustainable Development’ at HIVA KU Leuven. Her main research interests and publications lie in the field of climate and environmental governance with a particular focus on emerging economies in Asia. Other research experiences include environmental policy evaluation and sustainable materials management.

Prof. dr. Steven Dhondt is visiting professor of Social Innovation at the KU Leuven. He is also a senior researcher at TNO (The Netherlands). He has degrees in political science, sociology and information management. His research is mainly about behavioral factors for performance of organisations, about the quality of work and about modern socio-technology. For DG Entreprise & Industry, he will be coordinating the European learning network on Workplace Innovation for the period 2013-2016. Steven Dhondt is a specialist in social innovation approaches.

TechnoLogica helps companies to implement leading information and communication technologies to help them create greater value for their businesses. By helping to implement both proven technologies, as well as new solutions, TechnoLogica aims to be a partner to prestigious companies by helping them take advantage of innovation in the implementation of their projects. They do this through anticipating the evolutionary direction of technologies and markets and by adapting existing solutions to the needs of companies and the economic contexts within which they function. TechnoLogica has been recognised for its role in driving the knowledge-based economy through its placing first in the “Investor in Knowledge” category awarded by the Bulgarian Business Leaders Forum, as well as the “Knowledge Management” category in the HR Awards of the Bulgarian Human Resources Management and Development Association. In addition to this, it has been recognised as an innovative company among academicians in Bulgaria in a number of publications focusing on innovation and good business practices. In addition to its highly innovative character, TechnoLogica is also socially responsible business which invests over 1% of the company’s turnover in social causes. These include donations to cultural sites, museums, and books by Bulgarian authors. In addition to this, they actively work with the Home for Medical and Social care in the town of Pernik through the provision of donations (both corporate and personal from TechnoLogica employees who are not only matched, but tripled by the company). These funds are used to help replace equipment at the care home to improve the lives of children and help stimulate a philanthropic culture in their employees and in Bulgaria. The company has also funded the development of a new website for the National Polytechnic Museum, helped to realize The Green Dobruja project in the town of Dobrich and helped to fund exhibitions with the National Polytechnic Museum and with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In addition to this, the company helps to bridge the gap so often seen between business and academia, as they feel that business must make a clear contribution to the quality of education and professional realisation in the country. They have a long tradition of cooperation with universities and have made donations to many of them in order to help stimulate better linkages and educational quality.

Ivan Simeonov is a project manager and technical leader in information technology projects at TechnoLogica, where he has worked since 1997. He has over 15 of experience in IS design and development and over 10 years of experience as a technical leader in large scale IT projects as well as experience in the implementation of security policies. He has been involved in a number of projects for both the public and the private sector. He holds a Master’s Degree in Applied Mathematics and Informatics from the Institute of Applied Mathematics and Informatics in Sofia.

Svetozar Kosev is a senior consultant in software development at TechnoLogica, where he has worked since 2000. He specializes in the analysis, design, and development of information systems. He has over 10 years of experience in the design and development of integrated IS and web-based applications. He is an MS Certified Professional, an MS Certified Solution Developer for Microsoft .Net, an MS Certified Application Developer for Microsoft, and an Oracle Database SQL Certified Expert. He holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Engineering from the Technical University in Sofia.

Georgi Georgiev is a project manager, trainer and consultant, who has worked at TechnoLogica since 2006. In this capacity, he has managed technical teams for the development of information systems as well as personally designs, develops and implements large and complex information systems. He holds a Master’s Degree in Information Systems from Sofia University and is a member of the Bulgarian Group of ORACLE Users and the Project Management Institute.

Futures Diamond is an innovation systems company specialised in the provision of information technology (IT) and software solutions to government, business, research and education actors at local, national and international levels. Futures Diamond is based in the Czech Republic and is built on over 10 years of foresight and horizon scanning research and technology development (RTD) know-how. Futures Diamond technologies support qualitative and quantitative research by combining creativity (using exploratory tools), interaction (using participatory tools), evidence (using explanatory tools) and expertise (using advisory tools).

Futures Diamond staff members have a long and successful record of supporting European and national RTD projects. Among the recent European initiatives involving Futures Diamond staff and IT systems, the following can be highlighted: ‘FP7 Cooperative Research project iKnow aimed at interconnecting Knowledge on issues and developments potentially shaking or shaping the future of science, technology and innovation (STI) in Europe and the world’; and ‘FP7 Coordination and Support Action project EFP aimed to build an European Foresight Platform’. Futures Diamond is also a major provider of foresight and horizon scanning IT solutions at the national level. The horizon scanning ‘hub’ developed for the UK Department of Health is the flagship technology development of the company in partnership with the Manchester Institute of Innovation Research, responsible for the research agenda. Persons involved in this project include:

Jan Klusacek is an experienced IT manager, with a focus on web based and mobile applications. In Futures Diamond he is Systems Director and Chief Financial Officer. Jan has worked as an IT expert for several coal mining companies in Europe, as well as for major mobile operators and software houses. His experience in the foresight field comes from cooperation with United Nations branch UNIDO, Czech Academy of Sciences and Technology centre in Prague. Jan combines skills gathered from his experience from IT development and technology foresight. Jan has a degree in international trade at the University of Economics in Prague.

Monika Popper is Senior Project and Workforce Manager at Futures Diamond. She plays a pivotal role in the management of activities and people involved in process/product/service-innovations and related IT-systems development. After completing her BSc (Honours) in Environmental Health Monika continued her postgraduate studies at the MSc on Healthcare Management programme of the Manchester Business School. In the area of security, she has been involved in the organisation of stakeholder engagement activities and the preparation of policy briefs on ‘health and safety’ and ‘food security’.

The Futures Diamond team also includes: Lukas Dohnal - senior analyst and lead programmer at Futures Diamond, specialised in software architecture design, agile programming and software optimisation; Pavel Hanys – employee at Futures Diamond, responsible for database structures design and communication protocols between webapplications; and Rodolfo Biglie – creative web and graphic designer responsible for user interfaces and application design as well as concept development for online projects.

Foresight and horizon scanning (FHS) platforms developed by Futures Diamond team members:

1. CfWI Horizon Scanning hub - http://www.horizonscanning.org.uk
2. iBank – To characterise and store FHS issues - http://bank.iknowfutures.eu
3. iScan – To monitor and search FHS issues - http://scan.iknowfutures.eu
4. iDelphi – To assess and prioritise FHS issues - http://delphi.iknowfutures.eu
5. iLibrary – To share FHS documents - http://library.iknowfutures.eu
6. iCommunity – To engage and network FHS people - http://community.iknowfutures.eu
7. iNews – To feature key contributions to FHS systems - http://news.iknowfutures.eu
8. iOracle – To map FHS practices, players and outcomes - http://www.mappingforesight.eu

Ekodoma Limited group is an engineering consultancy practice with its permanent office in Riga, Latvia. Ekodoma operates in the Baltic countries since 1991. The scope of the company is to ensure energy efficiency and use of sustainable energy sources to achieve economic development with the lowest possible impact on the environment. This is accomplished by bringing sustainable climate and energy concepts in each stage and aspect of design and consultancy.

Ekodoma offers project development, project management, technical supervision of projects, which involve energy measures, assessment of the social impact of energy efficiency and interfaces with neighbouring fields. The firm works together with clients, engineers, architects and economists from the start of the process, considering each step from the standpoint of thermodynamics and physics.

In the last years, Ekodoma has provided several services to Latvian Ministries and institutions, among all the Latvian Ministry of Environment and Regional Development and the Ministry of Economics for the implementation of national policies and transposition of European directives. For the Latvian Investment and Development Agency Ekodoma is part of the group selected for quality checks of energy audits under the support programme for renovation of multifamily residential buildings.

Ekodoma has an extensive local network of partners including different agencies, associations, building cooperatives, municipalities, district heating and utilities companies providing professional consultancy and energy services for the implementation of energy efficient measures, renewable energy projects and energy management activities and investments.

Since 2006, Ekodoma has participated in more than 40 European international projects supported by the European Commission, many of which focused on the energy efficiency services and buildings. The company's scope of services has widened and it operates in new markets: Russia, Ukraine, Kosovo, Moldova and Romania. For example currently Ekodoma is working for the European Investment Bank in the ex-post evaluation of renovated buildings in Bucharest, Romania.

Marika Rošā has a professional experience of more than 15 years in energy and environmental engineering. Marika strongly contributed to the development of Ekodoma. She started to work in the firm already in 1996 as project assistant. Marika has a Master degree in Environmental Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm, Sweden) and a PhD in energy from Riga Technical University.

Since 2004 she is working in Ekodoma as project manager and she has been dealing with the development of the Division for Energy Systems and Environment. Marika is specialised in regional and municipal energy planning. Energy and greenhouse gas emissions monitoring. She was part of the working group for the Development of National Allocation Plan for 2005-2007 and 2008-2012 for Ministry of Environment. Currently Marika is coordinating activities in Latvia in a number of European funded projects (Meshartility and 5000&1SEAPs in relation to the development of sustainable action plans in municipalities and energy management systems).

The Institute of Baltic Studies (IBS) is an independent non-profit research and development centre located in Tartu, Estonia, that aims at assisting the development of public policy in the Baltic Sea Region by providing high-quality socio-economic analysis. IBS’s main areas of expertise fall into three broad domains:

• science, technology and innovation policy, industrial economics and regional development;
• social cohesion policies in the areas of labour, migration and development, immigrant integration and gender aspects;
• policy analysis, policy and programme evaluation and impact assessment studies related to the above.

For more information about IBS please visit www.ibs.ee

Ms. Merit Tatar is a Member of the Board and researcher in IBS. Her particular interest lies in the EU economic and regional policy and its application at the local and regional levels of the EU member states. She is also a project development manager in public-private cooperation cluster Smart City Lab Tartu where joint project under priorities of smart cities and communities are developed. Since 2004 she has worked as a consultant for developing EU funded projects for local authorities, businesses and NGOs in Estonia and abroad. She has acted as a project manager and analyst of many development projects and studies, including several national level programme evaluations in different policy fields producing scientifically firm policy recommendations for the government. Merit has also acted as an expert for social innovation and social entrepreneurship for the Estonian government.

Expertise: Environmental Conservation and Management, Environmental Resource Management, Treatment of Liquid and Solid Waste, Renewable Energy, and Environmental Impact Assessment.
Email: antoniszorpas@envitech.org

Expertise: Sustainable development, Life Cycle Assessment, Research methodology, Environmental compliance, Corporate Social Responsibility, energy, eco-design, energy efficiency, resource efficiency, eco-products, and environmental policy.
Email: SSoleille@bio.deloitte.fr

Deloitte is one of the world’s largest professional services firms. We are focused on client service through a global strategy executed locally in more than 150 countries (including the 28 EU Member States). Worldwide, the firm employs nearly 200,000 people, and our member firms deliver services in five professional areas: consulting, audit, tax, risk management and financial advisory services.
For this project, Deloitte will rely to great extent on Deloitte Développement Durable, a team of 130 experts in sustainable development based in France.
Deloitte Développement Durable is the result of the successive acquisitions by Deloitte France of BIO Intelligence Service, one of Europe’s leading consulting firms in the field of sustainable development, and Synergence, a major company in the sustainable engineering and communication sector. Deloitte Développement Durable offers its clients an international, multilingual (with 12 different nationalities in our Paris office), and highly technical team, composed of lawyers, policy analysts and economists, as well as PhDs and engineers in a wide range of specialties, including social innovation, waste and circular economy, energy and climate, biodiversity, agro-ecology, etc. Specialists in management, law, communications, and consumer behaviour reinforce the core technical team, ensuring coverage of the full project cycle for its clients. Deloitte offers multidisciplinary expertise in several key areas, among which: analysis of environmental legislation and policies including from a comparative and cross-border perspective, scientific and technical support in the environmental field, improvement of the science-policy interface, policy assessment, economic instruments and their interaction with environmental policy, and business strategies for sustainable development. Deloitte has clients from both the public and private sectors, ranging from EU institutions and advisory bodies, e.g. European Commission, European Parliament, EEA, etc., to a wide range of agencies, institutes, ministries, and research bodies at Member State level such as Defra (UK), the French ministries of environment, of agriculture and of industry and ADEME (French energy efficiency and environment agency).

For more information visit https://www2.deloitte.com/fr/fr/services/developpement-durable.html

Expertise: Resource management, Waste management policy, Resource efficiency, and Project Management.

Warren Phelan is a Chartered Waste Manager and a Chartered Civil Engineer with a Masters Degree in Engineering Science from University College Dublin. Warren is a Technical Director in RPS with over 18 years’ experience  of the waste and resource management industry developing specialised skills in material resource policy, strategy, planning and data analysis including forecasting and modelling techniques. Warren’s waste and resource experience is extensive; he has co-authored the national waste management plans, prepared data for the national waste statistics publication, created an online service for reuse of household items and prepared international benchmarking studies. He has completed national publications on waste for the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation (formerly Forfás), EPA, Dublin City Council and the Regional Waste Offices. He is the acting waste expert on the European Commission’s Green Capital and Green Leaf projects. He represents Engineer’s Ireland on the National Waste Forum Committee and has helped to co-author their annual review of Ireland’s infrastructure. He is Ireland’s representative on the pan-European research project (CASI) which is helping to develop a better understanding of sustainable innovations and their value to enterprise, society and the environment.   
Email: Warren.Phelan@rpsgroup.com

Expertise: sustainability and innovation, with knowledge of the national innovation landscape.
Email: yuliya.voytenko@mespom.eu

Expertise: Regional environmental policy planning, Local climate change, Public participation in sustainable development, and Local and regional sustainable development.
Email: f.h.j.m.coenen@utwente.nl

Expertise: Science, Technology and Innovation Policy Studies; Research Evaluation; Impact Assessment; Foresight; Risk Communication; Regional Development; Scientific Advice Communication; Advanced Statistical Analyses; Services Innovation; Open Innovation; Project Management.
Email: psarra@systasi-consulting.gr

Expertise: Sustainable Environmental Resource Management; Integrated Science and Technology; Environmental/ conservation psychology and sustainable development; PhD Candidate at the Institute of Earth Systems; Founder of two high-tech start-ups in the field of flexible automation, robotics and in the renewable energy sector.
Email: brian.restall@pim.com.mt

Expertise: project management and SmarCities. External advisor and regular evaluator for the EC under FP6, FP7, ESPON and ENPI; expert in community financing; contributor to the drafting of the regional development programme and the operational programme for Balearic islands 2000-2006. Former member of Palma Town council advisory for innovation. Phd on impact of Community policies on regional and local policies.
Email: dom@anysolution.eu

Expertise: sustainability and innovation, research, finance, technology and knowledge transfer, IPR.
Email: Olga Mala olga.mala@breakingresearch.com

Expertise: sustainability and innovation, research
Email: Edgaras Leichteris edgaras@zef.lt

Expertise: sustainability and innovation, research, climate change, regional development policy.
Email: Cristi M moicris@yahoo.com

Expertise: background in providing complex consulting and incubation services to research institutes and entrepreneurs in all parts of Slovakia; Track-record of working with the Slovak R&D community, technology transfer and building innovative companies; building a network of international partners in the world’s important hubs of innovation.
Email: geist@neulogy.com

Expertise: thematic expertise in environmental sciences; involved in the development of related teaching materials; engaged in innovation teaching; working on an PhD thesis on the national innovation landscape; with contacts among the national stakeholders in the innovation landscape (both, researchers and research institutions).
Email: erdosk@ktk.pte.hu

Expertise: proven expertise in the field of sustainability and innovation—finished and on-going projects and service contracts; publications on the topics of sustainability and innovation; contacts with relevant national stakeholders and knowledge of the national innovation landscape.
Email: Domagoj.Racic@mrezaznanja.hr