Project Overview

Despite great efforts in recent years to increase the awareness of intellectual property (IP) issues, there is still a fairly low level of understanding of the usefulness of IP management in the innovation process. There is also some uncertainty about how to use it and what it can do to support economic development in Europe.

The main aim of the ip4inno project is to increase the understanding and usage of intellectual property by SMEs, with a view to increasing innovation and competitiveness in line with the Lisbon goals.

Key activities:

Ip4inno intends to create a core set of training materials which can be used to prepare trainers specialising in IP and located in various European production areas.

These trainers will then spread the acquired knowledge in the business advisory communities in their own countries in order to increase the general level of strategic and managerial proficiency in IP in the industry sector and, in particular, amongst new small and medium-sized enterprises.

Expected impact:

The main objective of the project is to raise the awareness of IP management issues amongst a wide variety of actors. The profiles of the partners and their participation in networks at European level give access to an optimal target audience consisting of different types of bodies. This will help to ensure that the project's actions have a maximum impact.

The ultimate aim is that the learning process relying on training seminars will be expanded at a later stage. It is envisaged that new partners across the EU 25 could become involved after the initial two-year co-funded period.

Building on the success of the initial two-year plan, an expansion to all accession and candidate countries will also be a priority in order to create a truly European innovation system.

Project Officer: Marija Popovic