BOOST INNOVATION - Establish the right framework for your industry

The 2019 HARMONI Summit is a multi-stakeholder-platform including relevant participants from regulation, standardisation and industry. On 16 and 17 January 2019 at the Assuralia Meeting Centre on Square de Meeûs in Brussels, the summit will deal with non-technological challenges in your innovation agenda such as regulation, standardisation and innovation transfer. Registration is open until 7 January 2019.

The summit will open from 14h00 on 16 January with an introduction to HARMONI and its mission to assess non-technical barriers to innovation, followed by a word from the European Commission. The new 2050 Vision recently launched by the SPIRE PPP will then be described by Daniel Gauthier, President of A.SPIRE and the role of standardisation in facilitating an innovation framework outlined by CEN-CENELEC.

After coffee, a session will focus on how to utilise the funding schemes under the forthcoming Horizon Europe programme including how to benefit from the new “Missions” concept, assessing the programme from a national perspective, and how it aligns with the EU’s Low Carbon Strategy. The last formal session on the first day is entitled ‘Enabling innovation during the fuzzy front end as well as beyond’ and will feature contributions from the European Investment Bank, BNP Paribas, and industry representatives.

The formal sessions will end by around 17h40 but an evening event kicks off at 19h00 with a buffet, drinks, discussion and speeches at The Office; Rue d'Arlon 80; 1040 Brussels.

Break-outs

The second day features a couple of break-out sessions. The morning session tackles the issue of ‘Overcoming innovation barriers’. Three parallel workshops will work on Learning from success - tools and standardisation to grow and transfer innovations, Non-technological issues regarding CO2 valorisation (Part 1), and innovation barriers to Circular Economy (the example of plastics). The later session will see discussion of SusChem’s soon-to-be-published Plastics Strategic Innovation and Research Agenda (SIRA).

After lunch, a second break-out session will address themes under the general title ‘Enabling Circular Economy and industrial innovation’. Three parallel workshops will consider Standards and innovation transfer in the area of Circular Economy, Non-technological issues regarding CO2 valorisation (Part 2), and Waste management: Innovations in industrial symbiosis. The later session will include feedback from SPIRE projects working in this area.

A draft agenda can be downloaded here.

Registration for the event is open until 7 January 2019 via this registration page and participation is free of charge. Please feel free to forward details of this event to other interested parties and colleagues.

For more information on the event, please contact Christian Grunewald or Sönke Nissen.