First InnoMatNet Summer School, London, UK, Thursday, July 4, 2013 to Friday, July 5, 2013
The first InnoMatNet Summer School, on materials and design innovation, will be held in London during the "New Designers - Part Two" event (www.newdesigners.com), in an exciting collaboration with the UK's most important graduate design exhibition. This Summer School will inspire young designers and researchers about the possibilities of materials, old and new. It starts at the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining in central London on 4 July 2013 before moving to New Designers at the Business Design Centre, Islington, London on Friday 5th July. This event will include high-profile materials and design presentations within the New DesignersTalks Programme, in addition to hands-on workshop activities for the Summer School participants.
More information about this event can be found here

 

 

Proof of Concept Grant. Call for proposals. Deadlines 24 April and 03 October 2013
European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept Grant (Coordination and Support Action) provides additional funding to ERC grant holders to establish proof of concept, identify a development path and an Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) strategy for ideas arising from an ERCfunded project.
Budget available EUR 10 millions. More details here

 

 

 

Pan-European survey on patent policy and on the "Grace period" issue
In line with the European patent reform, under the current patent system in most European countries, researchers who talk about their discoveries at a conference or publish in a journal before filing a patent application may have difficulty obtaining patent protection later on. Some say that it makes it harder to patent and inhibits inventors from speaking freely; others say it makes the patenting process more predictable and reduces legal disputes. Whatever your view, it's an important issue that has never been addressed adequately by the EU. An independent survey of TTO and corporate opinion is actually launched across Europe, conducted by the Science|Business Innovation Board. The survey takes 5 minutes. The outcome will be reported to you next year, and presented to the EU's Director-General for Internal Market.We strongly invite you to respond to the questionnaire on-line by clicking here