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Technopolis Consulting Group Belgium SPRL

The Brussels office of Technopolis Group was launched in the first semester of 2004. We have grown its staff, skills and turnover rapidly in the subsequent four years. Our team is young (or at least youthfully minded) and enthusiastic and it reflects a rich intellectual mix. We have a range of social science disciplines represented by economics, development studies, management, public relations and communications. These are reflected through a linguistic and cultural kaleidoscope. Basque, Estonian, English, German, French, Portuguese, Polish, Russian and Spanish are all spoken in the office.

We provide tailored services to European level clients. The European Commission, the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament have all been clients this year. We also advise national and regional policy makers in Belgium and across Europe. Since our launch our clients have included public authorities or agencies in Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, France, Greece, Norway, Poland, Serbia, Sweden, Turkey. The Brussels office of Technopolis also oversees our Baltic area office  in Tallinn, Estonia.

Our activities are focused on two main inter-linked types of services to our clients:

1) Comparative policy research at multi-regional or country level. We work in three main fields:

• Innovation
• Research policies (including sub-themes and, notably, biotechnology); and
• Regional (knowledge economy) policies.

Several of our projects involve the management of an extensive network of experts; the development of databases of quantitative and qualitative information created by those experts; and the subsequent analysis of that data. We are at the core of all of the major EU level policy analysis and development platforms in the field of research and innovation, namely:

• The PROINNO Europe and Europe Innova initiatives of the Enterprise and Industry Directorate General, through the important role we play in the InnoPolicy TrendChart and Sectoral Innovation Watch programmes. We also support the communication activities of Europe Innova as a whole.
• The ERAWATCH and Regional Key Figures of the European Research Area initiatives of the Research Directorate-General.

Within the InnoPolicy TrendChart initiative we are responsible for preparing annual reports on innovation policy in Belgium, Estonia and Poland. Under Europe Innova Sectoral Innovation Watch, we are responsible for an analysis of the eco-innovation sector in Europe. Another recent high profile study, carried out for DG Enterprise and Industry, concerned the issue of counterfeiting and other abuse of intellectual property rights and the impact of those abuses on small and medium sized enterprises in the EU.

In the field of regional policy, we have carried out two major studies for the Evaluation unit of the Regional Policy DG of the European Commission:

• A Strategic evaluation on innovation and knowledge in the Structural Funds. This work helped the Commission services to formulate guidelines for the current 2007-13 programming period;
• 60 cases studies of innovative projects funded by the European Regional Development Fund during the 2000-2006 period

We are also providing technical assistance to the Lisbon Monitoring Platform of the Committee of the Regions. This involves animating discussions, producing scoping papers and reports of workshops that bring together local and regional authorities on a range of issues of relevance to regional competitiveness.

2) Policy design and evaluation studies. These projects are more self-contained and smaller but often draw on the extensive knowledge base of innovation, research and regional development policies amassed under the first category of activities. Our services include

• Development of strategies, programmes or policy measures (we helped design the first national innovation strategy for Serbia, we recently developed a suite of measures for the Luxembourg Innovation Agency and are currently undertaking a feasibility study for a technology investment support programme in Estonia);
• Evaluation of public policies (for instance, we have undertaken the evaluation of industrial R&D and innovation measures in the Walloon region of Belgium).

Technopolis Group Brussels office also hosts the ERAWATCH Network ASBL (a not-for-profit association), which represents a consortium of 16 partners with a view to the implementation of a framework contract with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission. Our staff run the association and manages the network of over 40 partner organisations providing access to policy advice and know-how on public research policies in as many countries worldwide. Further information on the ERAWATCH Network ASBL can be found at : www.erawatch-network.eu and the results of our policy monitoring activities can be view at www.cordis.europa.eu/erawatch/.

Our office is located on the edge of a central Brussels green area, the Jubelpark/Parc du Cinquantenaire, close to all forms of public transport. The main institutions of the European Union are only a few minutes walk away.

The Brussels office of Technopolis Group celebrated its fifth 'birthday' on 15 July 2009.  To find out more about the reception that was held in the prestigious BOZAR - Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, click here.

Technopolis Group Brussels meets the highest quality standard of the Brussels Environment Institute for our environmental management practices.

 

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