For us, 2017 is all about promoting innovation by initiating and supporting R&D projects. Collaborations and the joint development of innovative services and products are a key factor in ensuring our economic competitiveness. With this goal in mind, we have already provided a wide range of impetus for North Rhine-Westphalia’s future in recent months. Let me give you a few examples: As part of our INTERREG V A project ROCKET, we have already initiated eight projects involving more than 30 partners from industry and academia and supported them through to successful approval. These projects are developing new marketable products that will ensure North Rhine-Westphalia’s strong economic position well into the future. Through our work, numerous new projects have also been successfully initiated and launched in other funding programs, such as the NRW Leading Market Competitions or calls for proposals from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Even though this is already good news for the NMWP industry, we want to maintain this momentum.
We need to inspire even more companies to embrace the idea of collaborative research. Unfortunately, however, we repeatedly find that small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, struggle to tap into this potential on their own and are therefore unable to take advantage of the significant opportunities offered by such collaborative projects. While the obstacles are many, they are surmountable. With our themed evening planned for early May (see page 46 in this issue), we aim to do our part to break down these barriers. We’ll bring stakeholders together and provide an overview of the wide range of funding opportunities in the NMWP sector. Ultimately, collaborative projects are about increasing efficiency in development and minimizing risk. Take advantage of this opportunity—we’d be happy to support you. Get in touch with us!