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Workshop aims to help publishers navigate EU’s Horizon 2020

Despite its €80 billion budget, the European Union’s Programme for Research and Innovation is not widely known by a majority of European publishers. The programme provides funding for every stage of the innovation process from basic research to market uptake, in line with the EU’s commitments under the “Innovation Union.”

by WAN-IFRA Staff executivenews@wan-ifra.org | October 29, 2015

“The EU’s framework programme for Research innovation, Horizon 2020 and its sister programmes like the Fast Track Innovation is a key element to innovation in Europe,” says WAN-IFRA CEO Vincent Peyrègne. “It serves a wide community of innovation partners in a number of business branches. The Content and Converging Media programme is surprisingly overlooked by news publishers.”

As means to help rectify this, WAN-IFRA and NEM (New European Media Initiative) have jointly organised a workshop for Tuesday, 3 November in Brussels, aimed at helping publishers navigate Horizon 2020, its programmes and funding resources.

“There was a missing connecting partner in the process,” adds Stephen Fozard, Project Director, Global Alliance for Media Innovation (GAMI). “GAMI plays this role as both a facilitator and a coordinator to harness the potential of the European research programmes.”

In this interview, Rolf Dyrnes Svendsen, GAMI Advisory Board President, Director Editorial Chief Adressavisen, NxtMedia Norway Chairman, tells us what he expects from the workshop as well as what he sees as GAMI’s next steps.

WAN-IFRA: What do you see as the most important points about this event?

Rolf Dyrnes Svendsen: I am really looking forward to meet representatives from the EU Commission and present for them the vitality of the news publishing industry in terms of product development. There is a strong need to support the industry’s efforts for even more innovation by pairing developers and researchers from media, academia and the start-up community, exactly the mix the EU Horizon 2020 programs are aiming at.

What do you hope will be the outcome of it?

We are living in exceptional times. Never in the history of media have things changed so fundamentally the way they are right now. Publishers want to be an active part in this disrupting landscape and continue to be an important player to support free speech, to contribute to an open society where news information and relevant information plays an important part in people’s lives. It is my hope that this workshop will help us accelerate our ability to fulfill these visions.

What are the next steps you have planned?

The EU innovation programs offer excellent opportunities for projects within media and content convergence; and new opportunities for personal and immersive experiences, all essential parts of the new media landscape. Also these programs support technology transfer to the creative industries and – and this is a new approach – boost synergies between artists, creative people and technologists. These are all important steps to put publishers in a closer cooperation to the research the community’s offering. We will look into these possibilities to see how we should best enable companies to take advantage of the EU funds for innovation.

Click here for full details about programme and speakers for the workshop.

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