EUREKA GERMAN CHAIRMANSHIP

The EUREKA Chairmanship rotates between member countries on a yearly basis and each mandate runs from July to June the following year. It implements the three-year rolling programme of the Initiative in cooperation with the previous and future Chairs (known as the ‘Troika’).

The Chair represents EUREKA externally. It agrees with the EUREKA Secretariat (ESE) the level of support this latter should provide to the Chair and incorporates this into the ESE’s business plan. The role of the Chair is to sustain the momentum of the work of EUREKA.

Germany took over the EUREKA Chairmanship on 1 July 2009 from Portugal. This is Germany's 3rd Chairmanship after 1985 and 1999/2000

The main priorities of the German chairmanship are as follows:

• Demonstrating the German commitment to European cooperation following the German EU presidency in 2007
• Ensuring the continuity of topics and initiatives put forward by previous EUREKA chairs (esp. SI, PT) and the German EU presidency
• Reinforcing the multilateral dimension of EUREKA in particular the EUREKA Clusters and Umbrellas
• Strengthening the bottom-up approach a unique instrument for international R&D cooperation
• Opening EUREKA to global partnerships (following the work of the Portuguese Chair)
• Supporting internationalisation cooperation of SMEs

Major topics include:

• Global economic crisis: impacts on growth, employment, RTD investment, etc.
• Climate change and energy security

European Union

• Follow-up of the Lisbon Strategy
• ERA policy development (opening the ERA to the world, Joint Programming, etc.)
• Preparation of FP 8
• EU Presidencies SE and ES

EUREKA

• EUREKA Strategy of Ljubljana, 2008
• Eurostars: first experiences, mid-term evaluation
• 2010: 25 years EUREKA