- EUREKA

EUREKA is a pan-European network for market-oriented, industrial R&D.

Created as an intergovernmental Initiative in 1985, EUREKA aims to enhance European competitiveness through its support to businesses, research centres and universities who carry out pan-European projects to develop innovative products, processes and services.

Through its flexible and decentralised Network, EUREKA offers project partners rapid access to a wealth of knowledge, skills and expertise across Europe and facilitates access to national public and private funding schemes.

The internationally recognised EUREKA label adds value to a project and gives participants a competitive edge in their dealings with financial, technical and commercial partners.

Through a EUREKA project, partners develop new technologies for which they agree the Intellectual Property Rights and build partnerships to penetrate new markets.

The EUREKA Clusters play a key role in building European competitiveness, driving European standards and the interoperability of products in a wide range of sectors. The result is a clear demonstration of the strength of pan-European teamwork in the European Research Area.

The EUREKA Umbrellas are thematic networks which focus on a specific technology area or business sector. The main goal of an Umbrella is to facilitate the generation of EUREKA projects in its own target area.

Each year hundreds of individual projects are initiated by European companies, an increasing number of which are SMEs. These contribute to improved wellbeing, security, environment and employment in Europe and beyond.

Each year the EUREKA Lillehammer Award is given to a project that has demonstrated its outstanding contribution to the environment. The EUREKA Lynx Award goes to the SME that has achieved or expects to achieve a significant increase in turnover as a result of participation in a EUREKA project.

By encouraging and assisting businesses to innovate, the EUREKA Initiative complements the European Union's Framework Programme in working actively towards the common European objective of raising investment in R&D to 3% of GDP by 2010.

EUREKA’s main results are summarised in the Initiative’s Annual Report. [see more]

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