KEP

February 2016 marks the official kick-off of the FUELPAGE project aimed at transferring best practices of fuel quality monitoring from the EU and the Czech Republic to the beneficiary target group in Serbia.

On 27-29 January 2016, the kick-off meetings of the project “Development of a training program on Management of Disaster Prevention, Preparedness and Rapid Response” were held at the premises of the project’s beneficiary institutions, i.e. the Institute of Public Health of Serbia “Dr. Milan Jovanovic Batut” in Belgrade and the Institute of Public Health of Montenegro in Podgorica.
 

Experts from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia (CCIS), know-how recipient, and of the Austrian Economic Chamber (WKO), know-how provider, gathered in Belgrade on 14 January 2016 for the Kick-off meeting of the KEP AUSTRIA project ‘’Establishing Methodology for the Development of CE Application for Directive on Machinery’’ (Project MEDOCE).

The project know-how provider from Austria, the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw) and the Macedonian know-how recipient, the Finance Think - Economic Research & Policy Institute, Skopje met in Vienna on 21-22 December for the kick-off meeting of the project “Heroes and she-roes: knowledge for analysis of and advocacy for equal pay for women and mothers in Macedonia (SHE-ROES)”.

The beneficiary institution of the KEP AUSTRIA project Aim@Innovations, Knowledge Center, organised in Skopje on 12 November а business breakfast for the successful finalisation and promotion of the project and its I-LAB Center. Representatives from 10 universities, research centers, NGOs and student organisations, with whom Knowledge Center had signed memoranda of cooperation in the past period, attended the event.

The Institute of Public Health of Serbia “Dr. Milan Jovanovic Batut”, project beneficiary institution, hosted the project final conference at its headquarters in Belgrade on 15 December 2015.
 

Five innovation vouchers for Moldovan SMEs, including start-ups and spin-offs have been financed in the framework of the CEI KEP Austria-funded project Innovation stimulation for Moldovan SMEs in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energies (CEI-ener2i-MD). The activity aims at raising awareness within the recipient institution - the Agency for Innovation and Technology Transfer in Moldova - on energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.

The First Innovation BootCamp under the CEI KEP AUSTRIA project Aim@Innovations, supported by the Austrian Development Cooperation, took place in Skopje on 13-15 October, 2015.

The final ceremony of the KEP ITALY project “Public Accountants Certification Training  - PACT” was held on 16 October in Skopje, Macedonia. The Italian Ambassador to Macedonia, H.E. Massimino Bellelli, attended the ceremony together with Macedonian and Slovenian Government representatives as well with the World Bank, USAID and the Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF).
 

Within the Know-how Exchange Programme  - AUSTRIA Call for Proposals 2015, five project proposals were approved by the CEI Committee of National Coordinators on 14 October 2015. The total KEP grant amounts to around 166.000 EUR and the total project cost to about 380.000 EUR. These activities have been selected among 96 applications which have undergone a two-step evaluation procedure:
 

Know-how provider LVIA (Italy) - in cooperation with MAG2 Finance (Italy) - is successfully carrying out the KEP AUSTRIA project “New micro-credit scheme to women empowerment” aimed at improving the local labour market and the development of SMEs in the Albanian Shkodra Region.  In order to foster gender equality, a specific loan product dedicated to women entrepreneurs named “Luleborë” and a micro-credit fund of 40.000 EUR (5.643.000 Lek) for the disbursement of the loans have be

Discontinuous drinking water supply, water loss of up to 70% of the overall volume supplied, and contamination of the drinking water by wastewater are amongst the pressing problems of the aqueduct of Tirana. In this framework, the CEO of the Italian company Idrostudi met the representatives of the Regulatory Body for Water Supply and Sewer System of Albania (DPUK) and of the Tirana Water Supply and Sewerage Company (UKT) in the Albanian capital on 27 – 29 July.

The press conference held on 31 August in Gradiška, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the framework of the KEP AUSTRIA Project Development of the ICT business incubator in Gradiška reaffirmed the importance of promoting entrepreneurship and providing assistance to young entrepreneurs, newly established companies as well as to experienced firms.
 

The SUSAGRI project is designed and implemented by the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA, Italy), the Research Institute for Horticulture in Skierniewice (RIH, Poland) and the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Sarajevo (SUFASA), in collaboration with the Administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Plant Health Protection (PHPA), a central authority within the Ministry

The Italian Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies and the Faculty of Technology in Leskovac, Serbia, have joined forces in the implementation phase of the project PACKSENSOR - The impact of the controlled atmosphere on quality and safety of close-seal-packaged food applied in the SMEs of south Serbia.

During a two-day visit on 6-8 July 2015, directors and project engineers of the Albanian water management company, UKT met with the representatives of their Italian counterparts Idrostudi and BM Tecnologie in Trieste and Padua respectively, in the framework of the project “Water supply, sewerage networks, and future city development: Theoretical update and on-the-job training of the UKT staff members in view of the Territorial Reform”.

Representatives of UKT, the Albanian multi-utility managing the sewer and water supply networks of Tirana, and representatives of the Italian company Idrostudi srl, met in the Albanian capital on 14-17 April, in the framework of the 6-month Project “Water supply, sewerage networks, and future city development: Theoretical update and on-the-job training of the UKT staff members in view of the Territorial Reform”.

The CEI is glad to announce a new Call for Proposals for the CEI Know‐How Exchange Programme (KEP) ‐ ITALY. The projects will be co‐financed by the CEI Fund at the EBRD, entirely financed by the Italian Government.
  

The workshop on 22-23 April in Skopje (Macedonia) was organised within the one-year  KEP AUSTRIA Project Aim@Innovations aimed at strengthening national capacities for the provision of thematic trainings and consultancies in the area of innovation management to SMEs, start-ups and spinoffs in Macedonia. The project is co-financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation with 45.000 EUR.
 

A two-week study visit (3 - 17 March 2015) took place in Albania in the Shkodra, Malesi e Madhe and Puke Districts (Shkodra Region), in the framework of the one-year KEP AUSTRIA project for the development of a “New micro-credit scheme to women empowerment”. The Project is co-financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation with around 50.000 EUR.