European community (EC/EU) support programs for international R&D projects and distribution agreements

A near term goal of the EC/EU is the creation of a free-trade and borderless Europe. Europe however is not a homogeneous group of people, but a mixture of different cultures, languages, morals and business attitudes. Trading goods seems, and in actuality is, more simple to achieve than being successful in a complicated R&D program involving several EC/EU member countries. The EC parliament wants to stimulate this kind of cooperation with the introduction of generous sponsor programs in the areas of innovative R&D and distribution contracts. The intention of these programs is clear. However the actual implementation is far from perfect. Application procedures are complicated and involve an enormous amount of administrative tasks. Success rates are low for some of the programs, not making it worth while to even apply. This paper presents an actual case of a successful business venture between an Italian and a German company. EC/EU programs for small and medium sized enterprises (SME) were used to set up this cooperation. The authors supply information regarding the scope and content of some of the more interesting EC/EU programs for SMEs