Education and Science, EU – Baltic States, Forum, Innovations, Lithuania, Markets and Companies

The motto of the conference is sustainable re-industrialisation of Europe.

The conference is under the patronage of Dalia Grybauskaite, President of the Republic of Lithuania. The conference will be also greeted by the Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania, Dainius Pavalkis, and the EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Maire Geoghegan-Quinn.

Lithuanian Minister of Education and Science Dainius Pavalkis says: "Today the importance of the manufacturing industry for the sustainable growth of Europe is immense. In order for us to meet Europe's competitiveness needs on the global arena, research and innovation must become core for the industrial transformation."

At the conference, leaders and specialists from the EU engineering industry and the field of science will discuss Horizon 2020, the new Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, and the best ways to approach its implementation while promoting innovation of the EU engineering industry, sustainable development and competitiveness in 2014-2020. In the discussions and the speeches made by European Commission, business and science representatives, special attention will be given to the increase in efficiency of EU regional and national RTD support tools through their mutual synergy and the national and regional smart specialisation of the countries.

The manufacturing industry represented by ManuFuture has significant interest in the EC Regional Policy as a key delivery mechanism for EU 2020 and the pursuit of smart, sustainable and inclusive regional growth. Smart specialisation combines a place-based approach with innovation systems logic and a strong outward orientation towards global value chains aimed at smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in the regions. To achieve smart growth Europe needs to mobilise and maximise the innovation capacity of every region through open innovations and the alignment of public and private investment decisions towards a limited number of priorities with the highest development impact.

During the conference, ways to better transform Horizon 2020 investments into wealth, growth and jobs be discussed: supporting better coverage of the entire innovation cycle, promoting better alignment with national and regional policies and funding programmes, and creating framework conditions for growth and jobs to help the European regions stay globally competitive.