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In last two decades, most of the countries in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA) have been undergoing a transformation from planned to market economies. Fostering entrepreneurship and innovation through bringing together academia, business and government has become a main challenge for strengthening the market orientation and competitiveness of economies in the region. Business incubators, technology/science parks and technology transfer offices play a key role in the processes of commercialization of science and are crucial for development of national and regional innovation clusters. The AIECA 2009 Conference aims at sharing local and international experience about business incubation and innovation and building networks within and outside national and sectoral borders among academic researchers, business managers and policy makers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

Currently, except for EU funding and respective programs, in most of the ECA countries specialized financial support for incubating activities, including for academic entrepreneurs, is practically nonexistent. At the same time, in most of these countries the necessary legislation is still missing, underdeveloped or at least - fragmented among non-coordinated sector policies (e.g. Belarus, Bulgaria, FYR Macedonia, and Russian Federation). One of the results is that most of the existing incubators in ECA rely mainly on external funding on a project basis, working predominantly as not-for-profit organizations, while incubators that tend to rely on their own profit through the generation of start-ups with potential growth opportunity are smaller number. However, since the beginning of 2000, the intensification of business incubators and technology/science parks activities aiming at fostering the innovation process in ECA countries put emphasis on the need of new public policy to support the academia-industry-government relations.

How to stimulate knowledge transfer between both academia and industry and business-to-business and how to transform this transfer into long-term innovation-driven partnership? Could business incubators strengthen and support these processes? How can effective public-private partnership be forged and how this could be done to provide early stage support for innovation and entrepreneurship through public investments in incubator institutions?

The conference invites submissions of both academic and practitioner papers on all topics, mentioned above with unlimited range of scholarly approaches including theoretical and empirical papers. The organizers are keen to encourage submissions from both established and young scholars.

Conference themes include, but are not limited to:

• Incubating innovations - the triple helix of academia, business and politics
• National and regional policies for fostering business incubation and innovation development
• The future of incubation infrastructure - what would be needed in five to ten years?
• R&D as a source for new businesses - the role of incubators and technology parks
• Investment readiness and investment policies on local, national, and international level
• Research based spin-offs as a tool for creation of economic wealth from public funded research
• Innovative start-up funding - how to nurture and incorporate new ideas
• Business support networks and innovation - counselling, coaching and training for start-ups
• ICT - between empowering incubation and technology/science parks infrastructure and building innovative start-ups
• Innovation and business clusters
• Green energy and energy efficiency: windows of opportunity for incubators
• Eco-Tourism: From start-up through innovation to regional planning
• Academic entrepreneurship in Eastern Europe and Central Asia - problems of the past and challenges for the future
• (In)formal knowledge and technology transfer as a driving force of innovation

Session proposals with draft titles of 2 to 4 papers addressing the conference topic are welcome.

Language: English

Deadlines:

• Abstract Submission: August 31, 2009. The abstracts of the paper to be presented should not exceed 500 words. Please send an abstract to aieca2009@online.bg using the Abstract submission Form.
• Announcement of accepted abstracts: September 4, 2009
• Final paper submission: November 27, 2009 (requirements for article formatting will be sent to all approved participants)

Publication Opportunity: The scientific board of the conference will review all submitted final papers and accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings.

Conference fee:

• EUR 110 payable upon arrival or via bank transfer (see details below).
• Reduced fee for graduate and doctoral students - EUR 60.

The fee covers: participation in the conference and events listed below, conference materials, coffee breaks, reception dinner, two lunches, and one copy of AIECA 2009 proceedings.

As part of AIECA 2009 and benefiting from the conjunction with Creativity and Innovation Days - Gabrovo, all approved participants are heartily invited to join the various events, including:

• Presentation of services provided by the Enterprise Europe Network (http://www.enterprise-europe-network.ec.europa.eu) - the largest network offering support and advice to businesses across Europe, part of the EU's Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme. EEN provides: business partner search within technology and business cooperation databases; fast access to information on funding opportunities; individual on-site visits to companies to assess their needs incl. technology audit; broad range of promotion and information materials and many more.
• Training on Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (http://ec.europa.eu/cip)
• Visits to innovation-centered companies, including presentations and demonstrations of companies' innovation strategies and achievements.
• Visits of eco-tourism business sites
• 45 anniversary of the Technical University - Gabrovo. Separate program consisting of various events celebrating the 45 anniversary of the Technical University (incl. concert at the Municipal Theater of Gabrovo, Award ceremony for companies that have assisted R&D and innovation at the Technical University, etc.) will be available later.

(Note: The conference fee does not cover the participation in the events from the 45 anniversary of the Technical University)

General provisions:

Logistics and general organization will be provided by ARC Consulting Ltd.

Contacts:

Valentina Nikolova

Please, send all requests to following e-mail: aieca2009@online.bg

Applied Research and Communications Fund 5, Alexander Zhendov St., 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria Tel.: +359 (2) 973 3000, Fax: +359 (2) 973 3588 URL: http://www.arcfund.net

URL: http://www.ecabit.org

• EUR 110 payable upon arrival or via bank transfer (see details below).
• Reduced fee for graduate and doctoral students - EUR 60.

The fee covers: participation in the conference and all events included into program, conference materials, coffee breaks, reception dinner, two lunches, one copy of AIECA 2009 proceedings, and local transport.

Members of the ECAbit network are funded by ECAbit for conference fee and accommodation during their stay in Gabrovo (Hotel Lyulyatsite) from September 23 to September 27, 2009.

Please use the registration form on the right side of this website. Thank you very much.

Logistics and general organization will be provided by ARC Consulting Ltd.

Visa support will be provided to all participants. Visa processing starts with issuing the invitation letter; all participants will be contacted individually.

Please, for the visa purposes send an e-mail to aieca2009@online.bg.

More visa information is available on the web-site of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Bulgaria.