ERDF Annual Event 2016

More than 150 visitors from research, business, and administration attended the ERDF Annual Event in Jena on November 7th, 2016 at Hans Knöll Institute (HKI). This year's ERDS Administration Authority Event focused on Priority Axis 1 "Strengthening research, technological development, and innovation". In addition to technical presentations on the implementation of the OP in this area, the participants also had the opportunity to view individual ERDF-funded research projects presented by HKI employees.

The ERDF Operational Programme in Thuringia in the funding period 2014-2020 consists of a total of five priority axes. In the current funding period, ERDF funding within Priority Axis 1 focuses in particular on the funding of research-related and business-related infrastructure as well as collaborative projects, e.g. in the area of material research, the IT sector, and medical technology.

n the current funding period, a total of around 1.165 billion euros in ERDF funding is available. The research and innovation area accounts for the largest share with 333 million euros or 29% of ERDF funding, of which almost 150 million euros is for research-related device and building infrastructure. Another critical focus is on strengthening businesses' competitiveness with ERDF funding amounting to 283 million euros.

The Thuringian Minister of Economic Affairs, Science and Digital Society presented the Regional Research and Innovation Strategy (RIS3) overall action plan for the State of Thuringia at the annual conference. Within the scope of its meeting on October 11th, 2016, the RIS3 Thuringia Cluster Board (steering committee) overall the general action plan. It is the superordinate planning document for implementing Thuringia's Innovation Strategy, the core of which is the proposed measures for developing RIS3 fields, generated by the working groups. The overall action plan and the proposed measures can be found here.

http://www.cluster-thueringen.de/innovationsstrategie/umsetzung/gesamtaktionsplan/