About us | Latest News | News Archive 17/12/2006

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Memorandum of Understanding was signed between MIGAL and the University of La Frontera in Temuco, Chile.

As a result of a visit at Migal on the 22 nd of July 2004 (see News), which was followed by a visit at the University of La Frontera by Prof. Marchaim (see News), the UFRO Rector, Sergio Bravo, and Migal's Chairman, Yishayahu Peri, signed that the institutes are wishing to establish cooperative relations between the two institutes through mutual assistance in the areas of education, research and others, for the fostering and development of the cooperation between the Galilee region in Israel and 9 th region in Chile.

The MOU refers to the following areas of cooperation:

1. Exchange of Faculty members
2. Exchange of students
3. Joint research activities
4. Participation in seminars and academic meetings
5. Exchange of academic materials and other information
6. Special short-term academic programs.

The terms of such mutual assistance and necessary budget for each program and activity that is implemented under the terms of the agreement shall be mutually discussed and agreed upon.

New EU Projects at MIGAL

Migal signed this week another EU project as a partner at "WeMentor - Mentoring for the transfer of good practise in supporting women entrepreneurs for European research participation ", in which Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum is the coordinator, with Belgium, Italy, UK, Romania, Turkey and India.

WE-Mentor is twinning 4 senior EU regions as mentors with 4 less developed regions on women entrepreneur support issues. Mentors will act in pairs to analyse the existing mentees’ infrastructures and environments to develop an implementation plan for training and support. The Mentee regions will be trained on good practices how to approach, motivate and facilitate women entrepreneur participation in EU RTD. In a second step the mentees will implement the good practices in their regions and start a set of activities to promote women participation in EU RTD. Mentors will support the implementation process and involve role models from their own regions.

Two workshops took place on the 5 th of December with around 22 women in each one, with Dr. Petra Puechner (D); Valerie Bahr(D); Jane Watkins (UK).

Summary of Results

1. Many women within Eastern Galilee have already been supported by M.A.T.I., for example with
1. Training on company management
2. Marketing
3. Regional cooperation to create synergies
2. Many women are starting in female typical branches – they make their hobby into a business or use, what they can do from home (B&B, local food like jam, coffee shops, art)
3. The educational degrees of women are high – among Jews, Arabs and Druze women. But this potential of academic educated women is not exploited. The reasons are complex – traditional family roles, life in the villages, etc.
4. The women – although they already showed some own initiatives in setting up their business on small scales – are longing for support
1. To reach international markets (to be independent from the local tourist market)
2. To find their way out of the double challenge family plus business (burn out?)
3. To receive support for their mental distress from war times
5. Some of the women are ready for European research projects – like those with production facilities (cheese maker) or laboratories (fruit storage).
6. Some of the women work as consultants and could be trained as consultants for FP7 projects
7. Some of the organisations presented could work as networking partners for Migal and MATI to support training and workshops for women entrepreneurs

RIS EU Project

After a year and a half of intensive work the initial proposal for a "strategy for Innovation in the Eastern-Galilee" was presented before the Steering Committee.

On December 4 th, with the presence of visitors from Germany and the UK, the Strategy was presented at the Kfar-Giladi Hotel before 25 members of the Steering Committee. Mr. Doron Ephrati presented the analysis of the current situation, as well as a draft of the strategy for consideration by the Committee, and several ideas for the Pilot Actions – the implementation stage. The audiences were very active in the discussions and after the Strategy was approved by the Committee it was suggested to present now the strategy to the head of the municipalities. The Pilot actions are still under debate, and additional discussions are foreseen.

REFORM EU Project

The final copy of the REFORM Publication for WP1 was published. The report has been developed with the expertise of all REFORM partners. In particular the research and development of the report has been the responsibility of Professor Uri Marchaim and Dr David Cohen from MIGAL, Galilee Technology Center, and Amanda Orchard from Coventry University Enterprises (CUE is the coordinator of the project).

The REFORM project is one of 18 projects funded under the Sixth Framework Programme within the "Regions of Knowledge 2" call, which were launched in December 2005 with the aim to promote increased and improved regional investment in research and development through mutual learning, coordination and collaboration between regional policy developers and regional initiatives.

REFORM aims ultimately to provide appropriate mechanisms, resources and outputs which will enable the development, understanding and integration of RTD policy at a regional level, including the coordination of private/public investment and understanding of the complementarities between RTD infrastructures. Further information (and copies of this and other reports) is available at www.re4m.eu