Eurico
Neves
Validated Lead Expert
Generic Skills
B.1. Understanding of integrated and sustainable urban development:
I have an engineering background, with post-graduation studies in international management, and I have worked on innovation policies for the last 20 years and in integrated and sustainable urban policies for the last 10. I have been a Lead Expert for Urbact since 2008, and have followed the implementation of the "UNIC" project from start to conclusion and beyond, further supporting the participating cities in successfully applying for a Council of Europe European Cultural Route of Cities recognistion. More recently, I have been involved at project management level in the implementation of the major action "Guimarães - European Culture Capital City 2012" leading the project "City Innovation Broker".
The company I created in 1997 and manage since, INOVA+, that is now a leading player in innovation in Europe, also has an active relationship with city authorities across Europe, currently supporting the development of integrated, sustainable and innovative policies in more than 10 cities in Portugal, Spain and Poland.
I strongly believe that the future of innovation relies in the cities and on their unique power to attract and develop talent, and I have supported this idea in several articles published over the last years in relevant international publications. I actively work to promote the adoption of open innovation practices in European cities.
B.2. Understanding of exchange and learning processes at transnational level:
My career over the last 20 years has been dedicated to the promotion of exchange and learning processes at transnational level as a primary tool for innovation, growth and sustainable development. I have started my international career in 1994 working for the European Commission in Luxembourg in the set-up and development of the European Network of Innovation Relay Centre, which would grow to become the largest innovation dedicated network in the world with more than 1000 organisations involved. I remain involved with the network until 2010, when this network merged with the Euro Info Centres to become the Enterprise Europe Network and coordinated the exchange and learning processes in the network, including supervision of all the training activities. I have later coordinated the largest EU project for innovation policy mutual exchange and learning, the INNO LEARNING PLATFORM, from 2008 to 2012 and I have actively contributed over the recent years to most of the EU iniciatives for transnational learning, including INTERREG (as a capitalization expert), URBACT (as Lead Expert), ESPON (as Sounding Board member), the European Neighbourhood Policy Initiative (as Thematic Expert).
Also in Portugal, either as an individual or through my company INOVA+, I have actively engaged in transnational exchange and learning processes, in particular in the framework of the EU Horizon 2020 and ERASMUS+ programmes.
B.3. Proficiency in English:
I have a Cambridge University Certificate in English (1986) and I have spent almost all my professional career of over 25 years with English as the main working language. From 1991 to 1994 I worked as Export Manager for EFACEC, a portuguese industrial company, in a job that implied intense travel and working meetings and contract negotiations in english language in countries all across Europe, Asia and Africa. From 1994 to end 1997, I worked for the European Commission at Luxembourg, within an international team and with English as the main working language.
And since 1997, and after I created INOVA+ and subsequently its branches in Brussels, Poland and Germany, I have always had English as main working language. INOVA+ is today an international company, employing over 60 people from 7 different nationalities and with an active participation in international projects, where fluency of english is mandatory.
Since 1997 I have authored more than 80 articles and reports written in English and participated in over 100 conferences, workshops and seminars all across the world, always in English, which demonstrates the level of proficiency.
Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:
Summary Expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities:
Eurico Neves expertise for the design and delivery of transnational exchange and learning activities is demonstrated by his successful management of over 100 transnational projects over the course of his career. He has been an invited key speaker on over 100 conferences at national and international level, including TEDx and major events organized by the European Commission, the URBACT, INTERREG and INTERACT European programmes, national and regional governments and governmental institutions in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. As a member of the Secretariat for the European Network of Innovation Relay Centres (currently Enterprise Europe Network) responsible for the coordination of training and animation activities, Eurico Neves has chaired and deployed over 80 workshops and training events in all EU countries between 2000 and 2008 in aspects related to innovation and exploitation of research results.
He is active member of associations, having been a member of the board of the National Association of Information Technologies Companies (ANETIE) between 2008 and 2010 and being an active member of the Portuguese Business Angels Association and of the Portuguese Entrepreneurial Association.
He is also a renowned writer on the subject of innovation in its own country, having had two books published in Portugal by leading national publishers.
Thematic expertise:
Theme / Policy:
Entrepreneurship and competitive SMEs
Summary Thematic expertise:
Eurico Neves has a career of over 20 years in the topic of Entrepreneurship and competitive SMEs. He was provided strategic consultancy services in this topic to international institutions such as the European Commission, the European Space Agency, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission, and expertise in the same area to the management structures of European Programmes such as INTERREG IVC, INTERREG Central Europe, ENPI Cross-Border Cooperation in the Mediterranean, ESPON - European observation network for territorial development and cohesion and URBACT II, as a Lead Expert from 2008 to 2014. Under URBACT he acted as Lead Expert for the successful “UNIC” project, that went to take a successful application for a Council of Europe European Cultural Route of Cities with Ceramic Industrial Heritage, following the conclusion of the project.
Since July 2007 he has been appointed as the representative from Portugal at the Business Chamber of the Enterprise Policy Group (EPG) of the European Commission, an advisory board to Vice President Tajani and in 2010, Eurico Neves has been selected by the European Commission as one of the 20 members in Europe of the Expert Panel on Innovation in Services.
He has managed more than 20 international projects in the area, including ePlus, one of the current Startup Europe (SE) projects that interconnects local startup ecosystems across Europe, funded under Horizon 2020.
Theme / Policy:
Research, Innovation and Knowledge Economy
Summary Thematic expertise:
Eurico Neves has a career of over 20 years in the topic of Research, Innovation and Knowledge Economy. He was provided strategic consultancy services in this topic to international institutions such as the European Commission, the European Space Agency, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission, and expertise in the same area to the management structures of European Programmes such as INTERREG IVC, INTERREG Central Europe, ENPI Cross-Border Cooperation in the Mediterranean, ESPON - European observation network for territorial development and cohesion and URBACT II, as a Lead Expert from 2008 to 2014.
Since July 2007 he has been appointed as the representative from Portugal at the Business Chamber of the Enterprise Policy Group (EPG) of the European Commission, an advisory board to Vice President Tajani and in 2009 has been appointed as one of the 7 world-wide members of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Final Panel for the evaluation and selection of the first 3 Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) projects, each funded with +100 million €.
He has managed more than 20 international projects in the area, including several FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects, and authored more than 20 publications.
Theme / Policy:
Local Economic Development
Summary Thematic expertise:
Eurico Neves has a career of over 20 years in the topic of Local Economic Development. He was provided strategic consultancy services in this topic to international institutions such as the European Commission, the European Space Agency, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission, and expertise in the same area to the management structures of European Programmes such as INTERREG IVC, INTERREG Central Europe, ENPI Cross-Border Cooperation in the Mediterranean, ESPON - European observation network for territorial development and cohesion and URBACT II, as a Lead Expert from 2008 to 2014.
Since July 2007 he has been appointed as the representative from Portugal at the Business Chamber of the Enterprise Policy Group (EPG) of the European Commission, an advisory board to Vice President Tajani. He has as developed major projects in the economic and cultural fields, including the successful application for a Council of Europe European Cultural Route of Cities with Ceramic Industrial Heritage headed by the city of Limoges and leading the project “CIDADE” within Guimarães European Capital of Culture 2012.
He has managed more than 20 international projects in the area, including several FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects, and authored more than 20 publications.
Expertise support to local authorities and other stakeholders in designing & delivering integrated and participatory policies
E.1. Knowledge on participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices :
I have been involved in the following projects, among others, that included participatory methods and tools for co-production and implementation of local polices:
- UNIC (http://urbact.eu/unic) including the support to the production of Local Action Plans for urban economic development in 9 EU cities;
- EU2020 Going Local (http://www.eu2020goinglocal.eu/) including support and validation of the development of Local Action Plans from 14 EU cities and regions in the field of Energy and sustainable transport;
- ‘GPrix - Good Practices in Innovation Support Measures for SMEs’ (http://www.gprix.eu/) where I have worked on recommendations for policy makers and programmes' managers on 7 EU regions on how to improve the public support to innovation in particular for the traditional sectors (automotive, textiles, leather, ceramics, mechanical/ metallurgy and food sec)
- Inno Learning Platform (http://www.innova-europe.eu/key-assignments?q=node/17) producing policy recommendations on trans-national policy cooperation and learning in the field of innovation to innovation agencies in all 27 Member States;
Finally, I am the author of an article on the topic of participatory methods, entitled “Keeping up with politics - Sustainable local policy making with engaged stakeholders: The UNIC experience”, published at the URBACT Tribune, August 2011.
E.2. Knowledge on integrated approach for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of urban strategies/policies:
My knowledge on integrated approaches for the design, delivering, monitoring and evaluation of regional and urban strategies/policies is demonstrated through the successful participation in the following projects:
- Inno Learning Platform (http://www.innova-europe.eu/key-assignments?q=node/17) through the organization of events intended for policy-makers and innovation practitioners for the promotion of trans-national innovation policy cooperation activities and the sharing of experiences regarding the transferability assessments made to the selected good practices;
- UNIC (http://urbact.eu/unic) through the organization and animation of Working Groups, Local Support Groups, visit studies and mini-studies that have contributed to the identification of good practices, translation of these good practices into local action plans and subsequent deployment, including beyond the end of the project.
- Overall coordination of the Network Secretariat for the European Commission project IRE - INNOVATING REGIONS IN EUROPE (http://www.innova-europe.eu/?q=node/16) including activities for Methodological support to the development of Regional Innovation Strategy (RIS) projects, in particular in New Member States and Associated countries;
- More recently, I have been the Expert responsible for the assessment of the Smart Specialization Strategies (RIS3) of the Regions of Lisbon (by appointment of DG Regional Policy, 2013), Tuscany and Abbruzzo (by appointment of the Joint Research Centre / S3 Platform, 2014).
E.3. Awareness of the main policy and funding schemes for sustainable urban development at EU and national level:
I keep a permanent update on sustainable urban development at EU and national level, by means of:
- Direct contact as a service provider for urban development strategy consultancy with more than 12 cities in Portugal, through my organization INOVA+ ;
- A continuous participation in conferences and major events at national and European level where I am a regular speaker on the topics of Innovation, Technology Transfer, EU policies, Urban and sustainable development and Information Technologies. I have been an invited key speaker on over 100 conferences at national and international level, including TEDx and major events organized by the European Commission, the Workshops on American Latin Cooperation with Europe (WALCUE), the Association of the Electricity Supply Industry of East Asia and the Western Pacific, the URBACT, INTERREG and INTERACT European programmes, national and regional governments and governmental institutions in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.
- My role as Expert for the European Commission, as an evaluator and reviewer of proposals in the field of Urban innovation, Smart Cities and Regional Innovation Strategies, which ensures an continuous contact with the latest state of the art in these fields.
- My experience as a Lead Expert for the URBACT II programme, from 2008 until 2014, with a permanent contact with urban development policies.
E.4. Ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities:
My ability to understand specific local situations and adapt tools and content to different local realities is thoroughly demonstrated by my 20 years’ experience of contract management within the context of international projects, including – but not limited – to the following projects that implied adaptation of tools and content to local level:
- UNIC (http://urbact.eu/unic);
- EU2020 Going Local (http://www.eu2020goinglocal.eu/)
- GPrix - Good Practices in Innovation Support Measures for SMEs’ (http://www.gprix.eu/)
- Inno Learning Platform (http://www.innova-europe.eu/key-assignments?q=node/17)
And also in my roles as:
- Capitalization Expert for the INTERREG IVC programme since 2012, responsible for the topic of “Innovation Capacity of SMEs”.
- Lead Expert for the Thematic Study on “Technology Transfer and Business Innovation” in the INTERREG IVB CENTRAL EUROPE Programme, 2013
- Member of the Sounding Board of Transnational Projects for the ESPON - European observation network for territorial development and cohesion since 2009;
- Thematic Expert for the European Neighbourhood Policy Initiative, cross-border cooperation "Mediterranean Sea Basin Programme" , responsible for the terms of reference for strategic project area for innovation and technology transfer in the solar energy field, 2010 – 2011.
Summary Expertise:
Eurico Neves is specialized in European policies on entrepreneurship and SMEs, research & development, innovation, urban and sustainable development and information technologies.
He has authored more than 50 publications in these fields, either on his own or as co-author and contributed to over 100 successful international innovation projects over the last 20 years.
He has provided strategic consultancy services in innovation and technology to international institutions such as the European Commission, the European Space Agency, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission and acted as an expert to the management structures of European Programmes such as INTERREG IVC, INTERREG Central Europe, ENPI Cross-Border Cooperation in the Mediterranean, ESPON - European observation network for territorial development and cohesion and URBACT.
As a member of the Secretariat for the European Network of Innovation Relay Centres (currently Enterprise Europe Network) responsible for the coordination of training and animation activities, Eurico Neves has chaired and deployed over 80 workshops and training events in all EU countries between 2000 and 2008 in aspects related to innovation and economic development.
Informations
Residence location:
Portugal
Languages:
Portuguese - Mother tongue
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Foreign Languages level:
Foreign languages:
Email:
eurico.neves@inovamais.pt