2009 is the European Year of Creativity & Innovation

"After celebrating in 2008 the intercultural dialogue, the European Union wants 2009  to be the European Year of Creativity & Innovation.  The Czech Presidency of the EU and the European Commission officially launched the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009 Wednesday January 7, 2009 in Prague in the presence of the Ján Figel, European responsible for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. With the slogan "Imagine. Create. Innovate", the European Year of Creativity and Innovation aims to raise awareness of the importance of creativity and innovation as key competences for personal, social and economic development. The EU will offer a framework for raising awareness of the issues concerned and promoting a policy debate on how to increase Europe's creative and innovative potential. As for previous European Years, measures will include promotion campaigns, events and initiatives at European, national, regional and local levels.
The EYCI is a horizontal, cross-cutting exercise involving many areas; apart from education and culture, it involves enterprise, regional and research policies. Several URBACT II projects deal with creativity and innovation issues :

• Creative Clusters - Creative clusters in low density urban areas
• FIN-URB-ACT - Integrated urban actions for fostering and financing innovative economies and SMEs
• REDIS - Restructuring districts into science quarters
• RUnUp - Role of universities in urban poles
• UNIC - Urban network for innovation in ceramics

Read more:

• The EYCI - website
• Participate to Creative Clusters' launching event - URBACT website 

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