The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) has been playing an essential role during the COVID-19 crisis. The outbreak of COVID-19 affected all of Europe’s manufacturing industries, including the chemical industry, which has been playing a crucial role in helping governments, other industrial sectors and communities to tackle the crisis. Thus, Cefic’s top priority during the outbreak has been...

According to the article authored by Alberto Pezzi, the Director of Competitive Strategy at DGI / ACCIÓ, the COVID-19 outbreak presented great dangers, at sanitary and economic level, but also significant opportunities. Learning and taking advantage of mistakes for changing and improving is one of the best qualities of human beings and, especially, of good leaders. Some of the opportunities which...

The Global Protection Cluster (GPC) and its field operations are working closely with partners and governments to ensure the inclusion of those in need of protection as part of the national and local COVID-19 preparedness, prevention and response activities. GPC is a network of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs), international organisations and United Nations (UN) agencies, engaged in protection...

In the past several years, Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) has not only moved to the top of the agenda for businesses but also for policymakers, academic and research institutions, and the broader public. AI techniques are expected to bring numerous benefits in the form of added value for citizens, higher productivity, improved corporate performance, and economic growth. At the same time, AI...

According to an article posted by the Smart Specialisation Platform (S3), the Valencian textile industry and the related activities of spinning, finishes, and textile machinery have gone from a situation of survival to one of strategic activity. This is comes as a result of interconnection and cooperation between cluster actors throughout the territory and the initiative of the regional authority...

The European Commission has recently developed a digital translation service called the e Translation tool to connect European facilities. Since March 2020, the eTranslation tool has been available to European Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to translate to and from 27 different languages. It is widely used and trusted by the EU and national administrations. This state-of-the-art neural...

Research and innovation will be key drivers of economic recovery after the COVID-19 crisis. In this context, the EU IP Helpdesk is organising a webinar about the exploitation of IP rights in H2020 projects. The webinar will give an overall view of the creation and development of IP rights both during and after the duration of the current H2020 programme. The webinar will take place virtually on...

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) has published a guide with necessary steps to reopen micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). It is structured into several chapters adressing the most pressing issues, in a logical sequence: preparation, financing, market position and survey, strategic thinking, employees, equipment, marketing and prices. According to this...

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has published a policy brief discussing the measures that countries have taken to support the livelihoods of those who cannot access unemployment benefits or short-term work schemes. It examines the raft of new programmes introduced across OECD-countries and beyond, including means-tested assistance, new cash transfer schemes, and...

The scientists at the Silesian University of Technology, part of Silesian Aviation Cluster, has developed a new platform called CORNELIA (Coronavirus Neurological Impairment). CORNELIA is a system that collects questionnaires on cognitive disorders related to COVID-19 by enabling the e-mail invitation of selected people by doctors to participate in an anonymous survey on the general health status...