Experts from the Avignon Academy and the EU will gather in Cork on June 22nd to discuss the future of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), of which there are an estimated 12 million in Europe.
This inaugural seminar will bring together planners and policy-makers at national government level, the EU and the Avignon Academy, which is a research institute dedicated to pan-European initiatives.
The aim of the seminar is to provide a joint platform for future policy-making and to prepare the way for the implementation of EU directives well in advance.
The academy, a not-for-profit organisation, was established by European SMEs to make EU policy-makers and planners in the member-states aware of their needs. The academy develops tailormade training for SMEs. It also conducts or sponsors original research for the growing SME sector.
The sole Irish/UK academic representative on the academy is Prof Deirdre Hunt of UCC's management and marketing department, who was recently invited to sit on its Scientific Advisory Committee.
Prof Hunt will be part of a team responsible for scrutinising research proposals and suggesting new ones.
She has carried out extensive research work on SMEs in Ireland and was a member of the Government's policy review committee which put forward recommendations to the Cabinet on teleworking.
The UCC department, which will host the inaugural seminar, has close links with SMEs in Ireland and works to facilitate dialogue between Irish and European policy-makers.