EPISTEP (www.epistep.org) is a pan European project aimed at taking small and medium sized companies (SMEs) operating in the ICT sector to the very heart of European research. Its key objectives are to assist these small companies to participate in the EU’s Seventh Framework Programme and to enable them to engage with three of the key ICT European Technology Platforms (ETPs):

•	ARTEMIS	Embedded systems
•	ENIAC	Nano-electronics
•	e-Mobility	Mobile and wireless communications

Small and medium sized companies who are registered with the project’s on-line database have the opportunity to take part in a range of events (e.g IST 2006 in Helsinki, Mobile Summit 2007 in Budapest) at which senior representatives from companies such as Thales, ST Microelectronics, Daimler Chrysler, Finmeccanica, Phillips, Siemens, Nokia and many others, will be represented.

EPISTEP has developed links to and working relationships with all 3 of the European Technology Platforms mentioned above. EPISTEP offers the ETPs easy access to a large number of SMEs active in the ICT sector with the capacity to participate in large scale R&D projects.

The range of activities the EPISTEP partners undertake in order to support the participation of SMEs in FP7 projects and to help them engage with the ICT European Technology Platforms encompass:

•	Organization of missions where SMEs can meet with key actors in the ETPs
•	Organization of brokerage events and information stands at major conferences relevant to the three sectors mentioned above
•	Organization of national workshops to raise awareness of small companies of the opportunities within forthcoming FP7 funded R & D projects
•	Provision of technical assistance and Help Desk to advise on administrative procedures and contractual issues of participating in FP7 R & D projects
•	Creation of a Database with at least 1500 SMEs operating in the ICT ETP sectors
•	Creation of an interactive website with a partner search facility and a news section about calls for proposals, info-days, conferences, brokerage events and links to relevant web sites
•	Identification of relevant forthcoming ICT related projects and calls for proposals in FP7

EPISTEP (which is funded through the EU’s Sixth Framework Programme) began in September 2005 and will run until January 2008. It involves a consortium of 25 partners spanning 15 European countries.

Further information on EPISTEP’s range of services can be obtained from the project’s website at www.epistep.org.

HAGRID (www.hagridproject.net) aim is to provide an innovative Single Point of Access (SPOA) solution to newcomers and beginners in IST so as to accelerate their integration to the European Research Area (ERA) in IST. The project has two main objectives:

(1)		To exploit the potential synergies between actual and future EU-funded SSAs supporting participation in ICT research, for the benefit of European and INCO organisations interested in participating in FP7-IST.
(2)		To provide added value services tailored to the needs of any interested organisations. -   Develops a web-portal incorporating a number of e-Services, that will save users time by providing a Single Point of Access (SPOA) to the web-databases and tools of similar / complementary SSAs; -   Provides Advanced Services (PR Research Profiles, Research Action Plans and Tailored Training Courses) designed to facilitate the participation of interested organisations (beneficiaries) in FP7-ICT; HAGRID Services will help the beneficiaries to assimilate know-how, assess their competitive advantages and clarify their strategic research objectives; -   Organises regular info-days / workshops and networking events to raise awareness and facilitate networking.

HAGRID involves 14 partners from 11 EU countries (Bulgaria, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Romania, Sweden and Turkey) and has a 21 month duration.

The overall objective of the Hungary for FP6 project is to raise the quantity and quality of research projects with Hungarian participation as partners or coordinators in all types of instruments of the 6th and 7th EU Framework Programme.

The project focuses on networking and training of major Hungarian organisations taking significant role in the dissemination of FP6 related information, furthermore on supporting the Hungarian researchers from academy and industry with tailor-made information, assistance and services. The support activities comprise information dissemination, training activities, promotion of R&D competencies of Hungary, assistance in proposal preparation and screening of research cooperation possibilities. The activities are targeted at the whole Hungarian research community, including all types of potential applicants, academia, research centres, centres of competence, small and medium enterprises (SME) and big companies.

The project also aims at supporting the mobility of Hungarian experts to foreign R&D centres and the mobility of European researchers to Hungarian high quality centres of research and industrial host organizations.

Besides the planned actions an additional result of the project will be a collection of the profiles of Hungarian high quality R&D centres and the list of Hungarian industrial associations displayed in the project website, which will provide information about the Hungarian research landscape, thus increasing the visibility of researchers and R&D institutions from Hungary, promote them as partners in FP6 and assist the match-making between researchers all over Europe.

Ideal-ist reduces the barriers faced by organisations wishing to participate in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) programme by offering transnational partner search. The project provides an entirely web-based platform and thus making it the ideal tool for

-		joining ICT projects
-		finding partners for your project idea
-		finding services to support you in your ICT project

within the Seventh European Framework Programme.

The Ideal-ist network has 49 national representatives in all Member States, Candidate Countries and Associated States, as well as Western Balkan Countries, Newly Independent States and Mediterranean Countries.

Ideal-ist collaborates through a broad geographical network with partners in Third Countries such as China, Brazil, India, Canada, South Africa, South East Asia, Australia, and New Zealand in-line with the international cooperation strategy of the European Commission.

The aim of the Star-Net project is to be the first step towards the formation and development of a consolidated structure for support of organisations in all New Member States (NMS) and Associated Countries (AC) for participation in IST activities, building on the knowledge, tools and services developed within some of the most relevant IST support actions over the recent years.
The Star-net project will address the following strategic objectives:

•		to set-up a network covering all 10 NMS and 3 AC, sharing a common identity, code of ethics, objectives and work methods;
•		to implement a full range of services and tools for the animation, training, information sharing and deployment of the network services, available from a Central Unit built upon the experience and knowledge develop under current on-going IST SSA projects;
•		to deploy a common working plan in each NMS and AC, under the supervision of the Central Unit, aiming at addressing a total of 600 organisations and to support at least 120 organisations in NMS and ACC to submit proposals to the IST programme;
•		to launch the basis for the continuation of the network from 2007 onwards, with support from the EU structural funds mechanisms in NMS and aiming at self-sustainability through the progressive introduction of a charging policy.