350 meetings involving 120 participants from businesses, research centres and university departments of six different countries: Austria, Croatia, Italy, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey: this is the objective of the technology dating programme organised by AREA Science Park, a partner of the Enterprise Europe Network, to be held on 20 September 2012 at the Savoia Excelsior Hotel as part of Trieste NEXT.

The brokerage event, dedicated to the Food&Nutrition sector, is designed to encourage the exchange of technologies, the start-up of joint B2B initiatives and also the launch of projects between businesses and potential scientific partners. The participants are equally distributed among companies and scientific enterprises operating in the food sector, and are working on research and applications in the fields of the environment, health and safety. A particular mention should go to Dr. Schär of the Sammontana Group, illycaffè, the Reggio Calabria Bergamot Consortium, the Venice-based National Inter-University Consortium on Environmental Science, the Universities of Belgrade, Bologna, Istanbul, Ljubljana, Milan, Milan-Bicocca, Naples Federico II, Novisad, Parma, Potenza, Rijeka, Trieste and Udine.

Technology Dating takes the form of one-to-one meetings, usually lasting around 20 minutes. Before the morning session of face-to-face encounters there will be a workshop, organised in collaboration with the Agency for the Promotion of European Research (APRE), in which the call for proposals FP7 Call KBBE 2013 will be presented, giving participants an opportunity to learn about the forms of aid available for research and development in the Food, Agriculture and Fisheries and Biotechnology sectors. The European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), with its Institute for Health and Consumer Protection will be presenting activities and technologies dedicated to health, nutrition, and related fields.

The technology dating programme will be followed on Thursday 27 September by a "company mission" to illycaffè, attended by around 40 researchers and entrepreneurs from Italy and abroad.

AREA Science Park's technology dating programme has been organised in collaboration with Veneto Innovazione, the Udine Chamber of Commerce, ENEA, national and international partners from the  Enterprise Europe Network, and with the support of Trieste Coffee Cluster, illycaffe and Dr. Schär.