A chance to launch collaborative ventures between European associations active in the transfer of knowledge and the dissemination of innovation, and an opportunity to establish networks and facilitate the internationalization of companies by optimizing, in the spirit of teamwork, the funding available during the European Commission's financial framework for 2014-2020: these are the main goals of "SEED - Smart Eastern Europe Development: collaboration opportunities for Western and Eastern European STPs", a one-day event organized by AREA Science Park and IASP, the International Association of Science Parks and Areas of Innovation, to be held at the AREA Convention Centre in Trieste on 31 May.

The event kicks off with a morning workshop with the participation of European experts, who will analyze the role of science and technology parks in creating international partnerships and in implementing suitable policies for local growth. The numerous prestigious speakers include IASP General Director Luiz Sanz and Dominique Fache, President of the Sophia Antipolis Foundation, at the heart of the French science park of the same name, one of the most important in Europe.

The afternoon will feature a series of thematic roundtables, whose participants - about fifty representatives of technology and industrial parks, development agencies, ministries, regional governments, research centers, and private firms from Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Romania, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, France, and the Czech Republic -  will share successful experiences and best practices developed within the IASP network.

One representative of the Qatar Science and Technology Park has also joined the event to promote among the European members the IASP 2014 World Conference to be held in Doha with the theme "Science Parks: where technology goes to work"