03 Oct 2011 - London (UK) - BIZ+ICT - FT Conference - THE DIGITAL AGENDA SUMMIT - Towards a Common Goal: Achieving a Sustainable Internet Model
03-07 Oct 2011 - Brest (FR) - ICT - WPMC 2011 - Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications Symposium
03-04 Oct 2011 - Paris (FR) - INN+PRO - Workshop on "Increasing Researcher's Employability in Europe: Marie Curie Actions' Formula for Successful Careers"
 03-09 Oct 2011 - EUROPEAN SME WEEK 2011

04 Oct 2011 - Brussels (BE) - BIZ - EU-BRAZIL BUSINESS SUMMIT
04 Oct 2011 - Brussels (BE) - ENE+EUP - 1st TPWind Energy R&D Event

In this difficult economic climate you may want to carry out some projects but you have little funds for doing it. One solution could be submitting your ideas through an European project proposal and, if successful, receiving a co-funding budget.

This would help you accomplish your goals, acquire visibility on the European scenario and meet a range of different public and private organisations with whom sharing your current and future plans. You could also learn one from the other best practice that could suit your area.

Your fields of interest could regard Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS), Sustainable Transport, Public Transport, Environmental issues, Promotion of Green Transport modes such as Walking and Cycling, Smart Cities solutions, etc.

There are only two months left before submitting proposals within the Transport Call (deadline 1st Dec 2011). 

EPN Consulting can assist you in this process from cradle to grave with a bespoke service. Please write to us and we will explore how to meet your requirements. 

EPN Consulting organises "INTRODUCTION TO EUROPEAN PROJECTS" Courses to help you understand strengths and weakenesses of your ideas and how they can fit in the relevant Calls of interest. Theses courses are very flexible (No. of Students, Course Duration and Course Locations)  to help you get the best out of it.

We look forward to receiving your numerous subscriptions!

EPN Consulting Members receive up to 20% discount on training courses!  

EPN Consulting is delighted to welcome JAREKS from Vilnius (Lithuania) as a new corporate Member. 

JAREKS is an acronym and brand of the JARZEMSKIS IR EKSPERTAI LTD company, which is an independent, transparent and qualified research and consulting service provider with a highly professional approach.
The core of the JAREKS experience and expertise is Transport, Mobility, Logistics and Infrastructure consulting. An additional domain of the activity is Strategic Management of large companies and public sector.

Main JAREKS clients are large Lithuanian companies, Lithuanian ministries as well as local authorities. JAREKS boasts an advanced research centre as they believe that consulting has to be complemented with continuous research actiities in order to provide their clients with a much better service.

JAREKS professionals were engaged in research activities with universities and gained remarkable experience in projects belonging to several EC frameworks such as FP6, FP7 and Interreg.

Currently JAREKS is involved in the FP7 project "The 2050+ Airport" as one of the consortium partners.

EPN Consulting  is delighted to welcome Ms Maria Teresa Vega Mesa as a new individual member from Málaga (Spain). She is an Expert in Education for Sustainable Mobility and a tutor of the University of Málaga on the "Practicum II" subject taught in the MSc of Pedagogy in relation to mobility and accessibility. Maria Teresa is also a Lecturer at the Universities of Mendoza (Argentina) and Chiclayo (Peru) on Sustainable Mobility. She has got an excellent experience in EC-funded projects where she covered a number of roles such as:
·    Co-ordinator in Spain of the "Grundtvig" project on the influence of psycho-active substances while driving vehicles
·    Partner in the "Leonardo da Vinci" project concerning Cognitive Mobility.

Skype, the widely known VoIP company recently bought by Microsoft, offers a number of services whose some are free and some are fee-paid. Among the latter there is SkypeIn that is described as: "[...] The Number that reaches you - wherever you are. An Online Number is a number anyone can call you on from their mobile or landline - and you answer on Skype, no matter where you are. And with every Online Number you also get  voicemail included [...]" (taken from the Skype website). This services was available also in Italy until last Spring 2011 when the service was suspended.

Last week Skype confirmed the impossibility to resume the service in Italy with consequent loss of virtual landline numbers (article on "La Repubblica" newspaper - in Italian) that clients used also on business. The problem was created by the Italian company Eutelia that hosted the service and is now in financial troubles.

Tiscali, founded in January 1998, following the liberalization of the telecommunication market in Italy, has recently launched in Italy a new VoIP service called Indoona whose features are similar to those offered by Skype (calls to Indoona users and regular phone numbers, videocalls, messages, possibility to buy a landline number, etc.). In this case, though, there shouldn't be problems with purchasing and keeping a virtual landline number as the company has its headquarters in Italy.

But the VoIP market in Italy is pretty unpredictable...

EPN Consulting has got plans to expand its EVENTS Section to include professional events happening anywhere, Worldwide!.
This will represent a definitive added value for visitors that will enjoy one of the most exhaustive lists of professional events. This Crowd Funding Campaign will ensure that this Section will be kept FREE as well as enriched with hundrends of additional events that currently are not listed.

There is still time available. The campaign will end on 17th Dec 2011 and will allow EPN Consulting to expand its EVENTS Section from early 2012.

Contributions start from a minimum fee of £3 up to whatever amount makes you feel comfortable with. We hope that many of you will be eager to contribute to this project to bring benefits to all!

We look forward to feeling your sensitivity about this topic! 

Recently it was announced that the UK consulting Halcrow is going to be acquired by the US consulting CH2M HILL by Nov 2011. 

This follows what happened in 2010 when the UK consulting Scott Wilson was acquired by the US consulting URS  and what happened in 2009 when the UK consulting Faber Maunsell became part of the US consulting group AECOM.

Although the global crisis has been affecting virtually every industry in the world (apart from the emerging countries), it is worrying that the UK consulting industry is not able to face this current climate.

Would this depend on mentality, approach, vision or what? Has the UK consulting industry been too cautious or not able to think outside the box properly?

Certainly the above list of acquisitions should generate some thoughts and analyses on how the business vision in the UK should rapidly change to gain new markets and ensure a steady business growth that would generate new jobs in the UK. 

This month EPN Consulting has chosen the Covenant of Mayors committed to Local Sustainable Energy.

The Covenant of Mayors is the mainstream European movement involving local and regional authorities, voluntarily committing to increasing energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources on their territories. By their commitment, Covenant signatories aim to meet and exceed the European Union 20% CO2 reduction objective by 2020.

http://www.eumayors.eu/index_en.html