1,888,218 research outputs found
Successful, small scale, manufacturing from five European island regions
Full text linkThe support of the European Commission, through its Leonardo da Vinci Community Vocational
Training Action Programme, in this ongoing pilot project- MT/2002/B/F/139000- is gratefully
acknowledged. This manual has been compiled by University of Malta Professor Godfrey
Baldacchino (the NISSOS Project ideator and academic coordinator) with the kind support of the
project’s 11 institutional partners, their delegates and associated support staff involved in the NISSOS
Project. These are: Estonia Chamber of Commerce and Industry-Saaremaa Branch (Delegate: Tullio
Liblik); Kuressaare College at Tallinn Technical University (Maret Pank); Åland Trade Association
(Mika Lindfors & Johnny Mattson); Åland Polytechnic (Anna-Lena Freman, Christer Kullman &
Thor-Bjorn Wik); Technological Institute of Iceland (Bjorn Gislason); Institute of Business Studies at
the University of Iceland (Gylfi Dalmann Adalsteinsson); Foundation for Human Resources
Development, Malta (Helga Ellul, Mario Grixti, Godwin Micallef, John Muscat Drago); Malta
Enterprise (Karl Herrera); University of Malta (Roger Ellul Micallef, Saviour Rizzo); Malta College
for Arts, Science and Technology (Frank Edwards); the Highland Council of Scotland (Catriona
Maclean; Lisa Stephen) and the UHI Millennium Institute, Scotland (Maggie Marr; Anne Marie
McDairmid, Stephanie Tristam). Thanks also to the expert independent input of Joe Vella Bonnici
(Malta), Ingi Runar Edvardsson (Iceland) and Tage Petersen (Denmark). The institutional support of
the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada, is also acknowledged.
Responsibility for the contents of this manual and any errors are those of the author and are not
attributable to the European Commission or any of the specific NISSOS Project institutional partners.It is common knowledge nowadays that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) are very
important to economic growth. Their positive contribution is all the more evident in the context of
massive lay-offs from large firms and especially appreciated in epochs of long term, structural
unemployment.
SMEs play an even more pronounced role in the case of very small islands, since the typical
average enterprise size is even smaller than elsewhere.
Manufacturing is also seen as an important contributor to economic growth and development.
The factory has been a symbol of industrial progress for the last 200 years. Manufacturing creates
many jobs, usually in large firms, develops technical skills, adds higher value to products and creates
many supportive service industries.
However, many handicaps can affect the set-up and operation of SMEs which are based in
small island territories And are involved in manufacturing. How challenging are these handicaps? Can
they be overcome? How? Can some small firms from small islands serve as models of successful
export-oriented development? And if so, which? What would be their characteristics?peer-reviewe
Communication on copyright in the knowledge economy
No full textThe European Commission adopted a Communication on Copyright in the Knowledge Economy aiming to tackle the important cultural and legal challenges of mass-scale digitisation and dissemination of books, in particular of European library collections. Digital libraries such as Europeana will provide researchers and consumers across Europe with new ways to gain access to knowledge. For this, however, the EU will need to find a solution for orphan works, whose uncertain copyright status means they often cannot be digitised. Improving the distribution and availability of works for persons with disabilities, particularly the visually impaired, is another cornerstone of the Communication
Revision of the European Citizens' Regulation
Full text linkSince the Lisbon Treaty, European Citizens' Initiatives empower 1 million citizens to ask the European Commission to propose new EU legislation. Our proposal to reform the existing Regulation will make it easier for citizens to set up and support initiatives by lifting burdensome requirements and using digital technologies. It will also give the possibility to younger Europeans to support an Initiative. By lowering the age limit from 18 to 16, we have invited 10 million more young Europeans to step forward and help shape the EU's policy agenda
Motivation and values of European Commission staff
Full text linkThe concept of public service motivation has been central to the discussion of motivation in the field of public management but has never been studied in international organizations. This paper reports on a preliminary study of motivational issues within the European Commission, including motivation for entry and public service motivation. Based on a survey distributed to the entire staff of the European Commission, supplemented by personal interviews, we demonstrate the importance of public service motivation within the Commission and explore the antecedents of public service motivation, including socio-demographic variables, organizational position, and entry motivation. Results have significant implications for human
resources management policy and efforts aimed at motivating staff
DigiTranScope: the governance of digitally-transformed society
Full text linkThis volume presents the key outcomes and research findings of the Digitranscope research project of the European Commission Joint Research Centre. The project set out to explore during the period 2017-2020 the challenges and opportunities that the digital transformation is posing to the governance of society. We focused our attention on the governance of data as a key aspect to understand and shape the governance of society. Data is a key resource in the digital economy, and control over the way it is generated, collected, aggregated, and value is extracted and distributed in society is crucial. We have explored the increasing awareness about the strategic importance of data and emerging governance models to distribute the value generated more equitably in society. These findings have contributed to the new policy orientation in Europe on technological and data sovereignty and the sharing of data for the public interest. The digital transformation, the rise of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things offer also new opportunities for new forms of policy design, implementation, and assessment providing more personalised support to those who need it and being more participative throughout the policy cycle. The use of digital twins, gaming, simulation, and synthetic data are just at their beginning but promise to change radically the relationships among all the stakeholders in governance of our society
"The European Commission: Enlargement as Reinvention?"
Full text linkWill future historians view the 2004-7 enlargements as a heroic step towards the unification of Europe, or the point at which the European Union’s (EU) glory days came to an end? Much will depend on how the European Commission, a uniquely ‘politicized bureaucracy’ under constant pressure both to enforce common rules and to deviate from them, copes with enlargement. This paper reviews early evidence of enlargement’s impact on the Commission. Its central argument is that enlargement has not fundamentally altered the role of the Commission, but it has reinforced the impact of several other changes that are ‘secular’ ones not exclusively or even specifically linked to enlargement. They include: the emergence of a younger and more flexible Commission, one that is more ‘Presidential’, and one which can no longer rely as much on its traditional monopoly power to propose formal legislation to influence EU policy debates. Enlargement is one, but only one, amongst multiple rationale being used by reformers to ‘reinvent’ the Commission
How the European Commission can use behavioural insights to combat misinformation
Full text link→ To fight misinformation, policymakers can use debunking (exposing misinformation and explaining why it is false) and prebunking (training people to recognise misinformation and defend themselves against it).
→ In an experiment with more than 5 000 people from four EU countries, debunking and prebunking effectively combated misinformation on climate change and COVID-19.
→ Debunks and prebunks were effective when their messenger was the European Commission.
→ The effectiveness of prebunks from the European Commission did not depend on people’s trust in the EU.
→ People’s levels of trust in the EU partially affected the effectiveness of debunks from the European Commission in reducing people’s beliefs in and the credibility ratings of false claims.JRC.S.1 - EU Policy Lab: Foresight, Design & Behavioural Insight
D2.2 Methodology for FAIR-by-Design Training Materials
Full text linkSkills4EOSC 'Skills for the European Open Science commons: creating a training ecosystem for Open and FAIR science' is funded by the European Commission Horizon Europe programme (GA 101058527). Coordinated by Consortium GARR and supported by 44 partners in 18 European countries, Skills4EOSC will set up a pan-European network of competence centres to speed up the training of European researchers and harmonise the training of new professional figures for scientific data management.This document describes a methodology for FAIR-by-design production of learning materials based on the backward instructional process that is extended with additional activities focusing on the implementation of the FAIR guiding principles. A general discussion on important aspects of implementation such as granularity, scope, metadata schema, interoperability and publication in relevant repositories is provided together with a step by step six stage workflow and checklists that help implement the FAIR-by-design process. The outlined methodology will be used as a blueprint for a train-the-trainer course aiming to present the practical FAIR-by-design instructional design.Skills4EOSC has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No. 101058527 and from UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) under the UK government's Horizon Europe funding guarantee [grant number 10040140
European Documentation Centres: Challenges for the EDCs’ work in the 21st century
No full textThis e-catalogue on 'The challenges for the EDCs’ work in the 21st century' has been produced to confront three important challenges which EDCs are facing in their daily work. The EDC Pan-European Working Group 2012-13 has discussed these challenges and would like to share its findings with the rest of the EDC network. The working group focused on these three main themes: How to make a good use of social media for promotion activities and/or information sharing among EDCs; How e-books will influence and impact on the daily work of EDCs; How to reinforce co-operation between EDCs at European level to increase content and/or information sharing of online repositories of information sources ; How to access records from the EU Bookshop and collaborate with ECLAS, the European Commission Libraries Catalogue. Each chapter in this catalogue presents the main trends of these three themes and explains their importance for the EDC network. The catalogue also aims to offer practical support to EDCs to help them benefit from the knowledge of fellow EDCs. Therefore, the e-catalogue includes: Good practices in social media: Thirteen good practices in social media illustrate how EDCs can effectively use social media. Information is provided on how to work with social media, tips and tricks for successful interaction and information on the resources necessary to best perform the tasks needed to ensure EDC network members pick up the stories. Recommended free e-book sources: In the section on e-books, the importance of this tool for EDCs is highlighted and a very interesting list of free e-book sources and research papers has been prepared by the working group members
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