"Innovation can strengthen regional development, and a regional approach can promote quality innovation": Danuta Hübner, commissioner for regional policies, illustrates the contents of a document submitted by the EU Executive, which provides the national and local authorities with some guidelines on possible interactions between "the cohesion policy programs and the EU funds to research and innovation". "We have to revise the methods in which we use available funding", adds the research commissioner Janez Potoènik, who mentions the different lines of funding coming from Brussels: the Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund, the seventh Framework Program for Research, the Framework Program for Competitiveness. The EU Commission proposes actions for an "appropriate use of such funds", in order to "pursue economic growth and employment". A "practical guidebook" will be prepared before the end of the year, to help the research institutes and the business world find the most appropriate funding sources; an additional help to improve the exchange of information between the EU and the national and local authorities; regular meetings of the parties concerned to "share ideas and get practical support". For more information: http://ec.europa.eu/research/research-cohesion.html
