63rd SPICE Meeting 95th ICECE Work Group event

Vilnius, Lithuania
15 – 17 May 2003

The BALTIC DYNAMICS 2003, this time hosted by Lithuania and organized by Pranas Milius and his team, again proved the importance of business incubators, innovative entrepreneurship and technology transfer for economic de-velopment in the Baltic States. The Lithuanian Prime Minister, Algirdas M. Brazauskas opened the conference—a symbol for the political evaluation of innovation activities. Lithuania's Capital Vilnius, first time place for this international conference, welcomed the international guests and offered much to explore and to enjoy.

Besides the lively discussions during the conference, this event also provided the framework for two SPICE activities: A software seminar and the SPICE Meeting.

After Warnemünde, the Vilnius software seminar was the second step to introduce a new tool to the business incubator community and to invite incubation experts to evaluate this tool. Interest in this offer was very high—too high to admit all potential attendees to come to the seminar. While seminar participants use the software and collect practical experience, possibilities for a follow-up / evaluation meeting are investigated.

The SPICE Meeting took place just before the conference. Here s short summary of the discussion:

Members agreed that the basic structure of SPICE Group should remain informal to maintain the independence, flexibility and openness of the network. At the same time experience shows a clear need for having (occasionally) "formal tools" available for taking advantage of possibilities to run projects. These "tools" could be legal entities of different juridi-cal forms depending on the purpose and legal conditions of the place where they are established.

• There are tow basically different types possible
  
  • A "SPICE project consortium" as a temporary structure
    
  • A "SPICE Group substructure" is set up for a permanent purpose.
    

There are two different possibilities:

• to establish a sub-structure to intensify cooperation in a specific geographical region. This type was basi-cally agreed.
  
• to establish a sub-structures with a specific content (e.g. "Training") was questioned and not agreed.
  

All types of temporary or permanent "substructures" should follow the rules set up in the amendment of Article 7 of the "A & O Document" (will follow later), especially concerning the described procedure to achieve approval for the use of the name "SPICE Group" and the financial implications.

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