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We're facing increasing globalisation, increasing merging of the market, the market facing small

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companies is more and more a single market throughout the world.

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There are 71 IRCs in 33 countries.

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The Commission has set up the IRC network so that we can transfer technology between

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those who have it and those who need it and get the best we can out of the knowledge of

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our small business.

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In 1995, the European Commission Directorate General for Enterprise and Industry supported

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the establishment of a network of innovation relay centres throughout Europe.

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Today, the 71 IRCs, including the office in Santiago, Chile, constitute a unique network

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which allows small and medium-sized enterprises to innovate, ensuring growth and jobs.

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The IRCs are doing three things.

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They're helping companies appreciate what their own capacity is in terms of technology,

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in terms of know-how, and also what their needs for new capacity might be.

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And then they're assisting them either in sharing what they have with companies in other

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parts of the European Union or in finding partners who could share their knowledge and

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so complete the knowledge base of the original company.

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To better illustrate the extent and strength of this network, we're going to tell three

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success stories.

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The first begins in Malta.

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On the island of Gozo in Malta, George Camilleri owns a small company which makes stained

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glass windows.

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For 20 years, George made his windows entirely by hand, until the day he found himself overwhelmed

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by customer orders which he couldn't supply.

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Well, the first thing I had in mind, it was to have a machine that helps me doing at least

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the cutting of the glass.

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I couldn't do it by myself.

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It was very difficult.

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So George decided to call in Joseph Gregg, who works for the IRC office in Malta.

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Hello, Mr. Camilleri.

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Hello.

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Nice to meet you.

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So, we spoke on the phone on a technology you are requesting.

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Yes.

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The first stage was to build up a technology request profile.

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And after setting up this profile, we inserted it in the IRC network BBS.

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The BBS database is one of the IRC network's strong points.

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IRC offices around the world can consult it, and it contains all the requests for and offers

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of technology collected by the different partners.

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A Maltese micro-enterprise is seeking a cost-effective system to automate its stained glass panels...

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Let's leave Joseph compiling his request for technology and go to Germany, where the second

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of our success stories starts.

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It was here in Kaiserslautern a few years ago that Markus Weiss invented a method for

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avoiding sunburn.

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Markus Weiss designed a filter which allows people to identify places where the skin is

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beginning to burn even before it's visible to the naked eye.

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Meanwhile, in Glasgow, Scotland, Lorna Maclean discovers the request for technology posted

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by Joseph Greke on the IRC network's BBS for a machine capable of cutting out windows.

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She immediately thinks of one of the partners, Mitchell Design Engineers.

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Alec Mitchell.

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Hi, Alec.

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Hi, it's Lorna Maclean from IRC Scotland.

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Alec Mitchell is a design engineer and teacher at Glasgow School of Art.

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His task was to develop the most efficient working method for George Camilleri.

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During this investigation, I found there was a company in Glasgow who used the machine

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to cut cardboard for picture framing.

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And when I went to see them, I found that the name on the machine was TrueCut.

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It was a company in Manchester.

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The IRC office in Manchester, where Elizabeth Bain works.

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The first I heard of this technology request was when I was contacted by IRC Scotland and

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asked if I could look into and visit TrueCut technology with a view to them carrying out

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a technology request on behalf of Malta.

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IRC Scotland asked me if I would visit the company and carry out a technology audit to

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make sure that the company did have the capacity to actually build the piece of equipment required

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by the Maltese company.

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Hello, Bob.

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Hi, Elizabeth.

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We spoke on the phone earlier.

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I'm from IRC Manchester.

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TrueCut is an SME which makes machines to cut cardboard for Passpartout.

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Although for some time now, they've been producing machines capable of cutting out

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simple shapes in glass, producing a machine to cut pieces for stained glass windows remains

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a real challenge.

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This was a little different because of the intricate nature of the shapes.

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So taking a standard machine, obviously with that capability, but then combining it with

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the appropriate software to get the shapes into the machine in order for it to be able

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to cut them.

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But let's leave the TrueCut team to its cogitation and come back to the anti-sunburn filter.

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A few months ago, Carrie Wemmond posted a request for technology from a cosmetics company

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based in Aberdeen, Albine.

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Albine very quickly identified that the IRC network was an appropriate way to identify

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and source new products and technologies for them.

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So we came back to the office and we put together a technology request for the company.

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And a few weeks later, the connection between Kaiserslautern and Dundee was made.

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Carrie Wemmond speaking, IRC Scotland.

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Hello, Carrie.

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I have seen your technology request and I think that we have something very interesting for you.

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A few days later, Carrie Wemmond visits Albine.

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Hi, Donald.

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Carrie, good to see you.

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I believe you've got some new ideas for us.

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Yeah, one in particular, a device called SkinCheck that's come from a German inventor called Marcus.

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It's a filter that shows the skin burning in natural light.

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Fantastic.

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While Carrie Wemmond explains the German invention to Albine,

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another project sees the light of day in Paris.

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The Paris office of the IRC network is managed by Laurence Feijenbaum.

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She's identified a Parisian company whose potential is particularly promising.

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Created by a French SME, this easily customized giant touch panel, several square meters, is well suited for providing…

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The intelligent vibrations company has developed a sensor system which,

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when placed at the four corners of a window, can determine the precise place in which it's been struck.

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The system is interesting, but applications and commercial partners still have to be found,

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and it's here that the IRC network comes in.

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But the most concrete answer was that of the CRI Midlands in Coventry.

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Steve Shorthouse works for the IRC office in Coventry.

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He's found the technology offer posted by Laurence Feijenbaum on the network.

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He immediately thinks of China Display, a company for whom he performs a technology watch.

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Hello.

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Good morning, Tony. I found a technology that may be interesting to you.

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My colleagues are in Paris, France.

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Excellent.

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China Display markets a flexible screen whose texture allows an image projected in full daylight to be seen.

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The marriage of this technology and the technology of intelligent vibrations

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has allowed China Display to develop new products such as interactive shop windows.

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The images are projected onto the screen fixed to the window.

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You simply need to tap on an area of the window to launch an application.

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We would have been struggling to find a partner like that with our resources.

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It was very good that we were able to be tapped straight into the Midlands Innovation Relay Centre.

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In Scotland, the anti-sunburn filter project has also come to fruition.

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Donald Smith was persuaded of the benefits of Marcus Weiss's invention by Carrie Wemond.

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The product was developed and marketed by Albine under the brand name Sunsure.

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This is a Sunsure product that IRC helped us develop.

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The great advantage of IRC is that they take so much of the work off your desk.

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They do a lot of the initial selection.

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They find out the good things and bad things about ideas.

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They meet some of the people.

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So by the time they've come to you with an idea, it's much more advanced than it would be otherwise.

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And, of course, it doesn't cost you money.

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In Malta, too, there's a happy end to the story.

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An engineer from Trucut has installed George Camilleri's new machine.

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I design the pieces here.

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These are all pieces of glass that needs to be cut.

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I reposition all the pieces that I need to cut on the sheet of glass.

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And then I go straight to the machine.

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The IRC did a lot of work in it.

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The IRC helped me, A, to find the proper engineers and the proper company to develop this machine for me.

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B, helped me even to make a specific contract between me and Trucut,

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especially when it comes to perfection of glass cutting.

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I mean, today I'm very, very satisfied with the result.

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OK, so this is the difference between manual cutting and automatic cutting.

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They are perfectly the same size.

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If I have to go back today, it will be very difficult,

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because I don't know, me, myself, I don't know how I did it before.

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George Camilleri can now fulfill all his orders.

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And he's even trying to find a foreign partner using, once again, the IRC network.

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The IRCs can help bridge the cultural gap, the gap of national practice and experience,

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and, of course, the language gap, which is a major problem for many smaller companies.

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Particularly in this time of globalization, we have to find ways and means to help,

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particularly the weakest, that means the most vulnerable small companies,

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the small or very small companies, to become international,

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to be able to compete on international or global markets.

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It's about reinforcing and exploiting the knowledge capacity, the know-how,

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the special skills of individual companies by sharing with others.

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The success of the network is that the IRCs helped 40,000 companies, organizations,

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that they did 12,000 technology negotiations,

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that there were 300 technology brokerage events,

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which led to approximately 2,000 transnational technology transfers.