Chamber’s Ireland Digest: 22nd May 2017
- A Framework for Town Centre Renewal
A Framework for Town Centre Renewal was launched by Minister O’Connor in April. The purpose of the Framework is to help towns and villages across Ireland. Please find a letter attached with further information on the purpose of the guide.
The document can be downloaded at www.djei.ie/en/Publications/ To request a hard copy directly please contact Niall De Buitlear at niall.debuitlear@djei.ie
- Intersolar Europe – Invest in Brazil side event
The Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex – Brazil) and Clean Energy Latin America (CELA) in partnership with the Brazilian Photovoltaic Solar Energy Association (ABSOLAR) are delighted to invite you to participate in the Brazil side-event at Intersolar Europe, Munich, one of the world’s top PV conferences and exhibitions.
The side-event, “Recent Developments and Opportunities in the Brazilian PV Market” and matchmaking round will be held June 1st from 9.00 to 13.00 and will discuss recent development in the Brazilian PV sector, including the distributed generation and utility-scale segments. It will bring together representatives from the public and private sectors and will also include a matchmaking round with Brazilian companies.
The event is free of charge, but requires registration online here
- Search for Ireland’s most enterprising town
Bank of Ireland has launched a national competition to find the country’s most enterprising town following the success of a pilot Enterprising Town competition last year.
Bank of Ireland’s National Enterprising Town Awards aims to assist in the promotion of enterprise across the country by bringing business and community groups together to showcase to a panel of judges, the spirit of enterprise in their local area. With over 30 monetary awards in total plus trophies (total prize fund €110,000) with the overall winning town or city village/area awarded €23,000 plus trophy and the significant title of Ireland’s Most Enterprising Town.
The local authorities will assist in the nomination of towns, cities and villages/areas on behalf of their own city or county. Entries are being accepted throughout May and June with nominated towns announced in July. The judging panel will then visit all nominated places throughout the month of September before announcing the winners at an awards ceremony in November.
Enter online here
- EU-Philippines Business Network – Business Missions
The EU-Philippines Business Network (EPBN) is pleased to announce and accept applications to our incoming business missions to the Philippines in the areas of construction and healthcare later this year:
- EU Business Mission to Philconstruct 2017, 9 to 12 November, Manila
- EU Business Mission to Medical Philippines Expo 2017, 27 & 28 November, Manila
The EU Philippines Business Network aim to bring at least 10 innovative and competitive EU building and medical companies as EU exhibitors for each business mission to the Philippines. Qualified EU companies will be selected to receive financial support from EPBN to subsidise their participation costs.
The EU-Philippines Business Network offer commission fees or profit-sharing fees to those who successfully recruit EU companies to join the business missions or they can make arrangements to channel these financial incentives to the EU companies that you nominate, thereby making their participation costs even more attractive.
For more information visit: https://www.epbn.ph/news-and-events/events or contact antonio.alcazar@epbn.ph
- European Commission call for proposals – Awareness-raising activities on “Upskilling Pathways: New opportunities for adults”
The aim of the call for proposals is to help Member States to prepare the implementation of the Recommendation “Upskilling Pathways: new opportunities for adults”.
The Recommendation aims to support low skilled individuals (whether in employment, unemployed or economically inactive) to improve their literacy, numeracy or digital skills or progress towards higher qualifications relevant on the labour market by supporting access to upskilling pathways.
An “Upskilling Pathway” is a progression through 3 steps for low-qualified and/or low-skilled individuals, along with outreach, guidance and support measures:
- Skills assessment: find out what knowledge and skills they already possess and have them recognised and identify any gaps
- Tailored learning offer meeting the needs identified by the skills assessment, delivered in close cooperation with relevant stakeholders and with flexible approaches, adapted to adult learners
- Validation and recognition of the newly acquired skills, which may be the first step towards a new qualification.
Applicants must be public entities in charge of national or regional policies and actions for upskilling adults; co-applicants can be public or private entities (profit-making or non-profit making) involved in the organisation, financing or provision of services such as skills assessment, validation, education and training and guidance targeted to adults.
Successful applicants will receive funding for activities that prepare the ground for the implementation of “Upskilling Pathways” (e.g. by taking stock of existing provision and identifying any gaps, by identifying priority groups etc) and to foster sustainable arrangements for its implementation (e.g. by supporting stakeholders to disseminate information, by capacity building etc).
The budget for the Call is €1,000,000 (minimum grant request: €250 000; maximum co-financing rate: 80%). It is estimated that a max of 4 projects could be supported.
The deadline for submitting proposals is 30 June 2017. Funded actions should start in late 2017 or early 2018.
Full information about the call (reference VP/2017/011) can be found here. An information session in the format of a webinar will take place on 16th May from 14:00 to 16:00 (Brussels time). More details will follow soon on the call webpage and you can already send an email to empl-vp-2017-011@ec.europa.eu if you wish to sign up for this webinar.
Any questions relating to the call can be sent to empl-vp-2017-011@ec.europa.eu.
- InterTrade Ireland Workshops – Water Industry – Know-How To Tender Successfully
Please find attached flyer on the InterTradeIreland Workshops across Ireland in May – June to help companies in the water industry (repair & maintenance) supply chain with the process of understanding and responding to a PQQ. Irish Water plan to go out to the marketplace to establish a Framework for Repairs and Maintenance in 2017.
It will involve opportunities in relation to all areas of maintenance and repair:
o Civil Engineering, Building and Repair
o Mechanical and Electrical Works,
o Instrumentation, Control and Automation