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ICSB conference 2008 The conference itself started with an opening reception on Sunday evening. The first day of the conference began at approximately 8:30 with opening remarks and a plenary panel on 'Perspectives and Trends on SME/Entrepreneurship Research, Education, Policy and Practice’. The morning session was chaired by Rob van der Horst, President of the ICSB. Speakers were among others Dr. Zoltan Acs, Mr. Chris Pelham and Dr. David Smallbone.
Wednesday, the last day of the conference , started with a continental breakfast and the ICSB annual meeting. During this meeting Rob van der Horst handed over the presidency to Professor Charles H. Matthews, University of Cincinnati. Rob is now the immediate past-president. After some concurrent paper and workshop sessions, there was a plenary closing lunch. During lunch the finalists of the Dell Global Small Business Excellence Awards were announced, as well as the winners of the best papers of ICSB 2008. Finally the Korean ICSB affiliate presented the programme for the next ICSB conference which will be held in Seoul, Korea (www.icsb2009.org). Winning of a contract from the European Commission Jarna Heinonen professor We congratulate Dr. Jarna Heinonen who is the director of our Finnish member TSE Entre, the research group on entrepreneurship within the Turku School of Economics. She has been appointed to a Professorship on entrepreneurship. Professor Heinonen´s research interests include corporate entrepreneurship, growth and family entrepreneurship, enterprise education and promotion of entrepreneurship.
ENSR Secretariat On 1 April Mrs. Nelleke van Dijk left the ENSR Secretariat. She has joined Stratus (a sister company of EIM under the Panteia umbrella) as management assistant. ENSR is grateful to her for her commitment to the organisation. We wish her all the best in her new position.
Report available on "Cluster policy in Europe"
Training course for young ENSR researchers On 7 and 8 February a group of 16 young researchers from ENSR member organisations gathered in Brussels for a 2-days training course. Senior researchers taught them how tender procedures are organised, and how to prepare decent technical, financial and administrative proposals. During the training 3 cases were presented by senior researchers from Austria, Spain and The Netherlands. Professor David Storey (SME Centre, Warwick, UK) gave an inspiring lecture on the evaluation of SME policies and programmes (see picture below). The trainees also visited the Brussels' ENSR office.
Presentation of the 'Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship Policy'
Conference about an ENSR project On 8 and 9 November a conference largely based on the ENSR's project "Social capital and job creation in rural Europe" took place in Lisbon. ENSR colleagues from Austria, Bulgaria, Portugal, Slovakia, and Spain actively participated as speakers, workshop chairs and rapporteurs. See: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/events/2007/conflisbon081107/index.htm
IfM Bonn 50 years
Entrepreneurial competences of women Recently a Leonardo project on entrepreneurial competences developed by women ("ECEU - Enterprising competence in the European Union"), with participation of the Austrian ENSR member, has been finished. For further information and results see: www.eceu.net
CSR website In the frame of the ENSR project "CSR and competitiveness - European SMEs good practice", led by KMFA (Austria), a project website has been launched including amongst others the European and national final reports as well as a number of CSR case studies. See: www.csr-in-smes.eu
EHSAL 5 years
On 26th October the Small Business Research Centre (SBRC) which is one of the ENSR members in the UK, celebrated its 20th anniversary with a special event. There were a series of short presentations at the event and a new monograph was launched by Professor Robert Blackburn and Professor David Smallbone: Small Business Research; from the Margins to the Mainstream. Professor David Storey (SME Centre, Warwick University) gave a response.
Report of "Study on Practices and Policies in the Social Enterprise Sector in Europe" can now be downloaded The final report of the ENSR study "Study on Practices and Policies in the Social Enterprise Sector in Europe" submitted by Austrian Institute for SME Research and TSE Entre, Turku School of Economics, Finland, can now be downloaded from the website of the European Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/coop/projects-studies/project5.htm
New member in Hungary With pleasure we would like to welcome the Small Business Development Center at the Corvinus University in Budapest as the new Hungarian ENSR member. Several ENSR members have already worked with this centre in the past, and we are happy that they have now joined the Network. The SBDC is managed by Dr. Peter Szirmai. For the contact details please see under Members.
August 2007: New project awarded The Austrain ENSR member (KMU Forschung Austria) has been awarded the project "Measuring the contribution of micro-enterprises to employment creation and economic growth in the EU". Client is the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Dublin) of the European Commission. The project will run from July 2007 until January 2008. Other participating ENSR members are: Ikei Spain, EEDRI Poland, IfM Germany, and Oxford Sweden.
EU Conference on social protection of small entrepreneurs and their co-helping partners On 22 June 2007 the EU conference on the ENSR study "Good practices on social protection of new entrepreneurs and assisting partners and the impact on business creation" was held. Mrs Vlaeminck, Head of Unit, European Commission (DG Enterprise and Industry) opened the conference. "Social security is often developed for employees but not necessarily also for entrepreneurs and their co-helping partners". There after the main results of the study were presented. This was followed by a presentation by Mrs. Paserman of DG Employment on EU social policy with attention for the open method of coordination and coordination of social security schemes. After a short break the national experts from France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania and Portugal presented the good practices in their country. This concerned among others the exemption of paying social security contributions in the first year of start-up, voluntary unemployment insurance and extension of social security provisions applicable to the entrepreneur to partners. Finally there was a presentation on the social security for women entrepreneurs by Mrs. Politano (FEM) and on the social protection of co-working spouses by Mrs Broman (DHK-Self-employed and Co-working spouses in Denmark).
An abridged version of the report "Good practices on social protection of new entrepreneurs and assisting partners and the impact on business creation can be downloaded in three languages (English, French and German) from the website http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/craft/craft-studies/studies.htm.
ENSR Executive Director Rob van der Horst takes over ICSB Presidency During the ICSB World Conference which was held from 12 to 15 June in Turku (Finland) Rob van der Horst took over the Presidency of the International Council for Small Business ICSB. Rob is a staff member of EIM and the Executive Director of ENSR.
Also at the ICSB Conference Professor David Smallbone (from the ENSR member Kingston University, UK) was elected Senior Vice-President Programmes.
ICSB World Conference in Turku very successful From 13 until 15 June 2007 the Finnish ENSR member Turku School of Economics hosted the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) World Conference. Professor Antti Paasio and Dr. Ulla Hytti and their team from Turku did a great job: the conference was very successful. Almost 700 researchers, policymakers, practitioners and educators from all over the world attended the conference. Keynote speakers during the plenary session were Minister of Trade and Industry Mauri Pekkarinen and Dep. Head of Unit in DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission Ms. Kirsi Ekroth-Manssila. The link to the webcasted opening session is: On 12 June a Pre-Conference on Entrepreneurship Policy was held as part of the European Day of the Entrepreneur.
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After the lunch there were concurrent paper and workshop sessions. The second day of the conference started with a plenary panel session on ‘From Research to Results’. Speakers were Dr. Howard Aldrich, Dr. Candida Brush and Dr. David Storey. The session was moderated by Dr. Anders Lundström. In the afternoon there was a plenary panel session on ‘Addressing barriers and Constraints to Entrepreneurship and SME development: An International Perspective’. This was moderated by Ms. Lois Stevenson. Besides these plenary panels concurrent paper and workshop sessions were held.
for a report of the presentation of the Handbook in Brussels. It is a brief introduction to the important topics of this volume. To order the Handbook of Research on Entrepreneurship contact Edward Elgar Publications, 
