Within the scope of the TAFTIE Presidency, this year arranged by the ANI, the first Expert Session took place on the 20th of February at the INESC TEC, in Porto, with the following theme: “Enabling and accelerating investment in innovation by exploring new ways of risk sharing”.

How do governments and public agencies manage the risks in supporting innovation? What are the fair risks that agencies should take without compromising the effective management of public funds? What factors contribute to determining the risk tolerance? These were some of the key questions that guided the various interventions and discussion points at the event, which was attended by the TAFTIE member agencies’ representatives, the President of the ANI, Eduardo Maldonado, the President of the INESC TEC, José Manuel Mendonça and the President of the Compete2020 Steering Committee, Jaime Andrez. Investor Paulo Andrez was in charge of moderatin the round table to compare the experiences of different innovation agencies, at an event that also included interventions by the World Bank and the European Commission.

Over the course of the presidency undertaken by the ANI, under the motto “Building Bridges for the Future”, a further two Expert Sessions will be organised, one in Lisbon and another in Porto, as well as the Association's Annual Conference, to be held in Lisbon, and the Policy Forum, in Brussels.

TAFTIE - The European Network of Innovation Agencies - brings together 31 agencies from 28 European countries and four international partners: Brazil, South Korea, Japan and Canada. This network, which has established itself as a broad forum of similar entities in the public promotion of innovation, was created in 1992 to enhance the improvement of its member agencies’ services and support instruments, promoting collaboration and mutual learning.