The Eureka project has just celebrated its 30th anniversary in Lugano. This marks decades of innovation across borders thanks to a French and a German leader.
“In 1985, it was French President Francois Mitterand and German Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl who embraced the idea of founding Eureka and went on to realise this organisation,” confirmed the outgoing Eureka Chairman Bruno Moor.
The Eureka project is a Europe-wide network for industrial research and development. It works to raise productivity and competitiveness through technology.
In the past three decades it has spent 30 billion euros of private and public money and has helped nearly 2,000 projects get off the ground. They range from engine-powered surf boards to developing elastic optical networks.
Germany is one of the many countries backing Eureka as a key to future development.
“It is about giving seed money because industry has to bring in the same amount of money for the Eureka projects so it triggers additiona
