It is St Andrew’s Day today – Scotland’s national day, and a moment for us to rewind to 2017 and Innovators Magazine’s St Andrew’s Day reception in the European Parliament, held during the European Innovation Summit|Week.
It was the year the event organisers Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) first unveiled its EU Top 50 startup initiative. And Innovators Magazine, in partnership with K4I, produced a special edition to mark the inaugural competition, which featured all 50, as well as an exclusive interview with ‘serial-explorer’, Bertrand Piccard. The Swiss innovator was one of the keynote speakers at the startup convention held in the European Parliament Hemicycle.
And on 30 November, Innovators Magazine, a proud media partner of the Summit, led a St Andrew’s Day reception in the European Parliament as part of the closing ceremony programme. MEP, Lambert van Nistelrooij hosted, while fellow MEP, Alyn Smith, added some Caledonian panache to the proceedings.
With a glass of whisky in hand, Europe’s politicians and business leaders heard about the importance of Scotland’s continuing role within Europe’s growing innovation economy, and took in Strathclyde University’s Images of Research gallery, which was on display throughout the summit.
“Through our many partnerships with Universities, businesses and technology organisations across Europe, and through our membership of CESAER – the association of European Universities of Science and Technology – we are deeply involved in European innovation. We are therefore delighted that the Images of Research tour made its international debut at the European Innovation Summit and that it provided delegates with an insight to the breadth of our research, its industrial and societal impact and to the creativity of our researchers,” said Professor Tim Bedford, Associate Principal for Research & Innovation at Strathclyde University.
