“Barco is at the heart of open innovation in Europe” and captures three awards at EUREKA Innovation Days

EUREKA is a European organization that stimulates and facilitates research and innovation development between enterprises, research institutes and other partners beyond national borders. The organization drives various industry-led project initiatives, one of them being ITEA, of which Barco is a founding company and in which it has been an active member since the start 20 years ago. Over the years, Barco participated in over 30 projects, several of which have resulted in game-changing outcomes for business as well as society. 

High success rate

"Barco is really at the heart of open innovation in Europe! Of course, we are exceptionally proud to see that Barco’s contribution to our projects has really paid off. More than 10 ITEA projects in which Barco participated became award-winning projects or were promoted as a success story and many of the projects resulted in viable business for the company."Ms. Zeynep Sarılar, ITEA’s Chairwoman

An ecosystem for innovation

Andy De Mets, who coordinates some of Barco’s external innovation projects confirms: “One of the key aspects of these projects is the international cooperation with other innovation-minded actors in Europe and beyond, creating an eco-system of partners and knowledge. This has led to the success of, for instance, our digital cinema offering and our Nexxis solution for the digital operating room.”

Barco’s participation in ITEA projects significantly contributed to the sustained growth of the company, which is facilitated by the support of the Flemish agency for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (VLAIO) that stimulates and supports innovation in Flanders.

Recognizing technological leadership

The awards received last week were for three different projects: C³PO, BENEFIT and MEDIATE. C³PO refers to a city co-design solution (which features Barco’s transportable cave) where the company shows its commitment to more sustainable and conscious communities. It wins in the category Business Impact. BENEFIT addresses improvements in healthcare areas like image-guided intervention and treatment and also wins in the category Business Impact. The MEDIATE project, which focuses on patient friendly medical intervention, wins in the category Innovations of Tomorrow, recognizing Barco’s leadership role when it comes to technological innovation.

About EUREKA

EUREKA is a European initiative launched in 1985. It aims primarily to stimulate research efforts of enterprises and to develop their innovation capacity. EUREKA assists them in unifying their resources and to collaborate with research institutes for the development of advanced technologies and market-oriented products.
'Bottom up' is EUREKA's ground rule. Participants have full responsibility for defining and implementing their scientific and technological co-operation projects. They make their own decisions on the best way towards new markets.

EUREKA also offers itself as a forum for direct dialogue between governments and standardization bodies, between EUREKA participants who are in need of joint industrial standards and who are hampered either by technical, commercial or administrative obstacles.

About ITEA

ITEA is a transnational and industry-driven R&D&I programme in the domain of software innovation. ITEA is a Cluster programme of EUREKA, an intergovernmental network for R&D&I cooperation, involving over 40 countries globally. ITEA enables an international and knowledgeable community to collaborate in funded projects that turn innovative ideas into new businesses, jobs, economic growth and benefits for society. ITEA is open to large industry, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), start-ups, academia and customer organisations and its bottom-up project creation ensures that the project ideas are industry-driven and based on actual customer needs. The ITEA programme is publicly funded on a national level; each ITEA project partner can apply for funding from their own national Public Authority.

About Barco

Barco designs technology to enable bright outcomes around the world. Seeing beyond the image, we develop visualization and sharing solutions to help you work together, share insights, and wow audiences. Our focus is on three core markets: Enterprise (from meeting and control rooms to corporate spaces), Healthcare (from the radiology department to the operating room), and Entertainment (from movie theaters to live events and attractions). In 2017, we realized sales of 1.085 billion euro. We have a team of 3,600 employees, located in 90 countries, whose passion for technology is captured in 400 granted patents.

For more information, visit us on www.barco.com, follow us on Twitter (@Barco), LinkedIn (Barco), YouTube (BarcoTV), or like us on Facebook (Barco).

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