Ferran cabrer

CONSEN - CONSEN (EEIG) Euro-Group European Economic Interest Grouping, is an alliance of European SMEs who have agreed to cooperate as Euro-Cluster in projects and tenders throughout Europe. The main objective of the CONSEN (EEIG) is to establish an ongoing and effective dialogue between members focused on Research, Development and Innovation European projects. These companies are all experts in Open-Source and Information Society Technologies and through the Euro-Group, are able to operate contracts in all countries in Europe.

CONSEN is a non-profit, independent and international consulting firm constituted in November of 2004 in Barcelona. The CONSEN partner's commitment maximizes the Socio-Economic benefits of CONSEN activities. The Key-Concept is to consider CONSEN as a European-OS/IST-Cluster built with the networking methodologies, competences and best practices of our partners. The CONSEN member's strategy is to share resources, to exploit and manage the competencies of their members with synergic effect.

CONSEN grouping's acts as extension of the company internal organization, fostering cooperation and transferring technology, innovation and knowledge from the scientific world to companies and reach the local and sectoral business and competitiveness leadership. CONSEN facilitates them to acquire and put into practice new technologies, cooperate with research institutes to develop systems and application in response to industrial demand of creation of new markets, new business models and new profit centres.

CONSEN is member of the Internet Quality Agency (IQUA) and the European Business Supportive Network (eBSN).

This CONSEN concerns the OPEN-SOURCE philosophy, technology, business and innovation, which is, by definition, an open door to the cooperation, to the partnership and thus to the networking success. The purpose of

The CONSEN objectives are to present and carry out innovative initiatives and projects in IST, trying to maximize the quality and the socio-economic benefits, in the following areas:

• Research, Development, Implementation, Promotion and Sustainable Exploitation of the cooperative technologic and business networks formed by micro and small companies and organization.

• RTD+I of Organizational and Operative problems, as imagining, legalizing, registering, acting, ÔÇ£apostilingÔÇØ, banking, accounting, trusting/authenticating, info-transparency and monitoring, etc.

• Promotion and Sustainable Exploitation to create a real wide market ÔÇô connected, sorted and structured - of opportunities.

• Systemic Procedure to ÔÇ£bottom upÔÇØ initiatives, research and leverage knowledge and transfer from the European Organization the technology and innovation to individual members with efficiency. Finally help and train individual members to convert this innovation in competitiveness and local business for its benefit and organization reinvestment, etc.

• Detection and definition in the ÔÇ£VarietyÔÇØ of the information and communication environment of opportunities for synergic effects.

• Clustering resources and ÔÇ£hibridyzingÔÇØ competences catalogue for improving Technological results and Business generation.

CONSEN expects by means of the COONDI improve their internal injection of knowledge and innovation to the members, boost the conversion of the innovation in local business for the members and reinforce their European representation.

CONSEN aims to reach a recognized position in the SCEs Consulting mediation services and to establish partners and co-operation agreements in detected Innovation and business opportunities, new countries and SCEs areas of interest in parallel with the EU-FP6 projects going-on:

• SIGOSSEE (Special Interest Groups in Open-Source in e-learning and Education in Europe)

• TOSSAD (Towards OSS Adoption and Dissemination) IST-3 CA No. 015981

• COMIST (AMIATwork communities to IST in NMS)

• SECURE-FORCE (European Security and Privacy platform - Pro-active intelligence & support programme to stimulate European SMEs Faced with research issues in the field of ICT secuRity) INNOV-5 CA No. 023426

Key Persons:

Ferran Cabrer i Vilagut is the President and Manager of CONSEN (EEIG) and CEO of MUFICATA S.L. He is Industrial Engineer and Agricultural Engineer of profession and Master in Business Administration. He managed the department of phito-pharmaceutical RTD across Spain before the petroleum world crisis. In a personal entrepreneur project opened MUFICATA s.l. a Enterprises Information and Technologic enterprises consulting in Barcelona area. The Internet was the instrument used to start International services of Corporate Finance and Merged & Acquisitions, that finally they was converted in EU information and project management services, creating CONSEN Grouping as Open Information Environment for networking at European level.

After the past four years, e-working, CONSEN (EEIG) has become, what do you know now EURO-GROUP formed by SMES IST-OS, experts in cooperating in Research and Technology Development and Innovation at European Level. Now he is contributing in diverse FP6 projects and collaborate as Vice-Chairman of the Knowledge@work community integrate in the Ambient Intelligence at work initiative of the "New Collaborative Environments" Strategic Objective and to the IQUA Agency of Internet Quality an EU Safe-Internet initiative.