At its meeting on 9 October 2009, taking place in line with the Week of Regions in Brussels (Belgium), the European ICT SF Council operating under the umbrella of SFERA (Structural Funds for European Regional Advancement) Project adopted its sustainability strategy and appointed its new Chairman.
The major objective of SFERA (a project supported by the 7th Framework Program of the EU) is to support Member States and Regions for the use of the Structural Funds by identifying new opportunities for sustainable growth through ICT R&D investments. Pursuant to this objective, SFERA established the European ICT Structural Funds Council as a specialized public-private multilateral body - a group of experts and policy-makers from academia, business, state and regional authorities and NGOs.
Thus, for two years already, the Council has been providing recommendations for facilitating and enlarging the successful use and investments of Structural Funds in ICT R&D and innovation.
The Council first Chairman Mr. Antoni Slavinski, Chairman of Association “Telecommunications” (ASTEL) in Bulgaria, who has been elected to chair the European ICT Structural Funds Council during its first years of set-up and operation, has now been nominated Honorary Chairman and will continue to serve as a Council member.
At the Council meeting on 9 Oct 2009, designed for adopting a Council sustainability strategy for the post-project period after SFERA formal end, the Honorary Chairman passed the turn to his successor - Dr. Rafael Mompo, SFERA project mentor and Council New Chairman.
Dr. Mompo is a Telecoms Engineer and currently Director of the Electronic and Communications Department at the Universidad Europea de Madrid (a university of the multinational Laureate International Universities). He started his professional career in 1986 as R&D engineer in satellite communications related fields, and in 1993 he began to strongly collaborate in the telecommunications and Information Society construction of Castilla y Leon Region (using Structural Funds). In those years he worked very closely to regional governments, local industry and university. As a result, for example, Castilla y Leon was the first Region in Spain to have a first alternative operator. Then, when in January 2001 the telecommunications industry slipped into recession he expended a whole year in the Instituto de Empresa (IE) Business School reinventing his professional profile in order to be prepared to tackle the new challenges of the 21st century telecommunications, which are necessarily bounded to the understanding of global markets.
On behalf of all the European ICT SF Council members, Mr. Rafael Mompó expressed the high appreciation for the work of Mr. Slavinski during his presidency, and for his efforts and enthusiasm from setting up the Council and making its first steps until nowadays, when the Council has more than 100 members, has issued a number of policy recommendations and position papers of how the Structural Funds to be efficiently used for development through new ICT, and is already getting recognized as a European-level forum.
After his nomination, Mr. Rafael Mompó stated his willingness to use this impetus with the same enthusiasm and commitment to keep sustainable and make more active the role of the Council in recommending changes, promoting good practices and influencing regional policies at EU level for bridging the digital divide of underserved regions in Europe.
For more information: www.sferaproject.eu