Do you know that Microsoft together with public, private and other partners are running these initiatives for you?
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BizSpark
Main initiative focus: Growth
Beneficiaries: Entrepreneurs, students and SMEs
Microsoft BizSpark is a global program designed to accelerate the success of early stage Startups. BizSpark provides entrepreneurs fast and easy access to current full-featured Microsoft development tools and productions licenses of server products, with no upfront costs and minimal requirements.
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Community Technology Skills Program
Main initiative focus: Employability
Beneficiaries: Non-Governmental Organisations and local and regional Governments
The Unlimited Potential - Community Technology Skills Program (CTSP) is a global community based learning programme to extend the IT skills and economic opportunities for young people and adults. Focusing on working through community technology learning centres to bring the benefits of information and communication technology to communities underserved by technology, CTSP supports projects that create opportunities that can transform communities, strengthen local economies and help people realise their potential.
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European Alliance on Skills for Employability
Main initiative focus: Employability
Beneficiaries: Unemployed / low IT skilled workers, students, entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises
A multistakeholder initiative that aims at developing the e-Skills of those who want to embrace ICT and strengthen their chances of employment.
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European Microsoft Innovation Center
Main initiative focus: Innovation
Beneficiaries: Advanced students (engineering and beta disciplines), innovation agencies and universities.
EMIC in Aachen, Germany, is one of the Microsoft facilities dedicated to applied research and development in Europe. It is unique to Microsoft in its focus on collaborative applied research and its goal of contributing to European Commission and other public-sector research programmes. Activities focus on security, mobile technologies, distributed embedded systems, software verification and web services. Bright minds are always welcome and we are open to new collaboration proposals.
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European Union Grants Advisor
Main initiative focus: Growth
Beneficiaries: Teachers and universities, entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises, local and regional governments, Non-Governmental Organizations(NGO),Innovation Agencies.
The European Union Grants Advisor (EUGA) programme is a collaborative effort led by Microsoft to help SMEs, as well as local and regional governments and other entities, to better understand and use ICT related public funding opportunities for growth, innovation, training and employability. Through the EU Grants Advisor web site the users are able to find information about EU and other public funding and can better ascertain which funds they may be eligible for.
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Imagine Cup
Main initiative focus: Innovation
Beneficiaries: Students, entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises and teachers or universities.
The Imagine Cup is the world’s largest student technology competition and gives top young minds from around the globe a chance to innovate and create. Imagine Cup contestants have the chance to give their ideas exposure, gain practical experience and stretch the limits of their imagination in creating solutions that have real-world applicability. The Imagine Cup Innovation Accelerator propels Imagine Cup software design champions into the next stage of developing their innovative ideas as a business. Originally set up as a joint project from Microsoft and BT, it is a prize awarded to the best software design teams from the Microsoft Imagine Cup World Finals.
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Intellectual Property Ventures
Main initiative focus: Innovation
Beneficiaries: Entrepreneurs, small and medium enterprises, local and regional governments and innovation agencies.
Microsoft IP Ventures licenses Microsoft technology to start-ups, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and governmental agencies from around the world, fostering new product development and opportunity for others, while realising a return on its research investments. Microsoft is in the business of innovation. Over time, Microsoft Research and other Research & Development groups have created a reservoir of technologies that the company can develop into new or enhanced products, or license to other companies, which is at the core of the IP Ventures programme which is run by LCA.
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Microsoft Innovation Centers
Main initiative focus: Growth
Beneficiaries: Students, teachers and universities, entrepreneurs and small and medium enterprises.
Microsoft Innovation Centers (MIC) provide the local community with a comprehensive set of programs and services to expand workforce skills, create jobs, strengthen innovation and improve competitiveness. These centers offer software development assistance, business skills training, employment programmes for students, and market incubation via the local start-up community. The current network of 110 worldwide centers reaches 60 nations so it is almost sure you will be able to contact one in your own country or region.
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Microsoft IT Academy Program
Main initiative focus: Employability
Beneficiaries: Students, teachers or universities and local and regional governments
The Microsoft IT Academy Programme is a global IT learning solution that connects educators, students, and communities. The program reaches students during their early IT experience and continues throughout their professional careers. It is a life-long learning model of continuous improvement. Membership offers a complete IT training programme.
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Microsoft Research
Main initiative focus: Innovation
Beneficiaries: Students, teachers or universities, and innovation agencies
Founded in 1991, Microsoft Research is dedicated to conducting both basic and applied research in computer science and software engineering. Its goals are to enhance the user experience on computing devices, reduce the cost of writing and maintaining software, and invent novel computing technologies. Researchers focus on more than 55 areas of computing and collaborate with leading academic, government and industry researchers to advance the state of the art in such areas as graphics, speech recognition, user-interface research, natural language processing, programming tools and methodologies, operating systems and networking, and the mathematical sciences. Microsoft Research employs more than 800 people in five labs located in Redmond, Wash.; Silicon Valley, Calif.; Cambridge, England; Beijing, China; and Bangalore, India. Microsoft Research collaborates openly with colleges and universities worldwide to enhance the teaching and learning experience, inspire technological innovation, and broadly advance the field of computer science.
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Partners in Learning
Main initiative focus: Innovation
Beneficiaries: Students, teachers and local and regional governments
Under this initiative, Microsoft is working with governments, ministries of education, and other key stakeholders to offer a spectrum of education resources including tools, programmes, and practices. The fundamental premise of this vision is that technology in education can be a powerful catalyst to promote learning and that education changes lives, families, communities, and ultimately nations.
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Students to Business
Main initiative focus: Employability
Beneficiaries: Students, recent graduates, entrepreneurs, SMEs, local and regional government.
This initiative aims at enhancing the students’ skills by providing training opportunities for final-year students at local businesses which use Microsoft technologies, in order to enhance career opportunities while benefiting the IT industry today and in the future.
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Voices for Innovation
Main initiative focus: Innovation
Beneficiaries: Anyone can be a member. All you have to do is be a supporter of innovation and the growth of businesses. Members include software developers, consumers, vendors, suppliers, shareholders, user groups, employees, trade associations and academics
Supported by Microsoft, Voices for Innovation is a network of Microsoft Partners, software developers, resellers, suppliers, consumers, academics and others who bring their voices to public policy debates that impact the technology sector. Governments around the world have a role to play in encouraging investment, innovation and marketplace competition in the technology sector. But it’s often a challenge for public officials -- many of whom know little about technology -- to establish policies that foster innovation and help our industry.
