The EIB-University Action Programme hosted its fourth annual meeting, on February 2-3, 2011 at the EIB-headquarters in Luxembourg. The meeting was very well attended, with participants from EURANDOM (NL), Università degli Studi di Milano (IT), Tilburg University (NL), Technische Universität München (DE), University of Stirling (UK), Università degli Studi di Urbino (IT), TU Dortmund (DE), Université du Luxembourg (LU), Bauhaus-Universität Weimar (DE), Technical University of Lisbon (PT), IESE Business School, Universidad de Navarra (ES), University of Bradford (UK), Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi (IT), and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (ES). This year the EIB also hosted participants from two networks (UNIMED, and C.R.E.D.I.T.) and a representative from the European Regional Science Association (ERSA).
During the morning session, participants had an overview of the various activities that the programme is sponsoring. Since it started its activities in late 2006 under EIBURS, the Bank has launched 14 lines of research, and signed 11 research agreements on various topics. The first 4 EIBURS were completed in September/October 2009; the coordinators of the two EIBURS having completed their research in 2010 presented the main results of their research at the meeting (see two first presentations under EIBURS). During the same period, the Bank financed 17 young researchers under STAREBEI, of which 4 are currently under implementation. Three memorandum of understanding have been signed with three networks: UNIMED, FEMISE and C.R.E.D.I.T. Finally, the Bank annually sponsors the EIB-ERSA prize in Regional Science which recognizes the outstanding contributions of scholars to the advancement in regional science
In the afternoon, the EIB-University Action hosted four parallel seminars on topics with research supported by the programme: Improving Access to Finance through Mobile Financial Services, (presentation by Francesc Prior, Researcher at the IESE Business School, Universidad de Navarra); Sensitivity Analysis and Global Rating of ABSs (presentation by Wim Schoutens, Professor, and Francesca Di Girolamo, Researcher, at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven/EURANDOM); Is Infrastructure really low risk? An Empirical Analysis of Listed Infrastructure Firms (presentation by Christoph Rothballer, PhD Student, Technische Universität München); and Financing Young Innovative Firms (Presentation by Marco Da Rin, Professor, University of Tilburg).
