The workshop on "Innovation awareness in regions", one of the 54 that compose theme A of the Open Days, has done a review of the initiative of the" European Innovation Weeks ", an idea promoted by Pro Inno Europe. These weeks, which have been developed in Riga, Berlin, Milan and the Danish city of Oresund, are an example of how to involve society in the European innovation policy.

From 5 to 8 October, the seventh annual OPEN DAYS 2009 European Week of Regions and Cities will be held in Brussels, organized by the European Commission and the Committee of the Regions of the EU. The innovation and development as engines of growth in regions will be a key point in the seminars and events being held in the Belgian capital.

One of the events on this theme has been "Innovation awareness in regions", a seminar held at the Centre Borschette of the European Commission under theme A of the Open Days: Restoring growth: innovation in European regions and cities.

Innovation CIRCUS initiative has been the protagonist of this workshop. This project, an interactive exhibition where people can interact and test what does innovation mean through experiments, samples of robotics, automotive industry, lectures, artist workshops ... Innovative CIRCUS has traveled to several European regions with the support of the Commission's programme Pro Inno Action, funded under the Sixth Framework Programme.

The main objective of the project Innovative Circus is to examine and identify the key factors that lie behind innovation, involving every possible skateholder in innovation (which includes students from colleges to large research) and to achieve best practice and take measures positive to the regional and national policies.

The pioneering experience of the project was in Riga, the capital of Latvia, and over 10,000 people visited the tent that housed the Innovation Circus in September 2007. Researchers, companies, universities, schools, ordinary citizens ... could interact directly with the European innovation, and concluded that "innovation is a happy ending for science," said Janis Stabulnieks, of the Latvian Technological Center.

The success of the experience made this "Innovation Circus" travel to Milan months later: shows, tours, forums, and even lotteries completed what had been done in Latvia, and year after year, it has continued being hold. In fact, the conference coincided with the inauguration of the Innovation Circus Milan 2009. There were around 10,000 visitors in 2007, more than 30,000 in 2008, and this year it is expected to exceed that figure.

Innovation Circus has served as a model for putting innovation and citizens closer. In future editions, the Innovation Circus will arrive in Barcelona, Kortrijk (Belgium), Lisbon, Milan, Vilnius and Tallinn among late 2009 and late 2011. The Lisbon and Tallinn events will include the award of the European Design Management Award, and the target audience will be citizens and youth, governments of all kinds, from local to national financial institutions, businesses and media.