| Abstract: |
In the current world wide market, where the challenge is based on the costs, the importance of being at the top technological level is evident. This allows to face with competition coming from the areas of the world, which have been recently introduced to the open market such as China, India, Far East. By keeping the highest technological level, the West companies could maintain, at least in some areas, a competitive advantage which put them ahead respect to those countries, which still do not have this technological advancement. It is evident how the innovation and research is important at this purpose, and it is evident that the companies have to set up a way to bear the costs of the research activities in order to have more efficient, highly technological and finally the cheapest products. It is a vicious circle, where, in order to decrease the costs, the companies have to increase the initial costs by doing research with the point of view of the investment. In order to transform this vicious into a virtuous circle, the companies have to do research activities in an effective and efficient way. The help of the national and European Community governments is crucial in order to contribute to the research costs, so making these costs acceptable for companies. This paper addresses the study of the financial instruments available for the companies in order to obtain financial help for the research and innovation. The considered market is Europe. Advantage and disadvantages are discussed. An industrial case study is shown, related to a thermal spray shop dealing with gas turbine components, where the efficient and effective use of research allowed to set up and increase the companies but also the surrounding market.
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