1. Joint Venture Prograamme at Cranfield (UK)

TheJoint Venture Programme, newly launched by the Cranfield School ofManagement, offers help to companies that are looking to expand their businessin developing countries. It is claimed that valuable European Community (EU)grants are being lost, and the Cranfield initiative offers a fast track throughwhat they describe as the bureaucracy involved in making applications for aid todevelop partnerships abroad. This is particularly true of companies involvedwith automation and robotics who because of their intense development andmarketing activities fail to take advantage not only of EU programmes that offerfinancial assistance, but even the help that is at hand from their owngovernment's initiatives.