The Public Agency for Technology Development of the Republic of Slovenia (in abbreviated form the Slovenian Technology Agency or shortly TIA) was founded by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia in 2004, aimed to ensure the enduring expert and independent implementation of the measures defined in national strategies and programmes in order to support technological development and innovation. TIA and its programmes are financed by the state budget. The headquarters of TIA are located in the centre of Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia. This year, the number of employees at TIA increased to 13. The main task of TIA is to support and encourage the development of the economy by offering different forms of financial support through technology- and other programmes. In this regard, the Agency supports the development of innovative research projects of the companies, especially those which are cooperating with the institutions of knowledge and with other companies in Slovenia and abroad. TIA's vision is to become the connecting institution between state, economy, institutions of knowledge and the business world.

Main activities of TIA began at the end of 2005. This year, the first technological programme was launched through which development, research and innovative projects of the companies are co-financed by means of subsidies. The duration of the programme is 3 years and the total budget amounts to approximately 14 million EUR. Furthermore, TIA organised the first European workshop on the innovation journalism, held on October 18th 2006 in Ljubljana, in cooperation with the Faculty of Social Sciences and by the company Vibacom from Slovenia, by the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA) and the Stanford Centre for Innovations in Learning, USA. Furthermore, each year TIA organises The Festival of Innovation, aimed to establish and deepen the cooperation between the key actors in the field of technological development and innovations. TIA is involved in two international projects under the FP6 (NOVAREGIO, DEFINE).

In STARNETregio, TIA as public agency of the Republic of Slovenia in charge of developing and implementing regional development programmes fostering innovation in the country will carry out the project activities related to the governmental institutional side. The Agency will be involved in the structuring of the STARNETregio Network, will take care of the implementation of the Liaison Office in the region and will perform the information gathering related to RTD and innovation policies in the country and the availability of financial resources for boosting the shipbuilding industry. Furthermore, as the country’s decision maker on RTD and innovation programmes, TIA will be strongly involved in the setting up of the Shared Trans-national Research Agenda and the final joint Action Plan. Furthermore, due to the Agency’s experiences in dissemination activities, gained also through the participation in further European projects as e.g. NOVAREGIO, TIA will also be the leader of the dissemination and communication activities accomplished during the project life.