European innovation

European Commission Directorate-General For Enterprise And Industry

Description

January 2007
Industrial research and development
Industrial policy
Target audience: Specialised/Technical

Informations

• Publié par: EUROPEAN-COMMISSION-DIRECTORATE-GENERAL-FOR-ENTERPRISE-AND-INDUSTRY
• Nombre de lectures: 12
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 14 Mo

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Europe INNOVA conference Valencia hosts Europe’s innovators

Radio-frequency identifi cation The European Cluster Alliance Innovating Regions in Europe Network News

European Commission DIRECTORATE-GENERAL FOR ENTERPRISE AND INDUSTRY

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Contents Europe INNOVA conference report 3 FEATURE: New ways to make money – innovation in financial services 5 FEATURE: Radio-frequency identification – a technology seeking applications 9 IRE NETWORK NEWS 13  Measuring innovation performance, lessons from Lazio 14  Innovation Cycles – raising awareness in Alentejo 16  STRATINC – Strategic intelligence to help companies 17  Different approaches to cluster support – south-east England and Jämtland 18  Oxford’s approach to using university research results 20 NEWS IN BRIEF 21 Support for innovation from the European Parliament 22 European Cluster Alliance – enabling clusters to learn from each other 24 The proposed European Institute of Technology 26 BY INVITATION: Human capital, measuring innovation potential 27 A high-tech strategy for Germany 28 Where next for the single market? 29 CONFERENCES 30 PUBLICATIONS 31 INNOVATION IN FIGURES 32

Innovation for growth

“You have to speculate to accumulate”, is an oft repeated piece of advice for would-be investors. Most of us like making money, but for many people the range of financial services products on the market is bewildering and the real costs and benefits of each to a great extent hidden behind marketing promises and actuarial small print. For many investors, the fear that the person making the money is not them but the person who sold them the product is all too real. But what is driving the rash of new products – with new ones coming out every day – avail- able to retail investors? Our first feature article suggests that competi- tion amongst providers is one of the biggest drivers.

In our second feature, the relatively new technology of radio frequency identification has found a wide range of new applications as the price has come down. A recent consultation exercise by the Commission found many worries about the privacy implications of this tool for transmitting data through the airwaves. Many of these worries seem overblown given the costs of setting up the infrastructure required to demolish our privacy, but if regulators do not deal with the issues there is a risk that RFID applications will be hindered or blocked.

November’s Europe INNOVA conference was the first get-together for participants in the Commission’s flagship initiative to encourage innov- ation in business. As the various component projects get off the ground, the conference was the opportunity to share ideas on how Europe’s traditional businesses can be encouraged to innovate and supported in doing so. The conference’s “Valencia Declaration” is intended to send a strong message to Member States’ leaders on the value business places in their support for innovation.

European Innovation European Innovation (formerlyInnovation and Technology Transfer) is published six times a year, simultaneously in English, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish, by the European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry DG as part of the European Community’s Sixth Research Framework Programme. The next issue will be published in March 2007.

Published by: Communication and information Unit Enterprise and Industry DG European Commission B-1049 Brussels Fax [phone] [e-mail] http://aoi.cordis.europa.eu/

Written and produced by: ESN, Brussels

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Legal notice: Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is respon- sible for the use which might be made of the information contained in this publication. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information, readers who wish to follow up any of the opportunities cited in this publication should confirm the validity of the information with the contacts and/or references cited in the articles. © European Commission, 2007 Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2007 Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Belgium

Innovation in the Enterprise and Industry DG The development of innovation policy and the imple- mentation of a range of measures is the responsibility of the Innovation policy Directorate of the European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry DG. 

Contact Innovation policy development(D/1) Fax [phone] [e-mail] Support for innovation(D/2) Fax [phone] [e-mail] Financing SMEs, entrepreneurs and innovators(D/3) Fax [phone] [e-mail] Technology for innovation; ICT industries and e-business(D/4) Fax [phone] [e-mail] http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/ innovation/index_en.htm http://cordis.europa.eu/innovation/

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Europe INNOVA: It’s innovation, stupid!

Bill Clinton – in name, at least – Ferrari and a posse of students were at the Europe INNOVA Conference in Valencia last November. They were joined by an 800-strong contingent of Europe’s innovation profession- als and policy-makers, all keen to share their views on how to improve European competitiveness and growth.

What advice could Esko Aho, Finland’s former prime minister and chair of a major report on Europe’s state of innovation( 1 ) offer professional innovators attending the November 2006 Europe INNOVA conference to stoke the continent’s innovation fires? It needs to create and nurture the market for innova- tive products and services. Europe must bring in more resources for R&D and for innovation (not the same thing!), and to encourage structural mobility – people, financial instruments, organisations, etc. Importantly, according to the man at the helm during his country’s lauded economic turnaround, Europe needs to adopt a positive attitude towards risk-taking – entrepreneurs willing to accept failure and use the simple lessons learned. To illustrate, Aho borrowed from Bill Clinton’s 1992 presi- dential campaign slogan, ‘[It’s] the economy, stupid!’ “But in Europe we can say ‘It’s innovation, stupid!’ because it plays such a key role in solving many of our problems.” David White, director of Innovation Policy at the European Commission’s Enterprise and Industry DG, put it another way: “Innovation determines what we will achieve in material terms; the spiritual and cultural values which we bring to that material state will determine whether it has  quality or not.”

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Beat the bureaucracy Pilar del Castillo, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on innovation and research, concurred, calling Aho’s report “a concise account of the state we are in today”. She high- lighted social welfare and investment in energy as areas ripe for new innovation. ICT, e-skills and the promotion of entrepreneurial thinking – “flexibility and flair” – through- out the education system should be top priorities.

“Europe needs to be the leading innovator and to put its heart and soulinto it,” the former Spanish minister assert- ed; not just using trendy words and waving fancy docu- ments but taking up challenges in well-designed projects. “Europe needs to beat bureaucracy and lazy attitudes.”

The EU can only deliver a comprehensive solution if all actors are fully engaged and innovation permeates all aspects of social and economic life, suggested White. “That’s why we are here at Europe INNOVA.”

Sporting success Ferrari’s general manager Amedeo Felisa is someone who understands how to deliver ‘the benefits of a team-driven ‘innovation culture’ across its road and Formula 1 divi- sions. Every year, the firm produces new and modified models with up to 80% new parts. That requires a lot of innovation, which is why Ferrari ploughs back 17% of its €1.3 billion turnover into R&D. Input comes from univer- sity partners (over 60), internal R&D, suppliers (some 800 in Ferrari’s ‘community’), and from the F1 operations. “We are a small company and this level of co-operation is dif- ficult to manage, but we understand its value added,” Felisa noted. And the customers appreciate it, ranking the carmaker number one in ‘sportiness’ and also in ‘innovation’. Delegates were interested to learn more about the Commission’s proposed European Institute of Technology (EIT). Alain Pompidou, president of the European Patent Office (EPO), called it a “major breakthrough” capable of filling the gap between ideas and inventions, offering networking without walls, clustering benefits and a pluridis- ciplinary approach. White said it is an “open door” to new and exciting possibilities which, if successful, could remould education. Negotiations over funding it are difficult, he con- ceded, but the EIT is a convincing proposition.

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