 ince the early 1980s, European Union science and technology policy has been directed overwhelmingly at strengthening Europe's innovation networks," says Dr Daniele Archibugi of the Italian National Research Council (CNR). Interactions - between research institutions, between firms, and between industry and the academic knowledge base - are the most important element in the development of new technological expertise, he believes. The goals of public policy have rightly been to create the necessary infrastructures and to stimulate such interactions within Europe. The bulk of the Framework Programme budgets have been devoted to research and demonstration projects based on transnational collaboration.
"To develop specialised strengths in technology-intensive sectors Europe must be able to pool resources of skill and know-how from different Member States," Archibugi argues. "Frequent, on-going collaboration is essential as a means of building European capacity. But despite the EU's efforts it is far from clear that intra-European interactions are growing."
The message is the medium
As part of the forthcoming Innovation Study(1) Innovation policy in a knowledge-based economy, Archibugi has assembled evidence of a continuing failure to construct a cohesive European 'technological identity'.
His work deals with the globalisation of technology - the processes by which firms' inventions and innovations are diffused around the world. They include investment by companies based in one country in R&D or technology-intensive production capacity in another, exchanges of scientific knowledge and skilled personnel, and the international exploitation of technologies either directly or through the licensing of intellectual property in foreign markets.
As Archibugi notes, the global spread of technology is accelerating, not least because advanced communications technologies themselves reduce friction in the transmission of 'disembodied' knowledge. But in what directions does technology flow? Who wins and who loses? And how is Europe doing? Archibugi has found answers in data on international patenting activity and R&D expenditure, and on technological collaboration, both industrial and academic.
"It all points in the same direction," he says. "What we see is that when European firms and institutions make technology links outside their own national borders, they still prefer to do so with counterparts in the United States, rather than in other European countries."
|
During the 1990s, technology agreements between European and US firms increased at the expense of intra-European ones. (Source National Science Foundation, 1996) |
Innovation begins at home
Europe still lacks a single market for intellectual property. Although the EU domestic market is bigger than the American one, to protect their technologies throughout it European firms must deal with multiple national patent laws. "The European Patent system offers a means of mitigating the complexity," Archibugi says. "But surprisingly, a larger proportion of US firms take this route than of European ones."
Second, European multinational companies are still oriented primarily towards US markets, and tend to base foreign research activities there rather than in Europe. German multinationals undertake twice as much R&D in the US as they do elsewhere in the EU. In the case of British multinationals, it is three times as much.
"Of course, the US is a key market, and a subsidiary there provides a window on American technology," Archibugi admits. "But Europe as a whole only benefits to the extent that the company participates in European networks. If it is merely connected to a national innovation system, then Europe is likely to be a net loser from the transatlantic technology exchange."
Third, the number of strategic technological agreements between American and European companies grew during the 1990s, while the number of such alliances between European firms actually fell (see Figure). The contrasting dynamism of US innovation networks is reflected in the surge in US-US agreements.
Power of concentration
"The EU's Framework Programmes have helped," Archibugi concludes. "But they have not been enough to stabilise the net outflow of European technology."
It is not that links with the US are in themselves a bad thing - in any exchange, both sides benefit. At the moment, Europe tends to benefit less because it lacks an effective pan-European innovation system. "But a bad deal is better than no deal at all," Archibugi says.
Controversially, his prescription is to shift significant parts of Member State science and technology policy to the EU level. "We need to forge a single European research and innovation policy to speed up the construction of strong and dynamic pan-European innovation networks," he says.
(1) The Innovation Studies series continues the former European Innovation Monitoring System (EIMS) reports. A list of available reports, which can also be ordered on-line, is at /eims/src/stud.htm
Contact
| 
EUROPEAN AND GLOBAL INNOVATION
