French Secretary of State for industry calls for Europe to tackle innovation 'challenge' of Japan and USA
The French Secretary of State for industry, Christian Pierret, has called for concerted action to ensure that Europe can match the 'challenge' of the USA and Japan in science and innovation. 'The challenge has been set with regard to the United States and Japan,' he claimed, explaining that unless Europe rises to the challenge it will be 'outclassed.' He said that Europe needs to 'roll up its sleeves' and get 'serious' about tackling the Lisbon goal of making Europe the world's most competitive knowledge-based economy Mr Pierret made his comments in a speech to the second international forum on 'Economy, Research and Innovation' in Paris on 14 February, at which the revamped CORDIS portal for French R&D information was launched. Mr Pierret also called for action to network national research and innovation actors in order to boost national competitiveness and the creation of the European research area proposed by EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin. It is important to federalise innovation actors and localise innovation in order to 'help our strengths bear fruit', Mr Pierret said. He said the key to successful research lies in fostering links between public and private actors, between small enterprises and large business groups and between universities and specialised 'grandes écoles.' This approach is one of the key mechanisms for the creation of the European research area, which will be supported by the instruments of the Sixth Framework programme for research, FP6. Mr Pierret also said that France is witnessing a 'revolution' in attitude towards entrepreneurship, with many students now setting up their own business on leaving university. He explained that an innovative economy is first of all a culture and that France must give more recognition to those who take risks through economic and fiscal measures. Industrial research is particularly important, explained Mr Pierret, with France devoting 300 million euro to this area in 2002. This represents an increase of 42.5 per cent since 1999, of which 10 per cent will go to the life sciences - doubling the financial allocation to this area in just one year. He added, however, that he hopes to see even this significant increase rise further in future. It is vital for all enterprises to have access to the tools of the information society, according to Mr Pierret. In 1999, the French national innovation funding agency Anvar supported and financed more than 300 collective SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) projects in this area. Today, all large French companies and 70 per cent of France's SMEs are online. Ketty Schwartz, Director General for research in the French research Ministry, added that the life sciences are a key growth area in France. She said the French government is currently in the process of creating a National consortium of research in genomics (Consortium national de recherche en génomique) to mobilise and structure research in this area. The French Ministry of research has also initiated a number of concerted actions in key areas, including life sciences and information and communication science and technology.