Finland must broaden the scope of its innovation activities, claims report
While Finland possesses an excellent public aid scheme for innovation activities, its focus should move away from technology related activities to improving the overall innovation spectrum, a group of experts concluded on 19 May. The report, entitled 'evaluation of the Finnish innovation support system', looks at the factors determining the type of innovation activities taken on by enterprises in Finland, and assesses how public aid schemes respond to these preconditions. Based on a survey of some 900 enterprises and interviews with representatives of the country's core financial and support services, the report finds that the services work in compliance with objectives set for them and provide adequate support to enterprises Yet despite these findings, the report suggests that there is room for improvement, particularly with regard to the scope of activities supported by public aid schemes. Not only should public funding for innovation move away from simply supporting the development of technologies, more time and effort should be spent in understanding the perquisites for entrepreneurship. According to the expert group, existing public funding services also require more of a risk-taking attitude in order to boost entrepreneurship. However, the report suggests that due to the scarcity of public subsidies and the rapid development of the financial market, public aid schemes should not shoulder the responsibility of financing innovation activities alone. Instead, closer public and private partnership is needed in order to spread the financial burden. On a more general note, the report suggests that support for innovation activities needs to start earlier, concluding that education, training and high level research are 'the preconditions for the possibility of effectively utilising innovations.'
Countries
Finland