EUREKA: key ingredient for supporting innovation in Europe, hears conference
Due to its flexibility, low bureaucracy and bottom-up approach, EUREKA, the European network of market-orientated research and development, is an important mechanism for ensuring the growth of innovation in Europe, concluded participants on the first day of EUREKA's 14th Inter-Parliamentary conference in Copenhagen on 23 June. At the invitation of the Danish Parliament, Members of Parliament from the EUREKA member states, Members of the European Parliament and Commission representatives, met to discuss ways of improving support for innovation in Europe, and to assess the role that EUREKA should play in this process. Introducing the theme of the conference, 'building an innovation policy in Europe'; Knud Larsen, chairman of EUREKA's Group of High Level Representatives, noted that while the Commission's recent communication on innovation underlines the need to enhance innovation in order to reach the Lisbon and Barcelona objectives, 'no clear road map to date exists for the development of an innovation policy in Europe.' Nor have the EU's research framework programmes been able to sufficiently harness the potential of industrial innovation, claimed Mr Larsen: 'We have not seen, via the framework programme, strong incentives for EU industries to form close partnerships with research institutes - at least not strong enough to narrow the gap between Europe and its main competitors,' he said. To address this gap, Mr Larsen pointed to the valuable and complementary role that EUREKA could play in European innovation: 'At EUREKA, we are used to working close to industry and are well trained at avoiding the building up of bureaucracy [...]. Therefore we can provide a flexible response to the many demands not fulfilled by the framework programmes,' he said, adding that, 'EUREKA should not be seen as competitor to FP6 [the Sixth Framework Programme], but rather a partner in building a European Research and Innovation Area.' Indeed, ensuring closer cooperation with FP6 has been just one of the several priority areas highlighted during the Danish chairmanship of EUREKA; explained Tove Fergo, Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and previous delegate at EUREKA conferences. During his address, Ms Fergo outlined how the Danish chair, in close collaboration with the incoming French chair and future Dutch chair, have sought to amend the organisation of EUREKA so that it works in greater harmony with the EU funding instruments. Part of the Danish proposal involves streamlining the decision making process within EUREKA and implementing a better quality check on new projects a point which Ms Fergo believes is 'vital for the positioning of the EUREKA in the European Research Area [ERA] and ensuring closer cooperation with FP6.' This is the first time in EUREKA's history that three successive chairmanships have drawn up a common agenda for a three year period,' said Ms Fergo, adding, 'the rationale behind it can be summed up in three words: continuity, efficiency and quality.' While EUREKA representatives expressed the need for closer collaboration with the European funding instruments, representatives from the European Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) highlighted the integral role that EUREKA has to play in developing an innovation area in Europe. 'Interaction between the Commission and EUREKA in the last three years can be described as successful, and is setting the tone for future cooperation that we are currently envisaging;' said Franco Cozzani, representing the European Commission's Directorate General for Research. Dr Cozzani referred to three measures that the Commission is actively pursuing. The first is strengthening and increasing coordination between areas of FP6 and EUREKA's large clusters and umbrella projects. Secondly, the idea of setting up joint technical groups, corresponding to the thematic priorities of FP6 is being considered. 'This would aim at avoiding duplication and fostering better coordinated themes,' said Dr Cozzani, adding that discussions are already underway to develop such groups in the area of health and biotechnology. 'The third objective is to deepen and extend discussions on the development of a common platform which could interact effectively with key actors financing innovation in Europe, like the EIB,' concluded Dr Cozzani.
Kraje
Denmark