Commissioners underline the value of innovative regions
The important contribution of Europe's regions to building a more knowledge-based and innovative EU was highlighted by both Commissioners Busquin (research) and Liikanen (enterprise and information society) on 27 April. Addressing the Shannon Development Conference in Ireland, Erkki Liikanen emphasised the importance of ensuring knowledge diffusion at the regional level, while Philippe Busquin welcomed 14 new pilot projects aimed at boosting the regional dimension of the knowledge economy. Commissioner Liikanen said that: 'Knowledge is the core ingredient of innovative activity and the basis on which high value-added industries can develop. Successful regions need to build strong and efficient universities and research centres working with their surrounding firms, including the traditional ones.' Guidance on how to foster innovation will be included in the forthcoming Innovation Action Plan, said Mr Liikanen. The paper will include objectives for encouraging he scope and quality of innovation, and will go beyond innovation in the fields of research and new technology. The proposals will also present initiatives to increase private and public investment in innovation, to broaden the skill base for innovation and knowledge transfer, and to improve the governance of innovation activities in Member States. 'Initiatives tailored to local and regional actors will be critical in ensuring that we develop dynamic regions that are able to compete effectively on a global scale,' summed up Mr Liikanen. A similar view was expressed by Mr Liikanen's colleague in the Commission, Philippe Busquin. The new pilot projects give Mr Busquin 'another opportunity to stress the importance of regions in the collective European effort to close the gap with our competitors in research investment and knowledge exploitation.' The 14 projects selected for funding will receive a total of 2.5 million euro under the 'Regions for Knowledge' initiative. The initiative was instigated by the European Parliament in order to encourage local players to design and shape regional knowledge development models. The selected projects focus on: establishing regional research and innovation strategies; producing operational models for public and private partnership structures; and creating links between different players in the process that leads to innovation. Networking with stakeholders in other regions and developing regional knowledge management models are also addressed.