Forum debates policies and practices for an innovative Europe
In the quest to compete on a global scale and thus to meet the Lisbon goal of making Europe's economy the most competitive in the world by 2010, policy makers around the continent are looking increasingly to innovation. Stakeholders have been discussing how to boost innovation for several years, but with the feeling that more is now at stake due to increasing competition from emerging economies, the debate is now intensifying. Participants at the Fourth Forum for Innovative Enterprises in Stuttgart, Germany, from 5 to 7 December had wide ranging ideas about how to encourage innovation, some of which flew in the face of current EU policy. A central focus of the event was the PAXIS (pilot action of excellence on innovative start-ups) scheme, funded under the 'research and innovation' section of the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6). PAXIS promotes innovation through the regions, and has 22 regional members that cooperate and disseminate best practice. A number of conference participants expressed the view that cities are not benefiting from regional growth strategies. Gordon C Murray, Professor of the Management School of Business and Economics at the University of Exeter in the UK called for EU policy to focus on cities instead of the regions. 'If we want our innovation to compete globally, we have to focus on the cities. Large cities as centres are very important for innovation. Work in the regions isn't innovation. Call it social policy or something else.' Recognising that these comments would appear provocative to an audience containing many regional representatives, Professor Murray added: 'We have to decide in Europe. We have to be elitist in our technology policy. This is not popular because there will be a large number of losers. As a democracy, we haven't worked out how to do that yet.' While the Commission gave no indication that any change of policy along this line is foreseen, representatives did reveal that new strategies and instruments are planned at EU level. Heinz Zourek, Deputy Director-General for the Commission's Enterprise and Industry DG announced that the Commission is considering launching its own version of the ERA-Net scheme. Launched under FP6 by the Research DG, the initiative allows national research programmes to collaborate with a view to establishing new instruments and eventual joint calls for proposals. 'In 2005 we are planning a call for proposals to encourage the creation of such schemes in the field of innovation,' said Mr Zourek. Other strategies favoured by conference participants for encouraging innovation included investing more in research and education, reducing regulation, strengthening the link between industry and academia, establishing the right institutions and getting companies into clusters. Germany's Parliamentary Secretary of State from the Federal Ministry for Economy and Labour Rezzo Schlauch spoke in favour of clusters: 'Money alone will not solve Germany or Europe's innovation problem. We need to get companies into clusters,' he said. He cited a recent study that found that government investment alone is not responsible for the number of patents filed. 'This insight isn't new,' he added, quoting Henry Ford, who once observed that 'while coming together isn't new, working together is the blueprint for success'. Comments from a Slovakian delegate illustrated that while money may not be the be-all-and-end-all of successful innovation, restricted access to it is a real barrier. The delegate explained that is his own country, banks often add 25 per cent interest to loans for innovative research projects, and requested that the European Commission intervene to inform these bankers of the benefits of such projects. Mr Zourek had encouraging news for potential innovators in Slovakia and other countries with innovation-unfriendly bank loan policies: the Commission is to support twinning between banks, and is to fund temporary placements of bankers from new Member States in banks from the EU-15. Professor Murray also had a number of observations on the financing of innovation. 'Every state has to have a venture capital programme, but most don't know how it works,' he claimed. He alluded to the conflict between politicians' desire to see quick results from projects and the fact that most venture capital funding is aimed at longer term results. Participants also heard calls for new indicators in order to measure and benchmark innovation activities and successes effectively. There is still an over-reliance on indicators measuring research-related factors, which don't' take account, for example, of innovation in the service sector, claimed Ruud Smits, from the Centre for science and innovation management at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. The next forum for innovative enterprises is likely to take place in two year's time, in line with common practice. Until then, the pursuit for better innovation results will continue. 'Many good practices exist. But they need to be more widely known and transferred to others. And we can't be satisfied only with the identification and transfer of good practice. Innovation is a continuous challenge, and meeting it requires a constant search for better practice,' said Mr Zourek.