Transforming the EU into an innovation society: new blog invites the public to share ideas
An open consultation on EU innovation policy has been set up by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Enterprise and Industry (DG ENTR) in the form of an online Web log (blog). Members of an expert panel have posted their ideas for creating a more innovative Europe, and the public is invited to comment, vote, and share their own ideas between 7 July and 31 August. The feedback will be used by the panel to make recommendations for the Commission's European Plan for Innovation in early autumn. The panel comprises six established leaders in business, law, management and banking, from Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group, Kone Corporation, Next-Ingegneria dei Sistemi, Basf Aktiengesellschaft, CSOB Bank and the University of Gothenburg. Their ideas, together with those shared by the public over the next few weeks, will form the innovation plan, which was called for by the Council of the European Union in December 2008. 'A knowledge society is not enough,' the panel writes, acknowledging the efforts of European policy makers to put Europe at the forefront of a global knowledge economy. 'Europe must create an innovation society where knowledge is utilised rapidly and powerfully for societal benefit and development.' The experts believe that Europe is not investing effectively in the 'infrastructure, competencies, creative environments and businesses needed for 21st century innovation'. They also point out that because securing public support for innovation is complex and slow while private finance tends to back only low-risk investments, 'people, entrepreneurs and companies with ambitious and creative ideas find limited support and numerous barriers'. Specific actions are proposed under the umbrella of five general recommendations: to 'broaden the concept of innovation'; to 'invest in future infrastructure'; improve 'speed and synchronisation'; support 'new places for new types of collaborations'; and establish 'innovative financing models'. Some of the recommendations are sure to provoke serious thought. For example, the panel suggests that every European household, business and public building should be fibre enabled so that citizens can have access to high-speed broadband; they also say that the EU should be 'the first region to implement an integrated, cross-border smart grid with every household connected, and common standards and interoperability'. 'Speed and scale are everything in innovation,' the blog reads. 'Europe's current structures and institutions respond too slowly and in a fragmented way, meaning that ideas generated here are developed more successfully by others elsewhere.' The panel posits that at least one percent of all public departmental budgets in every EU country should be dedicated to innovation; they also call for the establishment of new systems that can draw on the expertise of senior citizens ('elderpreneurship'). Citing the Helsinki Design Lab, funded by public and private business to bring together design, technology and users in innovation projects, the panel stresses the importance of investing in 'cultural and creative institutions, organisations and networks as the interdisciplinary brokers for innovation, creative content and new knowledge'. 'The finance system is not fit for innovation,' the panel writes. 'The existing support for smaller or innovative companies (grants, seed or venture capital, loan guarantees) is fragmented and fails to mobilise private sector investment efficiently or consistently.' The European Investment Fund, the European Investment Bank and the European Commission should work together, they write, 'to create new models to fund trans-national partnerships, corporate venturing and societal innovation funds'. The panel also recommends 'incentivising an EU-wide activity and market for trading and sharing Intellectual Property (IP), allowing universities, public research organisations and small companies to find better partners, investors and fairer prices for their IP, skills and knowledge and to access the unused IP of large players'. Regarding infrastructures, the panel emphasises that 'the 20th-century electricity grid needs to be transformed for the green economy, for large-scale renewable energy generation, for mass electric transport, for zero-emission homes, for intelligent energy management'. While the experts acknowledge the EU's technology platform and support for research and development on smart grids, they lament the fact that there is 'no clear policy roadmap, [either] to implement smart grids [or] on key areas such as demand response, cross-border retail competition or smart metering standardisation'. The ideas and debates generated by the open consultation can be shared via several social networking sites. The panel hopes that their efforts will both enhance the effectiveness of the European Plan for Innovation and form an integral part of the wider debate on the Lisbon strategy after 2010.
Countries
Finland