Tag: innovation policy

eHealth, protective textiles, sustainable construction, recycling, bio-based products and renewable energy: These are the six areas with high growth and innovation potential identified by the Commission for its lead market initiative.

Lead markets are markets in which EU industry can develop a global competitive advantage provided that it gets support from the public sector as regulator, customer and facilitator.

Nine months after the adoption of strict new EU health and safety rules for the sector (REACH), high-level stakeholders from the chemicals industry gathered in the first of a series of meetings aimed at boosting the competitiveness of a sector representing 5% of Europe's GDP.

"The centre of gravity for innovation is starting to shift from West to East", challenging Europe's endeavours to become "the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world", new research suggests.

European stakeholders want more EU support for innovative and young SMEs and have asked the Commission to establish a pan-European platform for start-ups in knowledge-intensive services.

A new Commission Communication tells EU leaders to support the creation of a European Institute of Technology and to break the logjam on the Community Patent in order to foster innovation in Europe.

Widespread access to modern information and communication technologies (internet, TV, telephone) is considered to be a driving factor behind the EU's efforts to become the world's leading knowledge-based economy (Lisbon strategy). However, poverty or lack of basic ICT skills still prevent this ambition from turning into reality, while at the same time effectively barring businesses from potentially highly lucrative markets in the EU-15 as well as in the new member states. Addressing this so-called 'digital divide' could therefore become a key element in the EU's Lisbon strategy for long-term economic growth.

Scientists say creation of a European Institute of Technology (EIT) is not the answer to the lack of innovation in Europe.

The Finnish Presidency invites the EU-25 ministers to discuss a change in the direction and content of EU innovation policy and wants to guide the way towards demand-led innovation policies.

President Bush has announced a 10-year competitiveness initiative, which includes doubling federal commitment to basic research and making R&D tax credit permanent.

Following the Hampton Court summit, the Commission mandated a four-person group to consider what new efforts are needed in the field of research and innovation to achieve the Lisbon goals. The former Finnish prime minister Esko Aho, who chaired the independent high level study group, explains to EurActiv.com what the 'pact for research and innovation', called for by the group's final report, means.

In his article 'The industrial policy of the European Union', published by the Robert Schuman Foundation, Jean-François Jamet updates readers on the current status of the EU's industrial policy.

The 2005 Trendchart on Innovation, which was commissioned by DG Enterprise, paints a gloomy picture of the EU's competitiveness. 

This report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development examines the relationship between innovation policy and performance in six OECD countries – Austria, Finland, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

One of the Innobarometer 2004 survey findings reveal that a vast majority of European firms do not take any measures to protect their innovations through patents or trademarks.

During discussions on the Lisbon mid-term review in Brussels on 16 November, ministers of economic and financial affairs will agree that the Lisbon agenda "has become too broad" and needs more focus.

The European Commission has published a study which underlines the importance of increasing EU innovation policies to make them more effective and useful to areas addressed by the Lisbon Agenda.