On July 14, VINNOVA held a seminar on "Research and Innovation Policies - Exploiting synergies for Sustainable Growth in Europe" in association with the Swedish EU presidency 2009, at the Permanent Representation of Sweden to the European Union, in Brussels.
Since the launch of the first generation of framework programs in the early 1980’s, the rationale behind this Community effort has been to invest in research and technical development to strengthen the competitiveness of European businesses. With the adoption of the Lisbon strategy, this objective was further emphasized and widened, identifying innovation as a key factor to long term sustainable growth in Europe.
One of the most important sources for innovation is research, and consequently the Barcelona targets challenged the member states to make substantial increases in their public investments in R&D, as well as stimulating private initiatives. But the augmented focus on innovation also led to a division of labor between different policy areas, resulting in a growing divide between research and innovation instruments. Unfortunately, this goes against much of the knowledge accumulated during the last decades with the introduction of the innovation system concept and the recognition that innovation is a very complex process that is best stimulated by a number of different coordinated policy actions. The topic of the seminar was: How can we strengthen European competitiveness through a better coordination of research and innovation policies?
Research and Innovation Policies - Exploiting synergies for Sustainable Growth in Europe
Welcome adress
Prof. Göran Marklund, Acting Deputy Director General VINNOVA Presentation
Improving coordination between different policy areas at the European Level - towards a horizontal innovation policy?
Introductions:
Prof. Stefan Kuhlmann, University of Twente Presentation
Prof. Maureen McKelvey, Gothenburg University
Panel:
Mr Isi Saragossi, Director, RTD and Investments, DG Research
Mr Khalil Rouhana, Head of Unit, Strategy for ICT research and development, DG INFSO
Ms Katja Reppel, Deputy Head of Unit, Innovation Policy Development, DG Enterprise
Mr Patrick Lambert, Director, Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation
Mr Ian Clark Head of Unit, Research, Science and Innovation, DG Environment
European Added Value Revisited – Member states and the community level, who should do what and when?
Introductions:
Prof. Stefan Kuhlmann, University of Twente, the Netherlands Presentation
Prof. Jerzy Langer, Polish Academy of Science Presentation
Perspectives from the actors:
Mr Jari Romanainen, Director, TEKES, Finland
Prof. Gonzalo León, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Mr Reinhard Büscher, Head of Unit, Support for Innovation, DG Enterprise
Mr Isi Saragossi, Director, RTD and Investments, DG Research
Conclusions
Mr Olof Sandberg, Senior Advisor, Swedish Ministry of Education and Research
Mr Göran Marklund, Acting Deputy Director General, VINNOVA
The seminar was moderated by Mr Richard Hudson, CEO and editor of Science Business
Publishing Ltd.
