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Year 1 - issue 1 - November 2009
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Welcome to INNOVATION PIE Dear reader,
Jean-Noël Durvy
IN THIS ISSUE: Introducing the INNO-Actions 2009-2011 PAGE 2: Cluster-Excellence.eu | PAGE 3: IF... Innovation Festival | Introducing the INNO-Nets 20092011 PAGE 4: INNO-Partnering Forum | PAGE 5: EPISIS | PAGE 6: TACTICS | More from PRO INNO Europe® PAGE 7: Baltic Sea Region INNONet addresses the EU Baltic Sea Strategy | PAGE 8: News and events |
This first issue of the PRO INNO Europe® newsletter comes at a critical point in time for European innovation policy: a new European Parliament was elected in June, and a new Commission will take office at the beginning of next year. Europe is still in the middle of an economic crisis. Climate change and public health are requiring global responses. These are the conditions in which we are currently re-designing our innovation policy. The current global economic crisis affects innovation in Europe as investment is starting to decrease. A survey of the European Innobarometer showed that 28% of companies are expecting their innovation budget to shrink as a result of the crisis. However, without innovation we will not be able to overcome the crisis, and we must also address major societal challenges such as climate change, scarce natural resources, diseases, and the need to provide more security for our citizens. Therefore, in spring next year, the Commission will present a new EU Reform Agenda for the next decade with innovation at its heart. Based on input from citizens, stakeholders and academics, the new Innovation strategy will focus on actions to improve access to finance for innovation and push for better market conditions, e.g. the Community patent and innovation-friendly state aid rules. It will also further integrate demandside innovation policy tools, such as used in the Lead Market Initiative. This will require a critical look at regulation, standardisation and public procurement rules. Last but not least, we would like Europe to become not just a "knowledge society" but an "innovation society". That means re-thinking education and putting a focus on creativity, team-work and talent management. Let me conclude by saying that I hope that the coming years will be characterised by productive and successful cooperation between the new INNO-Nets & INNO-Actions: only through cooperation can we provide the solutions to the challenges ahead. Jean-Noël Durvy - Director Innovation Policy - DG Enterprise and Industry
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The Newsletter of
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Supporting Cluster Managers to achieve excellence European Commission
ClusterExcellence.eu supports cluster organisations to produce excellence, competitiveness and innovation
The European Cluster Excellence Initiative (Cluster-Excellence.eu) was launched in September 2009 at the Europe INNOVA Annual Partnering Event in Crete promoting the excellence of cluster management by developing sound quality indicators and peer assessment procedures for cluster organisations. It constitutes a central pillar of the European Commission’s strategy aimed at improving the efficiency of existing efforts of cluster initiatives in Europe. The rationale behind Cluster-Excellence.eu is that it is no longer enough to invest in clustering efforts, widely present in Europe, but rather it is time to improve their efficiency, by raising the level of professionalism of cluster management. As Emiliano Duch, project coordinator of Cluster-Excellence.eu, put it in a recent interview : “The EU has been promoting clusters for some time and this has had an incredible impact. The next step now is to make sure that these clusters are producing excellence; that they are producing competitiveness and innovation, which is not necessarily always the case. Therefore, this project deals with improving the excellence level of clusters. We cannot influence directly cluster performance but we can influence the performance of cluster organisations, the people who work on helping clusters, be those development agencies, cluster associations, and consultants”. The project’s intention is to improve cluster managers’ professional expertise and capabilities. Developing the appropriate skills and promoting cluster management of high quality is crucial to create efficient cluster organisations that are the driving engine of clusters. In order to do so, Cluster-Excellence.eu has set up a consortium of international experienced partners. Working alongside IESE, the project coordinator, are Upper Austria Clusterland, VDI/VDE Innovation, MFG Baden-Württemberg, CDIF-France Clusters, Europa InterCluster Association, University of Southern Denmark /Danish Cluster Academy center, Baltic Innovation Agency, Croatian Employers' Association /National Centers for Clusters, ecoplus - The Business Agency of Lower Austria Ltd., Generalitat de Catalunya, The Confederation of Hungarian Employers and Industrialists and Innovation Norway. Cluster-Excellence.eu will develop training materials and set up an approach for quality labelling of cluster management so to help cluster managers’ achieve high levels of excellence. The training materials produced within the project will be licensed to organisations and/or academic institutions that want to engage in cluster management. In addition, Cluster-Excellence.eu will also create a European Club of Cluster Managers to promote cluster management excellence and diffuse the adoption of the Quality Label among its members. For further information: Emiliano Duch, project coordinator IESE Business School, University of Navarra Educh iese.edu Christina Helberg responsible for communication clustermanagers@iese.edu
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INNO ACTIONS cluster-excellence.eu
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Celebrating Creativity Unleashing regional potential and spurring bright minds to action and dialogue For further information: Maria José Nogueira Centro Portugues de Design mnogueira@cpd.pt
IF… Innovation Festival has the objective of organising innovation and creativity celebrations across Europe. Some of Europe’s most active design centres (Portuguese Design Centre, Barcelona Design Center) and design cities (Vilnius, Tallin, Milan, Kortrijk) have joined forces to bring innovation and creativity to the attention of the wider public via a festive atmosphere. “IF… aims to contribute to a wider and public uptake of and interest in innovation,” says Marija Popovic of the European Design Centre. “This initiative is an important vehicle to convey innovation policy messages and plans in a language and through expressions that can be easily understood by the general public.” In addition, IF… serves as a source of ideas for European policy makers and businesses on how to address key societal challenges for the future by means of innovation. What is central here is innovation’s contribution to sustainability issues. (e.g. mobility solutions, climate care but also job creation). In this regard, IF… will also spur public dialogue around the upcoming European Innovation Plan. To this end, IF… will engage the general public in sharing its thoughts on how societal challenges can be addressed by innovation and creativity. To unlock such ideas, all kinds of professional as well as entertaining activities are planned in each of the participating cities. Meanwhile, IF… will intend to turn the Innovation Festival host cities into creative hotspots. (Barcelona in 2009, followed by Lisbon, Kortrijk and Milan in 2010 and finally Vilnius and Tallinn in 2011) In order to leverage attention to IF… and to innovation, the festivals will generally be organised at times when the host city also acts as seat to another major event (i.e. Interior Design Biennale in Kortrijk or when Tallinn becomes the European capital of culture in 2011). The first series of Innovation Festivals very recently kicked off in Barcelona where more than 60 innovation-oriented activities took place between 22 October and 22 November 2009. At the launch of the Barcelona festival, Jean Noël Durvy from the European Jean-Noël Durvy, DG Entreprise's Director Commission expressed the relevance of IF…: “Europe must take advantage of the of Innovation Policy, speaks at the opening power of innovation to transform society, because if we don’t, then other parts of the session of Innovation Festival Barcelona on world could leave us behind.” 21 October.
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The Newsletter of PRO INNO Europe®
New mind-set for services innovation in Europe EPISIS strengthens services innovation in Europe via a fast track to effective policy support
For further information: Ms. Anna-Maija Rautiainen project coordinator Tekes Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation
Ms. Anna-Maija Rautiainen
anna-maija.rautiainen@tekes.fi
National ministries and innovation agencies responsible for the design and implementation of services innovation support in five of the top performing EU member states have launched the first ever European platform for testing transnational policies, strategies and pilot schemes. Called EPISIS (“European policies and instruments to support innovation in services”), the project intends to drive further the European services innovation agenda. Led by Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, EPISIS brings together the German Project Office PT-DLR, the Swedish innovation agency VINNOVA, the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation DASTI and the Department for Business Innovation and Skills of the United Kingdom. The five partners bring in sound experience in promoting service innovation through dedicated national strategies and programmes, managing a combined total funding amount of more than 450 million Euro. “Boosting services innovation requires new types of measures and programmes,” says project co-coordinator Anna-Maija Rautiainen. “Our aim is to advance the transnational approach at policy, strategic and operational levels, and to achieve this, we focus on private, non-sector specific and non-technological innovation,” At policy level the main objective is to advance a broad-based European approach by identifying emerging policy challenges and designing new policy concepts. At a strategic level EPISIS will enhance the understanding of services innovation and promote the change of mind-set for recognising service businesses and services innovation as a powerful economic force for the EU. At an operational level the project will pilot new, more efficient support schemes by joining partners own national funds. Prior to its official launch in September, EPISIS established the European Services Innovation Think Tank, which will identify emerging needs and design policy recommendations. It consists of the five partners and 10 experts, representing Austrian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Irish, Norwegian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Swedish ministries and innovation agencies. Dedicated Task Forces will support the work of the Think Tank related to: the typology of services, indicators for measuring impact, integration of services and technologies, internationalisation of high-growth service companies, as well as new skills and competences for managing innovation in services. In June 2010 EPISIS will organise its first annual conference on services innovation to present the first policy recommendations of the Think Tank to a wider service innovation community.
www.proinno-europe.eu/episis
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Offering
smarter and faster public support services to innovative SMEs The INNO-Partnering Forum combines various innovation agency know-how to improve the quality, efficiency and effectiveness of SME innovation support in Europe For further information: Asa Minoz VINNOVA Asa.Minoz@vinnova.se
The INNO-Partnering Forum will identify, develop and exploit synergies between public innovation agencies in Europe and propose new approaches to innovation support for SMEs. The project will in particular explore and test new ways of service delivery, aiming to accelerate the take-up of the most advanced ways of supporting innovation in SMEs. It is increasingly important for innovation agencies across Europe to work more closely together to take concrete steps towards ‘better practice’ in innovation support. “The INNO-Partnering Forum is a learning process, where we will experiment with new and better ways of supporting innovative SMEs,” says Jenni Nordborg, coordinator of the project at VINNOVA, the Swedish national innovation agency. “We will not only strive for identifying and transferring good practice. We will find ways to learn efficiently from each others and together develop new and more effective ways of stimulating jobs and growth in innovative SMEs.” In addition to VINNOVA, the partners in the project are: Tekes (Finland), Enterprise Ireland, the Austrian Research Promotion Agency FFG, the Technology Strategy Board (UK) and SenterNovem (The Netherlands). Intensified mutual learning and practical cooperation between public innovation agencies will help SMEs in Europe to innovate better and faster. The project will explore and test how to better address a number of important European policy challenges for innovative SMEs (i. e. growth, internationalisation, capital market readiness, improved innovation processes) and some critical challenges with regards to efficiency and effectiveness of agencies and policy delivery systems in supporting innovative SMEs (i.e. better organisational learning, “smarter” public support, stimulation of innovation demand, ease of access to and need-driven public support). The project has the ambition to become a sustainable learning platform for European cooperation on public support for innovative SMEs. An important vehicle to achieve this objective is the establishment of the INNO-Partnering Council that will bring togetner key public innovation support and policy actors to act as a sounding board for the initiative. The Council shall notably facilitate strategic discussions between public actors on the challenges facing innovation support for the benefit of SMEs in Europe, considering the main trends, needs and barriers in providing public innovation support and the need to achieve better synergies between the different levels of innovation support in Europe.
www.proinno-europe.eu/partnering-forum
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Promoting the uptake of better practices in cluster development policies TACTICS demonstrates crucial role clusters play in improving competitiveness, innovation and job creation For further information: Michel Ganoote project coordinator OSEO michel.ganoote@oseo.fr
TACTICS will support the European Cluster Alliance.
TACTICS (Transnational Alliance of Clusters Towards Improved Cooperation Support), coordinated by OSEO, focuses on cluster policy. It aims at supporting and further expanding the European Cluster Alliance (ECA), and contributing to the development of better cluster policies and practical instruments in Europe. The project was officially launched, for a period of 3 years, during the second day of the International Forum on clusters, held in Sophia Antipolis (France) on 5-6 November. TACTICS brings together seven of Europe’s leading national and regional public innovation organisations. They include OSEO from France, VINNOVA from Sweden, TMG from Austria, the North West Development Agency from UK, IWT from Belgium, Veneto Innovazione from Italy and the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development. All partners are committed to promoting mutual policy learning in this area and to improving cluster policy making. The belief shared by all partners is that clusters can play an important role in driving forward competitiveness, innovation and job creation in the European Union. Partners will be assisted by the TACTICS Reflection Group, composed of external policy makers and public agencies, acting as a “project think tank.” The first Reflection Group meeting will take place on 25 November 2009 in Stockholm, alongside the PRO INNO Europe® Annual Partnering Event. Nathalie Delorme, Director at OSEO, is optimistic about the dual effect that TACTICS can demonstrate: “I hope that the policy learning and exchange phases will rapidly develop into a dynamic policy cooperation phase with national and regional policy makers working together on concrete transnational initiatives that will deliver concrete impacts for policy makers but also the cluster partners, such as SMEs.” In addition, synergies with other EU cluster initiatives will be explored, such as with the European Cluster Observatory and the European Cluster Excellence Initiative (Cluster-Excellence.eu) as well as with the European Cluster Policy Group. The project partners also intend to use the ECA to develop linkages with other EU cluster initiatives. Michel Ganoote from Oseo and the project coordinator of TACTICS says: “We believe that the ECA new networking activities can make a major contribution to support cluster policy alignment between the various policy actors involved and create a high level learning and policy dissemination community at European level.”
www.proinno-europe.eu/tactics
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The innovation “lab” BSR INNONet and PRO INNO Europe® underpin the prosperity objective of the new EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region1
EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region; European Commission.
for the first ever EU macro-regional strategy
The EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, endorsed by the Council of the European Union on 27 October 2009, underlines the achievements of, and builds on the outcomes and the recommendations of the BSR INNONet project, which is nearing its end. The new generation of PRO INNO Europe® INNO-Nets, launched at the same time as the adoption of the strategy, will set the stage for implementing its action plan. Innovation is a central pillar of this pioneering strategy for macro-regional cooperation in the EU. The Baltic expertise, especially in the knowledge-based industries, is seen as a major opportunity to achieve the goals of making the region environmentally sustainable, prosperous, accessible and attractive. The strengthening of transnational cooperation in research, clusters and services innovation represents a key priority in the action plan. A common Baltic Sea Region innovation strategy will be established to exploit the full potential of the region. An underlying concept for such a strategy is that the East-West division in innovation capacity, reflected in the European Innovation Scoreboards, reveals real business opportunities for both sides, especially for small and medium-sized companies working in innovative fields. The development of a Baltic Sea Region Programme for Innovation, Clusters and SME networks is one of the flagship projects highlighted in the action plan. It will establish “a new Baltic Sea Region brand, ” building on “smartness” of research, innovation and cooperation. Transnational cluster collaboration both at policy and business level is at the core of this programme. Since much of the work for mobilising cluster organisations, national and regional programmes and funds is already done by BSR INNONet, the setting up of the new programme is earmarked as one of the fast track projects. The two designated leaders - Sweden and Lithuania, are currently part of the BSR INNONet consortium. Furthermore, the BSRNet identified nine thematic areas of regional cluster strongholds, including maritime, health and biotechnology. The cluster approach is also at the core of the proposed common Baltic Sea Region strategy to promote services innovation. With Finland leading the way, there will be many opportunities to build up on the new EPISIS INNO-Net. This joining of forces of the Baltic Sea countries is innovative in itself for the future of regional cooperation in Europe. It is expected that the next in turn will be the Danube region, where PRO INNO Europe® has previously operated through the CEE Cluster Network INNO-Net. 1
http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docoffic/official/communic/baltic/com_baltic_en.pdf
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www.proinno-europe.eu f tter o ewsle pe® The NINNO Euro PRO
NEWS AND EVENTS PRO INNO Europe® is an initiative of the European Commission’s Directorate General Enterprise and Industry. It aims to become the focal point for innovation policy analysis and policy cooperation in Europe, with the view to learning from the best and contributing to the development of new and better innovation policies in Europe. The newsletter of the PRO INNO Europe® initiative © European Commission. Reproduction is authorised, provided the source is acknowledged. EDITORIAL CONTACT AND TO SUBSCRIBE: newsletter@proinno-europe.eu PUBLISHED BY: INNOVATION PIE and all other elements of the Promotion of PRO INNO Europe® Results project are performed by a consortium of companies headed by Innova Europe sàrl (Belgium). LEGAL NOTICE: This publication has been produced as part of the PRO INNO Europe® initiative. The views expressed in this report, as well as the information included in it, do not necessarily reflect the opinion or position of the European Commission and in no way commit the institution. This newsletter is financed under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP) which aims to encourage the competitiveness of European enterprises.
SWEDISH PRESIDENCY Closing Conference of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009 Under the auspices of the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council, the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems VINNOVA is organising on 16 and 17 December in Stockholm the closing conference of the European Year of Creativity and Innovation. The event will highlight good examples of what has happened during 2009 for promoting creativity and innovation as tools for personal development and thus strengthening European competitiveness. It will showcase creative and innovative ideas, products, services and measures from the EU member states. http://www.vinnova.se/In-English/misc/menues-functions/Kalendarium/Calendar/Creativity--Innovation
INNOVATION UNLIMITED BLOG The Innovation Unlimited website, which was initiated by a panel of business innovators to develop new ideas for the future EU innovation policy, has proven its name! The panel members felt that the comments and ideas of others would increase the relevance of their report to the European Commission, but due to its success, DG Enterprise and Industry decided, with the agreement of the panel, to retain the blog. Impressed by the quality and creativity of the comments made on the site, the Commission services have transformed the Innovation Unlimited blog into a platform for an open debate on European innovation. Over the coming months the blog will serve as a forum for both policy makers and stakeholders to exchange and test new ideas for EU innovation policy beyond 2010. The blog remains unlimited for creative contributions by citizens and organisations that can feed into the new policy fostering EU’s global competitiveness. http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/innovationunlimited
SWEDISH PRESIDENCY CONCORD 2010 Conference on Corporate R&D: 3-4 March 2010, Seville The conference is organised by the European Commission and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation under the slogan “Corporate R&D – An engine for growth, a challenge for European policy”. The Conference is part of the Industrial Research Monitoring Analysis (IRMA) of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) and Research DG. The Conference will link science, business, and policy making by addressing a series of policy relevant questions and seeking understanding of the policy implications of scientific findings.. The first day will provide a forum for academics and practitioners, while the second day is devoted to the policy dimension of corporate R&D, based on the most relevant policy outcomes of the first-day debate. The event is expected to gather more than 1000 participants from academia, business and government institutions. http://iri.jrc.ec.europa.eu/concord-2010