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EVENT

INNOVEIT 2016

THE EUROPEAN INSTITUTE OF I N N O VA T I O N A N D T E C H N O L O G Y ’ S I N N O VA T I O N F O R U M

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INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION

AC C E L E R AT I N G I N N O VA T I O N I N E U R O P E Bringing together up to 350 stakeholders from across the European innovation community, the INNOVEIT 2016 forum was an inspiring and interactive event that aimed to showcase concrete innovations emerging from the EIT community and strike up a provocative discussion on what the future of entrepreneurship should look like in Europe. Chairman of the EIT Governing Board, Peter Olesen, shares his thoughts on how the EIT has progressed so far, and he hints at more advancements to come It has been six years since EIT launched its first innovation community – called a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC). What are your thoughts on the organisation’s progress so far?

Right now, after these six years, I am very satisfied with the progress.

With organisations like this, where we build real, big panEuropean networks of innovation hubs, it takes time to get things aligned, but I see that the model works.

We have some big challenges to address ahead of us. For example, we are working on the big concept of financial sustainability – the EIT incentivises KICs to co-finance added-value activities from other resources, supporting their way towards financial sustainability.

We all know that we are here to create better competitiveness, economic growth and wealth for the Europeans, and now is the time to review the results coming in from the last six years. We must also ask ourselves: how can these results and outcomes be translated into real impacts?

So, coming back to your question, yes, I am quite satisfied!

It has taken a few years to see results, but we have been taking high risks, and I am happy to see EIT’s results and impact.

The EIT community has brought more than 140 new products and services to the market. There are more than 1,000 students enrolled on EIT entrepreneurial degree courses, and almost 500 EIT degree graduates. The community has incubated more than 900 business ideas and created 200 start-ups, in the fields of climate, energy, digitalisation, health and raw materials.

The theme for INNOVEIT 2016 was ‘Joining forces for innovation in Europe’. Can you elaborate a bit more on that theme and fragmentation?

The first ideas on EIT were discussed in 2005-06 and those conversations really started from the fact that innovation seems to be scattered across Europe – both in the way it is done and the way it is supported by the EU. The big picture, of course, is that we have leading businesses in Europe, we have cutting-edge, world-class research and we have excellent universities. So why are we still so scattered? Why don’t we collaborate more? Those are questions we are trying to address with the EIT innovation communities model. We want to collaborate more frequently and more systematically by creating our pan-European innovation communities.

Another point about joining forces is our principle of taking synergies and integrating what we call the ‘knowledge triangle’ – education, business and research – and getting them working much closer together. That’s the basic construction of our innovation communities. That’s why we invest in and support that cooperation. To date, the EIT community has brought together 800 leading and committed partners from business, academia and research organisations across Europe.

The knowledge triangle really does seem to be so specific to the identity of EIT. How did you come up with it?

It came from questioning why we have a scattered situation in Europe. Why don’t we collaborate the way we should in order to boost innovation?

We realised that it’s a question of culture and behaviour.

Europeans have a completely different history from the

LEFT: European Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas addresses entrepreneurs, industry members and policy makers at INNOVEIT 2016.

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rest of the world, especially the US. We sort of developed a culture not friendly to innovation. That’s why from the start we said that we needed to have education as an equal part of this knowledge triangle; across the Horizon 2020 and EU landscape, we are the only initiative that completely interacts with higher education as an equal part.

So that is the specificity and the uniqueness of the EIT. That’s why we offer doctoral programmes and Master degree programmes through the KICs that we support and invest in. We started with Masters courses and summer schools, and now we have PhD courses too. Now we have two more innovation communities, so these activities are accelerating. We also offer professional certifications or qualifications.

Our students really have to learn innovation, entrepreneurship and creativity so that when they come out of these courses, they have the mindset for not just commercial innovation but also social innovation. And it brings amazing results.

Let me share the story of the EIT Change Award 2015 winner, Govinda Upadhyay. Govinda took part in an EIT educational programme. Following graduation from the KIC InnoEnergy Master School, with the support of the EIT Climate-KIC business accelerator programme, he managed to make his vision of every child around the world having a light to study a reality.

With his LEDSafari social start-up, Govinda won $100,000 from Forbes as a finalist in the Forbes 30 Under 30 competition for the world’s most promising entrepreneurs.

And it’s just one example from the inspiring EIT Alumni community of innovators, change makers and leaders of tomorrow.

There are two new KICs about to join EIT’s ranks – one for food and one for add-value manufacturing. Can you tell me about them?

Yes, they are just about to get on board. We have the KIC call out right now. The deadline is in July, and in November we will decide which consortium will drive a KIC in the food area and the added-value manufacturing area. It will be really exciting to see what happens.

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INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION

Why did you decide on these two areas?

That’s a really good question. The thematic areas the KICs work within were chosen by the EU in the EIT Regulation and the Strategic Innovation Agenda that we are working within.

The first seven KICs therefore were given by that regulation and agenda.

Are there going to be more innovation communities to come?

We will have one more KIC to come in 2018 on urban mobility – as outlined in our Strategic Innovation Agenda – and then that’s it for this period. In two years’ time, the EIT Governing Board will submit our proposed strategy for the years 2017-21 to the Commission. Discussions will take place in the context of the next, more general research and innovation framework budget and programme. The one after Horizon 2020.

Turning to the news, the UK is talking about leaving the EU – a so-called Brexit. If the UK leave the EU, would it still be eligible to be part of the KICs? Today, Horizon 2020 has associate countries that are eligible to participate. We can also bring partners from outside Europe into each KIC, so there will always be possibilities to cooperate.

What most excites you about EIT’s future?

The most important for me is seeing each innovation community roll out new ventures and companies. The most exciting thing will be when our innovation communities raise the strong financial support from outside so that we can grow the very best ventures and companies in their portfolios.

The number one sign of success for me is if KICs can attract external risk money to invest in their ventures, entrepreneurs and innovators.

JOINING FORCES FOR I N N O VA T I O N I N E U R O P E The theme for this year’s INNOVEIT 2016 conference was ‘Joining forces for innovation in Europe’. Rosemary Peters asked the nominees for this year’s EIT Awards – awards given to the most innovative and entrepreneurial minds in Europe – to reflect on this theme through a roundtable question How has collaboration contributed to everything you have achieved during your time in your innovation community? What advice do you have for entrepreneurs and policy makers in Europe when it comes to collaboration and joining forces with others to make innovation happen?

Florian Schneider, Co-founder and COO of Nerdalize I believe the first step in fostering cooperation between institutes and companies across Europe is creating a climate that reduces the hurdles for collaboration. We still have quite a way to go in making Europe a truly united single market. Think, for example, of differences in taxation in terms of value added tax and taxation of share emissions to employees – especially the latter, which makes it harder for European start-ups to attract and retain talented employees.

There are also differences in infrastructure and infrastructure development; for example, differences in rolling out fibre optic internet across Europe or scientific computing infrastructure can create different conditions in each country, which in turn can stand in the way of collaboration. Fuelled or worsened by protectionist tendencies in a number of European Member States, this can severely inhibit cooperation across borders. That being said, I believe entrepreneurs often see these challenges, but if an idea is good enough, innovators will find ways to work with the limitations or work around the hurdles in their way.

For policy makers, I wish that a united effort in creating an effective and collaborative single market will not be halted by the xenophobic and protectionist tendencies we are witnessing across Europe at the moment. In fact, it would be great if we can speed up and intensify collaboration between EU Member States in simplifying tax systems, collaborating on Europe-wide infrastructure such as fibre optic infrastructure and the Open Science Cloud, and in creating a market that also allows small players to access the full potential of Europe.

Andreas Kunze, CEO of KONUX Entrepreneurs: look for one BIG problem that one customer has and tackle it together with him. Better ask for forgiveness than for permission. If you don’t do things nobody has done before, you do not innovate!

Policy makers: Europe has the potential to be the powerhouse of innovation in the world if you support venture capitalists in Europe. Make it easier for them to invest in start-ups and create tax benefits for companies younger than three years old and with less than €5 million revenue.

Karens Grigorjancs, Co-founder and CTO at Plugify As a graduate of EIT Digital master programme and the CTO of plugify.nl – an online platform for booking live music performances – I have seen the importance of having IT skills in every project. We live in a digital world where almost every industry is being digitised by companies like Uber and Airbnb. To create champions in Europe, it is essential to educate, inspire and keep IT talent, as they will build the next generation scale-ups.

Although IT is usually never the goal of the business, I see it as an enabler of the innovation and collaboration and is therefore crucial for Europe to stay competitive.

Carlos González de Miguel, Field Application Engineer for the Intelligent, Directional Fault Passage Indicator Most of the entrepreneurs I know come from the world of technology. It is important to improve both speech and the communication style when connecting with a target audience, which does not necessarily come from the very same technological world. My advice to entrepreneurs is to work, not only the idea but on communication so that you can share your message broadly.

Regarding the policy makers, it is necessary to incentivise the collaboration between different actors in a productive way.

Events like the EIT match making meetings are a very interesting initiative to bring entrepreneurs closer to industrial partners, researchers, universities and other institutions. www.internationalinnovation.com

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Nurul Momen, Co-founder of A-WARE I think we (both entrepreneurs and policy makers) need to collaborate beyond borders. There are several aspects where we have room for improvements; for example, stiff regulations for non-European entrepreneurs.

Obstacles are difficult to overcome for any budding entrepreneur. However, they are even higher, wider and more difficult to cross for non-Europeans. In my opinion, lessening complication would attract more ventures to settle down in the EU rather than North America.

Chris Emmott, Developer of the ‘Bringing New Photovoltaic Technologies to Africa’ project Personal relationships play an extremely important role in fostering collaboration and encouraging innovation. Often, it is not until people have gotten to know each other and learned more about each other’s work that opportunities for collaboration become apparent. My advice to entrepreneurs and policy makers would be to build your network and keep your mind open to new ideas.

Jean H A Gelissen, Action Line Leader Health and Wellbeing Entrepreneurs and start-ups should embrace collaboration opportunities – they should drive innovative thinking, help identify synergies and develop joined up offers to the market. To be successful, innovation needs to address real market needs and have a compelling business model, which requires understanding of the market context and of the drivers for potential buyers as well as the ability to develop a technically robust product. Working with wider networks and more diverse partners helps open up an array of experience and insight.

For policy makers, supporting organisations, like EIT Digital, and creating opportunities for large businesses, start-ups and academia to work together to bring innovation to market are important steps in helping Europe maintain a competitive position globally.

At a more fundamental level, policy makers should be encouraging the adoption of new approaches to education – both in terms of content and how it is delivered. Education lies at the heart of this agenda – delivery of technical knowledge through traditional means alone is not sufficient. We need to ensure innovation and entrepreneurial skills are key components delivered through more flexible and blended formats.

Koen Koevoets, CEO of Eco-Dryer Systems KIC InnoEnergy has given us significant support, but I think policy makers in Europe should look for ways to support innovators, like Eco-Dryer Systems, that work on a European scale and that can’t be launched in a single country.

Innovative entrepreneurs who work on innovations on that scale usually have a much longer run-up to market, and with a longer run-up to an EU market scale, investments need to be much larger. The risks for venture capitals in these situations can be tempered by the EC. Such support would help entrepreneurs in becoming the next Tesla or Dyson.

Moreover, it can take years before the first products are sold and money comes in. Policy makers should enable entrepreneurs by providing a basic income for years in which there is no possibility to receive an income from their innovative entrepreneurship – a grant for research and innovation activities launched by EIT or the EC. Of course, there should be strict conditions and monitoring of both the progression and the entrepreneurs themselves.

Entrepreneurs with innovations that can only reach the market by rolling out over Europe at once should think and act on that scale. They should not only join forces with industry but also with policy makers – even if they have to get out of their comfort zone to do so. EIT is a great organisation that can open doors for you. I would definitely recommend entrepreneurs to join the EIT community.

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Joakim Nydrén, CEO of Foreseeti Entrepreneurs: focus on the business need/value and put together world-class teams involving thought leaders and business people.

Genevieve Bergeret, Sales Manager at ProctorExam The main hindrance to innovation is the lack of communication between innovators and policy makers.

As entrepreneurs, we need to remember that the role of policy makers isn’t to hold back innovation, but rather to protect people. Innovators want to change the status quo. As innovators, we are the ones who have to make the first move. If policy makers can work with innovators, share ideas and communicate, we could find a middle ground to make faster choices, rather than blocking each other.

Philippe Alamy, Co-founder of EnerBIM There are so many ideas in Europe. There are also so many start-ups and projects supported through public funds. Our problem is there is a bad competition instead of a nice and positive one between entrepreneurs. To join forces, we should enhance and structure our innovation clusters and make them attractive to private funders.

Policy makers are too far from the ground, and many policies and regulations create barriers standing in the way of entrepreneurial success. A huge effort of simplification is needed to encourage our efforts towards the European market as a whole.

At ProctorExam, we have had the chance to collaborate with several policy makers who have really listened, and it’s opening doorways for students to have more choices in education. ProctorExam is helping retrain working adults who are learning new skills so they can be more employable in the job market. People such as Neelie Kroes, the former Dutch Minister and EU Commissioner, are bridging the gap between policy and innovation. We need more leaders like her.

The best advice I can give entrepreneurs and policy makers to foster collaboration is to listen to each other and to have a clear call to action. When it comes to building a common goal for innovators and policy makers, my advice is the same: to build a better society. Let’s do it together.

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