The Innovation Union communication sets out a number of practical tools to enhance innovation, e.g. standardisation, knowledge transfer, and specific measures for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but few analysis of national policy measures has been made. This is surprising, because national innovation policies play a key role in attaining the EU 2020 and Innovation Union goals. The purpose of this paper is therefore to collect, describe, analyse and compare the national innovation schemes and policies at country level, according to the innovation cycle, from policy definition to work programmes and then from project level to exploitation. The aim is also to detect similarities, links or divergences between national and European innovation policies, measures and instruments, and to draw conclusions from these for future initiatives at the EU level. The document focuses on three EU member states (Germany, Finland and the UK), classified as innovation leaders in the latest EU Innovation Scoreboard.

Source: Innovation Landscapes - a study on innovation approaches