The public consultation consists of two online questionnaires : The one asks the beneficiaries of innovation support measures, namely companies , to provide their views on the direction of future innovation support policies and instruments in the EU, while the other invites institutional stakeholders active in the design, funding, implementation, and evaluation of innovation support measures at regional, national and European level to give their opinion on the key issues of better innovation support in Europe.

It is expected that the open consultation will, above all, shed more light on which types of support would create the most impact on companies’ capacities to innovate. While the aim is to improve the effectiveness and accuracy of European innovation support initiatives, the Commission seeks to also advise Member States on how to better focus their innovation support measures in line with the needs and expectations of stakeholders. At the same time, the consultation should result in a better understanding of the right "division of labour" between EU, national or regional levels for innovation support.

The results of the consultation will be summarised in a Commission Staff Working Document scheduled for publication in June 2009. The consultation will also feed into the discussions on the future European Plan for Innovation, called for by the Brussels European Council in December 2008.

Links to the online questionnaire for companies and for institutional stakeholders can be found on the following website:

http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemlongdetail.cfm?item_id=2490&tpa_id=135&lang=en