On October 6, 2010, the EC adopted the Communication on the Innovation Union, which sets out the ideas and actions necessary for the creation of the Innovation Union, for “more jobs, improved lives, better society”.

The Communication identifies problems well known in Europe, such as too much fragmentation and not enough valorisation of research efforts, while at the same time setting out in a very concrete way what should and can be done to inject, at all levels of government and industry, more innovation into Europe in order to transform and boost the economy and to respond to the grand challenges which we are all facing.

The EC calls upon all stakeholders, government and private sector, all policies and instruments to contribute to the creation of the Innovation Union. The EC will take many actions and proposals on its own account by proposing actions and legislation. For each aspect of the research to innovation chain, the Communication already proposes some concrete actions and their timing.

Delivering on the European Research Area Is Vital

The Innovation Union aims at building upon what has already been started, and that is, the creation of the European Research Area (ERA). The Communication calls for more efforts to realise all the ERA building blocks and to increase investment in research, both from the public and private sector, on the mobility of researchers, on the realisation of European infrastructures as identified in the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructure and on focusing research funding. With respect to international cooperation, there should be more consistency between the EU and national S&T strategies.

Candidate and potential candidate countries are expected to contribute to the realisation of the Innovation Union. It is thus of key importance that they have a national strategy to increase investment in research; that they set targets and take measures to encourage the private sector and industry to invest in research as a means to strengthen the national research capacity.

From “Ideas to Market”

More attention and support actions are required to ensure the chain from “Good Ideas to the Market” and in doing so, shift to an innovation market, both for products and services. This requires better framework conditions and access to capital to make the valorisation of research possible and quicker. In this context, the importance of an EU-wide patent and access to venture capital are once more underlined. The state-aid rules on research and technological development should also be reviewed so as to clarify which innovation projects can be supported. The efforts needed to facilitate the commercialisation of research efforts have been clearly identified in the section on “Creating a single innovation market”.

Too often the scientific knowledge is available, but either unknown or its valorisation is hampered. For this, the EC calls for more harmonised rules for product approvals; more attention to be paid to environmental standards; and the need to have more information on the state-of-the-art in given technologies so that policy decisions can be
taken with full knowledge, taking into account the latest research and technological developments.

Calling upon Innovation through FP7

Funding of research should also be tackled in order to contribute to the realisation of the Innovation Union. Already in the last years of FP7, we can expect that calls for proposals will reflect the objectives set out in the Innovation Union Communication and consequently, research consortia will have to demonstrate that their research contributes to the innovation gap and enhances Europe’s competitiveness by notably including SMEs in the research chain.

A New Vehicle: “European Innovation Partnerships”

To bring all these actors and instruments together, it is proposed to create European Innovation Partnerships and to continue the work in a more inclusive way, involving under one roof all stakeholders, relevant policies, as well as the different types of measures and funding schemes. Societal challenges identified in the EU 2020 strategy, such as those of active and healthy ageing, smart mobility, water efficiency or sustainable supply of raw materials could be tackled through an Innovation Partnership.

Roadmap for Implementation: A First Welcome

A first debate on the proposed Innovation Union took place at the Competitiveness Council in Luxembourg on October 12. In general, the Communication was very much welcomed. The Belgian Presidency has put the implementation of the Innovation Union high on its agenda and aims to come up with concrete recommendations at the next Competitiveness Council in November 2010.

What is in for WBCs

The WBCs, as candidate and potential candidate countries, are directly concerned by this Communication. Therefore, it is suggested to read the Communication on the Innovation Union, because it not only summarises well the known problems and bottlenecks in the EU, but makes very concrete suggestions and proposals on how to create a true Innovation Union by 2020.

And as can be seen from the above, it is not about from research to innovation but both research and innovation should be actively considered. The timing of WBC-INCO.NET ENHANCED is thus perfect, as it should help addressing the innovation dimension in and for the WBCs.