Europe INNOVA provokes policy makers to think differently

Nyhed fra Styrelsen for Forskning og Innovation

The conference featured not only the usual success stories, but also less successful policies and projects were given a central position at the event.

Expect and embrace failures
It was clear from the outset that the event was not the place to just talk about glorious outcomes of European innovation policies. It opened with Operation INNOVA, a humoristic video presenting three Danish companies, all of which had received EU funding for innovation projects. Only one was successful, another total failure - the company had gone bankrupt. (FOTO) 

This prompted what would be the event’s key question. Are EU’s taxpayers getting value for the vast sums of money invested in innovation support? Not an insignificant issue in light of the EU Commission’s proposed €80 billion innovation programme, Horizon 2020. First in line to answer was Thomas Alslev Christensen of the Danish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education and organiser of the Europe INNOVA Conference.

“We cannot be successful all the time when working with innovation. Some failures must be expected. What is important is that we acknowledge them and use them to improve our system every time”, Mr. Christensen said.

Perky approach to innovation policies

Ten dogma rules laid out the playing field, banning keynote speakers, Power Point presentations and dull talks about reports. The moderator, TV journalist Martin Breum made sure that no difficult questions were left unanswered.

“The questions were tough but fair, and they are questions we pose ourselves every day as well. The directness is refreshing, it makes people think about the topics rather than just listening”, said Take Manning from Agency NL, after debating changes to the Eurostars programme.

Among the more unusual activities were court cases where cluster managers and policy makers had to convince a jury - the audience - that they contributed to economic growth. Europe’s worst policy maker was nominated and guests were invited to confess their sins and failures in a confession booth, resulting in testimonies about everything from taking a nap at a policy conference to being seduced by fancy words in applications.

“I confess that I, on several occasions, have been blinded by project proposals full of seductive terms, stressing the importance of technological convergence, service innovation, user-centric approaches, exploratoriums and creative labs”, an anonymous participant said in the booth.

 (FOTO)

Combination of innovation support and cluster policy

The Europe INNOVA Conference 2012  addressed three main subjects - how Europe’s SME’s can best be supported in the 21st century; how support can lead to commercialisation of knowledge and inventions; and a discussion on the role of clusters and innovation networks, especially in times of crisis.

A large number of participants also made use of six different stress test laboratories, enabling them to put their policy programmes, clusters and evaluation methods to the test.

“I like the clear combination of innovation support and clusters. What we have learnt, once again, is that these two issues have to be linked”, said Dr. Gerd Meier Zu Köcker from VDI/VDE IT in Germany.

Guest stars with the finger on the pulse

All three themes revolved around concrete case stories, successful and less successful attempts at driving innovation, presented by the so-called guest stars - people who have been directly involved. These included the winner of the national Icelandic Ecotrophelia eco-food competition Aurora Skyr. Ecotrophelia is part of the Europe INNOVA action EcoTroFood encouraging creativity, innovation and the development of food products by eco-innovative teams of students via a European competition; as well as administrators and applicants from a successful, but nevertheless cancelled Dutch innovation voucher scheme; and policy makers from all around Europe.

 (FOTO)

Various challenges related to venture capital were discussed, embodied in Scandinavian inventions Goalref and Skype. Both slipped the attention of local investors and therefore received funding and created jobs elsewhere. Furthermore, Nokia’s recent fall from fame was used to exemplify the risk of being too reliant on one specific industry.

“We don’t really see a risk in the ICT sector”, said Mart Laatsit from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication in Estonia, which has been successful in attracting knowledge-intensive technology companies. “More and more jobs are being created in the ICT sector. If Skype were to close, other companies would be happy to hire their engineers”, he continued, stating that Skype had brought money, fame and inspiration to Estonia

Systemic thinking to support emerging industries

The final session at the Europe INNOVA Conference 2012 was a question and answer session with Reinhard Büscher and Lisbeth Bahl Poulsen from  the European Commmission’s DG Enterprise and Industry.

They introduced a shift to a more systemic and inclusive approach when distributing EU innovation funding, with emphasis on making use of all forms of knowledge and supporting new industries that emerge at the crossroads of existing industries. This approach, combined with other input gathered at the event, makes up the backbone of the Europe INNOVA 2012 Charter, which is the Conference’s contribution to the further development of the EU’s innovation strategies.

“I believe that we would be on a wrong track, if we focus too much on how to support innovation by providing more and easier money for research and innovation projects. We must also be more open to change economic structures through innovation. Europe needs not only more innovative entrepreneurs but also more resilient and globally competitive industrial structures that are driven by innovation and that respond to the global challenges of today”, Büscher said about the 2014-2020 funding strategy.