Vision

Innovation as a driving force

Innovation translates knowledge to commercial and societal value, and innovation is increasingly a central driving force for growth, employment and prosperity.

Innovation should occur with the focus on people being innovative, and companies translating innovation to new value and jobs.

Therefore, more Danes must be innovative and more companies should utilise their innovation. And the public sector's potential to support and use innovation must be better utilised.

In the autumn of 2012, the Government is launching an innovation strategy that will strengthen Danish innovation potentials so that companies and public authorities can better utilise future sources of innovation, for example research-based knowledge and a well-educated workforce.

A new innovation strategy

Countries such as Germany, Korea, Sweden, Singapore and Finland have launched ambitious innovation efforts in recent years and innovation has a central placement in the EU's coming framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020.

A new Danish innovation strategy must take the unique Danish strengths, potentials and interdisciplinary competences, e.g. the Danish design tradition for user involvement and design solutions, as its starting point and set a pro-active agenda for innovation policy in Denmark. The strategy can thereby also help brand Denmark as an obvious choice for investing in and locating businesses.

From March 2012, all interest groups have been welcome to contribute to the development of the innovation strategy. There has been broad dialogue with interest groups and business organisations, unions, knowledge institutions, companies, ministries and other stakeholders. So far, the dialogue has lead to broad support for a new innovation strategy. Contributions from organisations, citizens and experts have been gathered at www.innovationsstrategi.dk.

But the dialogue does not stop here. Citizens, experts, companies and other stakeholders are still invited to contribute and discuss the aims and efforts to promote innovation in Denmark. The development status, new input, additional material and results of the implemented analyses, including the international review of the innovation system, will be published on www.innovationsstrategi.dk on an on-going basis.

Five areas for innovation policy

On the basis of the overall vision and the broad dialogue, five areas have been preliminarily determined, which will put more focus on the future innovation policy:

• We must focus on solving societal and global challenges on a large-scale implementation. It requires strong clusters and innovation partnerships and for example, intelligent public demand.
• We must ensure that cooperation between knowledge institutions, companies and other stakeholders contributes to growth and employment to a greater degree. There must be increased focus on utilising research results, commercialisation and market maturation.
• We must integrate innovative competences and entrepreneurship in education programmes. Education, research and innovation policy must be considered more closely related.
• We must actively participate in the global knowledge and innovation network. Danish companies and knowledge institutions must be prepared for the global development, which is central in relation to demand for new solutions.
• We must ensure even better cohesion and impact in the innovation system and that it is arranged with political prioritisations and the need of users in mind.

Cohesion with the Government's other initiatives

The development of the innovation strategy should be seen in connection with the Government's other initiatives to secure growth and future-proof the Danish economy. The strategy is part of the collective reform package presented by the Government "Danmark i arbejde – udfordringer for dansk økonomi mod 2020" (Denmark at work – challenges for the Danish economy towards 2020).
The strategy must also be seen in connection with the Government’s ambitious target for sources of innovation – research and education – and with the formulation of a new, offensive business and growth policy:

• Public sector investment in research and development must comprise at least 1 per cent of GDP.
• 95 per cent of a year group must complete at least a youth education programme, 60 per cent must complete higher education and at least 25 per cent must complete a long-cycle higher education.
• The new offensive business and growth policy must strengthen the general framework conditions for companies, while also putting focus on growth conditions in areas where Danish business has particular strengths and potentials. As part of this work, the Government has appointed a number of growth teams that are to provide concrete recommendations that can interact with the innovation strategy. This can be with regard to regulation, competitiveness, the importance of international investments, access to capital, etc.

• See the vision for the innovation strategy as a PDF