Funding Innovation (Innovation and Access to Finance)
Photo: Gavin Llewellyn
Here we will carry out an impact assessment of the enhanced access to finance for innovation activities using macro-sectoral econometric methods.
It covers the following commitments:
- Put in place EU-level financial instruments to attract private finance;
- Access to finance – venture capital;
- Access to finance – matching;
- Review state aid framework for R&D&I.
Creating a Single Innovation Market
This is aimed at linking the commitments listed below to drivers of value-added growth, employment growth and well-being, as well as assessing the link to macro-level analytics. There are four main themes: a cheaper patent application and enforcement system (with an incentive effect, especially with regard to SMEs); a smart regulatory framework and modernisation of standardisation (selected past regulation and their impact on innovation; derivation of principles for innovation-friendly regulation; case study evidence on growth effects of standardization); public procurement (the trade-off between potential innovation incentives and competition enhancing clear, equal and transparent rules); and the eco-innovation challenge (using CIS data to shed light on the key assumption of the Ecoinnovation Action Plan).
It covers the following commitments:
- Deliver the EU Patent (including unified system of dispute settlement);
- Screen the regulatory framework in key areas (starting with those linked to eco-innovation and European Innovation Partnerships);
- Speed up and modernise standard-setting;
- Set aside dedicated national procurement budgets for innovation. Set up a EU level support mechanism and facilitate joint procurement;
- Present an eco-innovation action plan.
Maximising Creativity (Promoting Openness and Capitalising on Europe’s Creative Potential)
Innovation needs to go beyond the solution of technical problems and must be encouraged by inventive companies. Non-technical innovation, including the design of products or delivery mechanisms is becoming more important, while innovation policy beyond R&D still lacks empirical justification within the logic of market failure. New forms of division of labour are now sprouting within innovation processes (e.g. the public sector, specialist private companies like drug developers, chip design firms).
The goal is to increase our knowledge about the broader set of knowledge assets which are used to generate new product and processes; improving our understanding of knowledge circulation within the public, within the private and between the public and private entities; and outlining the trade-off between stronger and weaker IPR rights and the link between IPR and competition policy.
It covers the following commitments:
- Creative industries;
- Open access to research results / research information services;
- Facilitating effective collaborative research and knowledge transfer;
- Develop a European knowledge market for patents and licensing;
- Safeguard against the use of IPRs for anti-competitive purposes.
