In December, the Council of the EU adopted two important initiatives to boost innovation. Its conclusions on the New European Innovation Agenda (NEIA) and recommendations on the guiding principles for knowledge valorisation—the utilisation of research results—contribute to a systemic approach to innovation with a view to better support the development of innovation ecosystems.
This is a positive step for two reasons. First, it remedies the European Commission’s original communication on the NEIA, released last June, which omitted any mention of the importance of research—part of a wider pattern of the Commission underplaying the role of research in innovation.
The Council, in contrast, stressed the need to “strengthen investments in fundamental research for the creation of new knowledge and capacities enabling all types of innovation”.
Any policy mix designed to enhance innovation must include effective measures to support research. There’s always a need for research to produce new knowledge to drive innovation.
EU innovation policy must avoid the short-term view that investments in challenge-oriented and applied research have the highest return. Instead, it should strengthen high-risk high-reward research as part of a strategy to create knowledge and therefore public value.
Recent analyses show that curiosity-driven research funded by the European Research Council (ERC) has had an outstanding track record in terms of innovation. This includes contributions to tackling some of Europe’s most urgent challenges, including the response to Covid-19. But while knowledge creation is necessary for innovation, it is not sufficient.
The second positive aspect of last month’s announcements was their emphasis on innovation as a product of systems where many different entities interact in different ways. This is a welcome sign that policymakers are moving beyond a linear view of the relationship between research and innovation.
This article was originally published by Research Professional.
Julien Chicot
Julien Chicot, Senior Policy Officer and group coordinator of The Guild's Innovation, Open Science, Deans of Health and Heads of Digital Research working groups. Julien holds a PhD in economics from Grenoble Alpes University. He started his career at the OECD where he analysed national research and innovation policies. He pursued his professional career in the consultancy sector, where he evaluated EU public policies in the field of research and innovation and supported the preparation of Horizon Europe through studies on mission-oriented research and innovation and the European Partnerships. In this blog piece, the views expressed are his and not those of The Guild.