Ecosystems play a key role for a flourishing innovation and building them is a priority in Europe. The latest report tackles the most pressing challenges.
The European Commission (EC) published a new report called “A Robust Innovation Ecosystem for the Future of Europe”. The report contains the results of multiple online and offline stakeholder consultations of which universities, start-ups communities, investors, corporates and local, regional and national European authorities took part in. Approximately 350 stakeholders participated in various workshops to discuss challenges and recommendations. The consultation, which was conducted by the European Innovation Council (EIC), aimed to enhance collaboration between EU institutions and its citizens and to provide further information for the strategic planning of the Horizon Europe programme.
The report distinguishes between three different pillars of challenges: connectedness of stakeholders, competence and capital. Some of the challenges can crosscut through all three pillars.
The first pillar is crucial for unlocking the full potential of innovation in Europe. Research and Technology Organisations (RTOs), universities, start-ups and corporations need to strengthen their relations through better and more frequent network events. Especially internationalisation was often mentioned as an area of focus when it comes to connectedness. The report proposes consolidating the structure and coordination of networks, which can foster internationalisation. Furthermore, the study showed that especially the connectedness between academia and industry is weak. To improve it, the study suggested action such as broader adoption of Industrial Ph.D programmes or other industry-academia programmes and tax deductions.
The second pillar addresses the still weak entrepreneurship and understanding of innovation ecosystems in Europe. All stakeholders agree that the distribution of better and more information through all innovation processes is key for tackling this challenge. The study proposes to take action at an earlier stage so the entrepreneurial spirit can flourish across society. Entrepreneurial programmes should be expanded even before university and include as well non-students such as staff and researchers. In general, stakeholders throughout the consultation demanded more inclusivity and diversity within the innovation ecosystems. Besides that, all stakeholders underlined the lack of quantitative and qualitative data in their ecosystems. Merging local datasets together should make the databases more comprehensive.
Thirdly, Europe still needs more capital, enhanced cross-border investment and de-risking investment in disruptive firms, in particular in the deep-tech sector. Besides investing in scale-ups, investing in early stage companies and innovative pilots of the public sector is “essential”. To make the risk level of investments more manageable, stakeholders suggested tax harmonisation schemes, the creation of co-investment maps or direct co-investments from the EIC Accelerator fund.
Aside from those core challenges, there is a need for reducing regulatory burdens. Stakeholders urged simplifying legislation, experimentation and flexibility of existing legislation with the help of regulatory sandboxes. This could be a solution for stakeholders to test disruptive innovation. The study also showed that public procurement processes should be better aligned with innovation processes. Public servants need to learn more about innovative public procurement.
With regard to Swiss participation, Switzerland is still associated to the Horizon 2020 programme and therefore can fully participate in all EIC or European innovation ecosystem activities. For the next framework programme Horizon Europe, Switzerland has not yet finalised its association agreement. Horizon Europe is split in three main pillars of which the third is called Innovative Europe. There are three related funding programmes grouped under this heading: the EIC, the European innovation ecosystems and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). The goal is to combine their strengths to make Europe an attractive and competitive market for entrepreneurs to scale up their companies and ensure their innovations have a positive impact on society.