Can the strongly bottom-up driven Swiss innovation system serve as a model for Europe and strengthen its role in the next technological revolution?
“The European Council decided that the European Union must invest more in innovation,” says Signe Ratso, Deputy Director-General at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission (EC). The European Innovation Council (EIC) is designated to tackle that under the new framework programme, Horizon Europe. However, how shall it be implemented? Can European champions be created by policy instruments? And what is the real underlying problem why European companies are not scaling up as fast as their competitors in the US or in Asia? These were just some of the questions discussed at the SwissCore Annual Event 2019.
First, Dominique Gruhl-Bégin, Head of Start-Ups and Next-Generation Innovators Division at Innosuisse, presented the Swiss innovation system. She highlighted the transition from a system that mainly foresaw top-down support to a bottom-up driven system. Furthermore, she pointed out the inherent need for Swiss companies to work across borders, simply because of the limited size of the market. The cultural similarity and market conditions make a strong case for like-minded states, notably in Europe. Reinhilde Veugelers, Senior Fellow at Bruegel and Professor for Management, Strategy and Innovation at KU Leuven, emphasised the importance of an open system enabling a free circulation of talent and capital strengthening the ecosystem. She pointed out Switzerland as an exemplary case, where openness paid off and where there is a balance of brain drain and brain gain.
The panellists discussed the characteristics of an ideal innovation system. They deemed a certain agility to quickly adapt to technological changes and react to any other recent developments as essential. The implementation of the EIC shall tackle the emerging challenges and further allow enough flexibility to correspond to the dynamics in the deep tech sectors.
You can find a short video clip of the event here.