The EU seeks to re-establish itself as a global innovation leader with a raft of initiatives focused on promoting deep-tech innovation at EU and member state levels.
In late 2020, Commissioner Mariya Gabriel set out the initial notion of a European Innovation Area, coordinating and guiding innovation policy at European Union (EU) and national Member State levels. With the adoption on 5 July 2022 of the New European Innovation Agenda, the European Commission (EC) provides details of the promised coordinated strategy to fully realize the innovation potential of the EU. The communication is supplemented by a more detailed background Staff Working Document.
The Agenda is highly focused on promoting deep-tech innovation, i.e. science-based and often transdisciplinary innovation that addresses global challenges. It recognizes European potential in deep-tech based on Europe’s several strengths: its leadership in science, strong industrial base and vibrant start-up ecosystem as well as the supportive framework conditions of the single market, and its skilled talent base. Among the priorities, it identifies the digital and green transitions, innovation cohesion across Europe’s regions, strategic autonomy, and resilience.
The concrete proposals for action are organized under five flagship areas: improving access to finance for start-ups, facilitating more test-beds and experimentation, better supporting and connecting innovation ecosystems, fostering innovation talent, and strengthening innovation policy.
A first goal is to make up the gap in funding for deep-tech scale-ups compared to China and US. This will involve facilitating private funding, helping the large-scale deployment of public funds, and increasing investment by EU-based providers of private and patient capital. The deficit is particularly felt for companies requiring larger funding amounts for scaling up and growing. Measures proposed include corporate income tax changes, easing requirements for companies seeking to be listed on public stock markets, increased later-stage funding under InvestEU, and addressing the gender-imbalance.
Secondly, framework conditions will be addressed through the publication of a guidance document on how to facilitate experimentation in the first half of 2023. It will map and clarify relevant use cases of regulatory sandboxes, test beds and living labs in order to support policymakers and innovators in their approach to experimentation in the EU. The EC will support the creation of a Govtech Incubator in 2023 through the Digital Europe Programme. EC will pilot an innovation friendly Regulations Advisory Group. Importantly, the revised State Aid framework for RDI will also include a new rule allowing Member States to support testing and experimentation infrastructures.
In promoting innovation ecosystems, smart specialization strategies play a central role. Meanwhile, in tackling the innovation divide across the EU, the focus will be on increased partnerships between strong and weak innovation regions, as well as synergies between cohesion policy and Horizon Europe (see SwissCore article). Other existing initiatives that receive mention include the Hydrogen Valleys, the European Chips Act, Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI). A new proposal is the establishing of an Innospace, an AI based platform to support the circulation of ideas and access to research results. The Agenda equally highlights the new EIC ScaleUp 100 action in the EIC work programme for this year, providing scale-up support to a selected cohort of 100 high-potential start-ups across Europe, and sharing best practices amongst Member States and across Europe-wide networks.
Fostering Deep-tech talents is a fourth priority. Among the existing initiatives, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology is notably highlighted as leading an initiative to target 1 million deep tech talents and, in partnership with the EIC, launching an innovation intern scheme. A working group on stock options will be set up under the EIC Forum to address remuneration issues. Erasmus+, and its alliances for innovation, are also highlighted as an important initiative to start in 2023. Support for women entrepreneurs is also a key area for intervention.
The last of the five flagship priorities looks at the overall innovation policy-making framework. This will involve an update of the European innovation scoreboard, with improved indicators, and better support for Member States and regions in policy making through the technical support instrument as part of Next Generation EU. The Commission will strengthen the role of the EIC Forum in later 2022, enhancing the exchange of best practices and coordination of national innovation policy initiatives. The policy orientations of the Forum will be consistent with the Pact for Research and Innovation and will feed into the work of the governance of the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Research Area and Innovation Committee (ERAC).
The Agenda includes a useful list of initiatives foreseen, with the indicative timeframe for their implementation. However, reactions to the Innovation Agenda have been mixed. In particular, the university sector has been disappointed that – despite engagement with the consultations – their role has been minimized (see the reactions of EUA and the Guild).