Europe Calls For Radical Change On Innovation; EU Patent In Works

The European Union is failing to keep pace with key competitor nations and is in need of a radical new, greatly simplified, approach to research and innovation, the European Commission said on 1 February. And an element of what is needed is a European-wide patent.

Europe needs to do more to close the innovation performance gap with its main competitors, the United States and Japan, according to results of a recent official study on EU innovation. The EU is maintaining its lead over India and Russia, but Brazil is progressing and China is rapidly catching it, it said.

The EU “innovation leaders” are Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Germany. The next tranche is the United Kingdom, Belgium, Austria, Ireland, Luxembourg, France, Cyprus, Slovenia and Estonia, in that order.

“Europe must become an environment conducive to innovation, through effective standardisation, better use of intellectual property rights, innovation-friendly public procurement and measures to help small, innovative companies to secure financing,” said an EU explanatory note. “This memo outlines some of the key issues that are on the table of this week’s European Council meeting.”

The Commission, the EU executive body, said it will seek the European Council’s “broad endorsement for a radically new approach to EU research and innovation funding, bringing together current funding instruments under a Common Strategic Framework.” The aim, it said, is “to focus on Europe 2020 strategy and Innovation Union priorities and increase impact on growth and jobs.”

“The new approach will offer a seamless set of financing instruments, both grants and loans, supporting the whole chain from blue sky research to demonstration and financing of SMEs [small and medium-sized enterprises],” it said.

A key element will be radical simplification and harmonisation of rules and procedures across the board, building on the changes Research, Innovation and Science Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn has already announced for the remainder of this fiscal period (see IP/11/57).

“This will attract the brightest scientists and most innovative companies and ensure that they spend less time on red tape,” the Commission said today. The Commission will shortly publish more detailed proposals in a Green Paper for consultation and will table a legislative proposal in late 2011, it said.

The memo on the EU innovation initiative is here.

The press release on the 2010 Innovation Union Scoreboard is available here.