European Commission Enterprise Directorate General

User friendly Innovation Policies for SMEs

Innovation Trendchart workshop
Brussels, 17-18 June 2004
Peter Lwe, Europische Kommission, GD Unternehmen peter.loewe@cec.eu.int

EU Innovation activities
Science/enterprise interface:
FP6 Innovation&SME programme CORDIS information service (OPOCE)

Innovation infrastructure (DG ENTR B5):

Innovation Relay Centres (www.cordis.lu/irc) RIS/RITTS and Innovating Regions in Europe (www.cordis.lu/innovating-regions)

Innovation policy (DG ENTR A6)

PAXIS: Hi-tech regions (www.cordis.lu/paxis) Innovation Trend Chart; Innovation Scoreboard
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EU Innovation Policy The milestones:

Green Paper and 1st Action Plan (1995/96):
Innovation emerges as a new policy

Lisbon Summit (2000):

global competitiveness goal by 2010 Open Method of Co-ordination

Innovation Trendchart & Scoreboard (2001) Commission Communication (2003)

New, broader view on innovation

Forthcoming 2nd Action Plan

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The Innovation Trend Chart

The Trend Chart rationale :
Responsibility for innovation policy is distributed :
Regions; Member States; European Union

Innovation is typically an area for applying the Open Method for Co-ordination Trend Chart offers comparable information on innovation performances & policies of all Member States

Platform for the exchange of national experiences (transnational policy learning)

Providing the basis for continuously assessing progress made (as requested by the Council) 4

The Innovation Trend Chart Three complementary pillars:

European Innovation Scoreboard
20 indicators based on available statistics

Analysis of Innovation Policy Measures

Data base of > 700 schemes on the web Country reports; Trend reports; Annual report

Workshops with national policy makers

Peer reviews of specific themes
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4.1

10

16.8 16.7 37.4 58.0 44.8 32.3

26.0 25.8 24.6 22.0 19.1 15.4 14.1

20

29.1 24.8

30

42.5 40.9 38.8 35.5 35.5 35.5 34.9 33.5

40

46.2

50

55.1

60

70

3.1 SMEs innovating in-house (% of manufacturing SMEs)

39.1

SMEs innovating in-house

Average

High (over 20% of EU15 mean)

Low (below 20% of EU15 mean)

DE BE NL FI LU AT PT SE IT FR ES UK EL DK IE EU15 CH IS NO US JP EE LT CZ TR SI LV MT SK PL BG CY HU RO

SMEs innovating in cooperation

3.2 SMEs involved in innovation co-operation (% of manufacturing SMEs)
25
22.0

High (over 20% of EU15 mean) Average

18.9

Low (below 20% of EU15 mean)

18.0 14.1 12.3 11.7 13.0 12.6 11.1 10.9 9.6 9.4 11.1 12.1 11.8 8.4 5.8 4.9 4.4 4.1 7.4 6.1 4.9 3.2 2.8

20

15

10

FI DK SE FR BE NL DE UK AT PT EL ES IT IE LU EU15 CH NO IS US JP TR LT EE SI CZ MT SK LV BG CY HU PL RO

Pitfalls of nave benchmarking

The limitations of a scoreboard as a learning tool
linear extrapolations neglecting saturation effects (more of the same) neglecting multiple causalities fails to identify patterns / paths good/bad performance = good/bad policy copy/paste mentality and lemming effect mobilisation through naming and shaming but no direct policy orientations (the PISA example) benchmarking no substitute for policy debate
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Second pillar: policy analysis

Available from www.cordis.lu/trendchart:
Database of > 700 policy measures Who-is-who (quick links for networking) Annual Country reports on 30 countries Trend reports and benchmarking reports Annual report: Innovation Policy in Europe Subscription to the bi-monthly electronic newsletter of the Trend Chart
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Extraction of measures from database (example)

Seven national policy measures aiming to improve innovation management competences
Belgium Germany Netherlands Norway PLATO (BE_23) mentoring for SMEs TOP (DE_32) exchange of innovation management practices among firms Innovation management program in East Germany (DE_33) MKB (NL35) subsidy for knowledge transfer to entrepreneurs and SMEs - SENTER FRAM (NO_04) offers managers of SMEs services to help them map and implement business improvements National Network of Consulting Services (PL_04) Business Fellowship scheme' (UK_51)
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Poland UK

3rd pillar: Exchange & collaboration

Trend Chart workshops :

04/04: Innovation governance 06/04: Making innovation policies more user friendly for SMEs 10/04: Benchmarking and promoting innovation stars 12/04: Skills for innovation
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Trend Chart Workshops

What we would like to see:

Exchange of information on national schemes Identify good practice examples and avoidable errors Identify opportunities for bilateral follow-up (twinning) Identify benchmarks to follow-up progress made Establish a community of practice Make suggestions to the Commission with regard to European dimension
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European Trend Chart on Innovation

Thank you for your attention !

www.trendchart.org
peter.loewe@cec.eu.int

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