towards a european innovation council

Research and Innovation

Ideas for a European Innovation Council:

Outcomes of the Call for Ideas

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Matthew King Head of Unit B1 Open Innovation 13 July 2016


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Over 1000 contributions

• Approx. 80% from the private and research sectors

• The vast majority of the private sector actors are SMEs

• Good geographical coverage

• Over 170 supporting documents, a selection is now online


Diverse geographical coverage

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• 46 countries

• All 28 Member States

• Particularly strong response in western and southern Europe

• Top 10 countries account for 74% of the total


The lack of disruptive market creating innovation is considered an issue by over 80% respondents

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"It remains difficult for the private

sector, especially SMEs, to get involved

in EU funding opportunities.

Minimising bureaucracy would help."

"There are far too many

different EU finance channels.

Single channel. The finance rules

for H2020 and ESFI should be

based on the same concepts and

guidelines."

"Better information for the

different schemes, a way

people can learn if a specific

instrument is for them,

remove the obstacle of

"hidden information" behind

rules or calls."

"Have intuitive and simple

programs across various

accelerators and hubs in

Europe, using a step-by-step

approach."

"Europe must get over its

fear of disruption, fear of

failure, avoidance of

entrepreneurial risk-taking. It

needs to support a lot more

experiments - also policy

experiments - which look

dangerously disruptive…."

"More support in terms of market

connections, strategic

introduction - eg. mentorship or

investment events where

innovative entrepreneurs can

connect with investors, partners."

"The website and list

of programmes are

still too complicated.

The website and

programmes should be

divided into categories

according to target

potential applicants."

"… I think that the

requirement of 3

members from 3

different

countries is a

barrier to true

disruptive

innovation.


75% believe that there are gaps (and shortcomings) in the current support

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• Instruments seen as disjointed and offer difficult to navigate

• Long and complex procedures

• Restrictive thematic calls


Main functions of a possible EIC

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740

679

600

153

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Fill in gaps Simplify access Strategic advice Other Don't know


Other possible functions of an EIC

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Frequently mentioned suggestions included:

• mentoring, coaching and expertise

• incubation of new ideas

• formulation of a long-term innovation strategy

• brokerage and networking

• introduction of new financing instruments

• promotion of an innovation culture including risk-taking, inclusion and diversity

• marketing of EU innovation and international outreach

• enhancing cooperation with between the research and private sector community, strong links to the ERC

Discussion themes

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Awareness & Accessibility

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•Improve Horizon 2020 website/ participant portal?

•How can National Contact Points and the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) best work with innovators?

•Should a central help desk for innovators be set up?

• Any others?


Funding opportunities

•Make SME instrument fully bottom up with continuously open call?

•Stronger complementarities between instruments (SME instrument, FET open, FTI, prizes etc.)?

•Investors to be involved in evaluations?

•New instruments? (e.g. matched crowd-funding, loans without collateral or repayable grants)

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Evaluation 3

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•Revise and accelerate evaluation process (e.g. introduction of face-to-face interviews)? Possible trade-offs?

•Strengthen and simplify evaluation criteria to focus on market creating innovations?

•More evaluators with business track record?

•Any other?


Follow up and mentoring 4

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•Provide access to mentors for project teams?

•Work in partnership with existing initiatives (EIT, Eureka, EIB group, etc), e.g. for sharing data & intelligence and aligning guidance

•How should the performance of grantees be tracked?

•How to ensure better collaboration and information sharing with Eureka, EIT, EIB and others?


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• Most respondents are positive although there are concerns

• Clear areas for improvement have emerged out of the consultation

• Your input today will help us unpack the issues and feed into our discussions on the improvements to be implemented

Conclusions and next steps

towards a european innovation council

Documents