Last December, the EU Competitiveness Council welcomed the plea for a broad-based innovation strategy for the EU. Indeed, innovation plays a critically important role in Europe’s ability to respond effectively to the challenges and opportunities of the global economy.

In 2007, two major EU programmes will enter into force: the Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7) and the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme (CIP). Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are central for both programmes. The ICT policy for Europe has been framed within the i2010 initiative for a European information society for growth and employment.

The FP7 projects and the CIP pilots will complement each other and help Europe master progress in ICT and make sure that our industry and citizens reap the benefits. In FP7 we are forging industry-university partnerships and mobilising collective talents to achieve mid-to-long term technology and socio-economic goals. This will help build excellence on a European scale and launch a new generation of ICT projects that will raise our research performance to higher levels. In the CIP we support the wider uptake and better use of ICT by citizens, businesses and public organisations.

The December 2006 EU Competitiveness Council invited all Member States to actively engage with the work under these programmes in order to realise their full potential. Indeed, their successful implementation will depend on the involvement of all stakeholders, and the increased effort at Community level should trigger higher investments in several Member States. The second line of action of the i2010 initiative aims at attracting private investment to ICT research and at establishing stronger public-private partnerships.

The need to invest in ICT R&D cannot be over-emphasised – but realising the investment is equally important. Innovation has been high on political agendas for some time now – not just here in Europe, but worldwide. Over the last year it has received a new impetus with the issuing of the Aho report, in particular, following the Hampton Court Summit in October 2005. At the EU level we are taking action and promote industry-lead research alliances in key sectors. This is done primarily through the European Technology Platforms (ETP).

So far, nine European Technology Platforms have been launched in the ICT area. They have been instrumental in establishing Strategic Research Agendas that set out what needs to be done to make sure that Europe is among the ICT leaders in the next ten years. These, in turn, have played a valuable role in making the FP7 ICT Work Programme even more strategic and better focused. For two of the ETPs, on Embedded Systems and Nanoelectronics, the Commission will propose, in the first half of 2007, Joint Technology Initiatives based on article 171 of the EU treaty.This will enable us to establish joint undertakings bringing together the private sector, the Member States and the Commission to pool together our research effort in these fields and support the Strategic Research Agendas defined by industry.

For the area of Embedded Systems for example, this should help us mobilise around 2.5 Billion Euro over 7 years to develop the next generation ICT platforms that are critical for our major industries form automotive, to aeronautics and telecommunications. Community contribution should be around 400 Million Euro from FP7. Whereas the two first lines of ICT policy actions deal more with the supply side of ICT, the third line of action is about demand-driven innovation. On this point, ministers at the December 2006 EU Competitiveness Council initiated a consultation on the barriers for lead markets.

The aim is to better understand how public intervention can nurture lead markets by establishing environments that are more conducive to innovation. These markets should focus on areas where European firms could have a globally leading role but where due to certain barriers this potential remains currently unrealised. In the context of i2010, flagship initiatives play a key role in triggering the demand for innovative ICT products and services. The flagship on “ICT for independent living in an ageing society” addresses ICT as a key contributor to a better quality of life for older people – at home, at work and in their social networks. The initiative on the “intelligent car” advocates the use of ICT for smarter, safer and cleaner vehicles. A flagship on “digital libraries” helps all Europeans to access Europe’s collective memory and use it for education, work, leisure and creativity. And, finally, an initiative is being prepared on “ICT for sustainable growth” that will address key challenges such as energy efficiency and the means to protect Europe’s environment. Series of measures under each of these flagship initiatives will be instrumental in creating and exploiting innovation-friendly markets.

The European Technology Platforms can also help e.g. by identifying emerging needs for new standards and speed up their agreements, by agreeing on establishing novel Intellectual Property Rights regimes, or by providing input for the legislative reforms necessary for markets to emerge based on open competition and efficient and accessible services. Public procurement of hi-tech products, or pre-commercial public procurement schemes, where public authorities act as first buyers for local suppliers, can be another excellent tool to help create lead markets.

In Europe, I am sure that we have not yet fully explored and exploited such schemes. They would not only bring about more effective solutions for public procurers. They would also lead to more efficient exploitation of research results for the supplier base.

Viviane REDING,
Member of the European Commission for Information Society and Media

The European Files n°11 - March 2007