Who are the innovation leaders in the European Union?

Innovation performance in the EU has improved year on year in spite of the continuing economic crisis, but the innovation divide between Member States is widening. While the most innovative countries have further improved their performance, others have shown a lack of progress. 

The overall ranking within the EU remains relatively stable, with Sweden at the top, followed by Germany, Denmark and Finland. Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia are the countries that have most improved since last year.  Drivers of innovation growth in the EU include SMEs and the commercialisation of innovations, together with excellent research systems. However the fall in business and venture capital investment over the years 2008-2012 has negatively influenced innovation performance.

Click here to see the Innovation Union Scoreboard 2013 and an interactive map tracking the country by country innovation records along with downloadable PDFs.

the 1st European Conference on e-Public Procurement

On 23 March 2013, the 1st European Conference on e-Public Procurement and 1st Exhibition of European e-Platforms takes place in Barcelona, Spain. European Commission invested e-public procurement that can play a strategic role:

• To generate public savings through improved sourcing and more effective competition between suppliers
• To increase transparency and fair decision making to award public contracts
• To help SMEs to participate in public markets
• To stimulate innovation and the development of e-marketplaces
• To promote a low-carbon society and more sustainable growth

More information about the programme of this conference

European Call for ideas for innovation until September 2012

The Commission is calling for ideas for potential new policy measures and focus areas for future targeted demand-side innovation actions at EU level, to enable faster uptake of innovations and to create a better environment for creating innovations in order to maintain the value chain and business investments in Europe.

In times of crisis we need measures to help turn innovative ideas into new marketable products and services, creating jobs and growth in Europe. The well-functioning of EU internal market for innovations should be ensured. The public consultation runs until 06/09/2012.

More information about this initiative

The global market in Key Enabling Technologies is forecast to jump of 55% by 2015

The European Commission has today called for a European effort to boost Key Enabling Technologies (KETs). The global market in KETs, which comprises micro- and nanoelectronics, advanced materials, industrial biotechnology, photonics, nanotechnology and advanced manufacturing systems, is forecast to grow from € 646 Billion to over € 1 Trio by 2015.

KETs can bring back European innovation leadership because they are a key source of innovation: They provide the indispensable technology bricks that enable a wide range of product applications, including those required for developing low carbon energy technologies, improving energy and resource efficiency, and new medical products for ageing population. The capacity of Europe to develop and industrially deploy KETs plays crucial role in contributing to sustainable competitiveness and growth.

The internal market offers a fertile background for KETs: Today the EU represents the largest integrated market in the world that is receptive to innovations, with world leading industries in fields of automotive, chemicals, aeronautics, space, health and energy – all users of KETs.

More information about the Key Enabling Technologies

Study on the Role and Impact of Professional and Scientific Societies in ICT Research, Education and Innovation

This new report summarises the results of the SMART study, carried out under a mandate from the European Commission to investigate the current situation and the dynamics of the ICT societies in Europe and to recommend strategies that may help overcome ICT society fragmentation, increasingly seen as a major bottleneck to their future development.

The study gathers and analyses information about ICT societies, performs an assessment of the actual contribution of societies to ICT research, education and innovation, analyses the impact of "participative" technologies and services, such as web 2.0, on the future of scientific societies, particularly in enabling new ways of producing & sharing knowledge and consensus building.

It furthermore analyses how the world-wide competing societies head-quartered in Europe are perceived by researchers, industrial stakeholders and policy-makers.

One of the key conclusions of this study is that the current set-up of ICT societies in the EU does not optimally address the key challenges of globalisation and multi-disciplinary.

The document also provides several recommendations, ideas for further research and activity and a list of European ICT societies.

Download the study

Report on "Orientations for EU ICT R&D and Innovation beyond 2013" has been published

The Information Society Technology Advisory Group (ISTAG) has published a report reaffirming the importance of pursuing and strengthening EU investment in ICT research and innovation.

According to the document, ICT has become a key transformative force in social innovation processes enabling and facilitating socio-economic and human development. ICT infrastructure is also a critical resource in today's globalised economy whose reliable and dependable operation is absolutely essential. ISTAG also considers essential to develop a more comprehensive view of the whole value chain of ICT and ICT-enabled services, bridging the gap between pre-competitive research, product development and service deployment.

The document contains 10 key recommendations and it is open to comments and feed backs until the 30 September 2011.

Download the report
Feedbacks can be sent to the ISTAG Secretariat (INFSO-ISTAG@ec.europa.eu)

Conclusion of consultations on EU Innovation Green Paper

The European Commission released on 9 February a Green Paper on future options and priorities with regard to research and innovation funding. Four months later it now releases an Analysis of the public consultation process that took place since February.

On 10 June 2011 the outcome of the consultation was discussed at a major conference in Brussels.

Download the Analysis
More information

The European Seal of e-Excellence winners awarded at the CeBIT

The 36 winners of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011 were announced today at CeBIT in Hannover, Germany. Innovative companies from 18 countries joined the award ceremony to receive the award from the hands of jury members.

Apart from the traditional Platinum, Silver and Gold categories, 5 companies from Argentina, (G&L Group and Hexacta),Costa Rica (SmartSoft) and Mexico (Neuromarketing and Soluciones Tecnologicas) won the Special Mention Seal for Latin America and 3 companies obtained the Special Mention Seal for Language Technologies (Bitext Innovations -Spain-, Wordbee -Luxembourg- and Lingosaur -Finland-).

The event is now concluding with a cocktail sponsored by the Umbria Region in Italy and Soft Economy.

List of winners

More information

EU Green Paper and consultation on research and innovation funding

The European Commission released on 9 February a Green Paper on future options and priorities with regard to research and innovation funding. In addition, the Commission announced that it is engaging into a major consultation exercise, in particular about the topics listed in its press release. The Green Paper and consultation include all EU policy instruments in the field of research and innovation funding, i.e. the new framework programme (FP8), Competitiveness and Innovation Fund (CIP), cohesion funds and European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a package worth in total more than 140 billion EUR.

More information on practical ways to contribute to the consultation.