The European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation has recently hosted the workshop “A robust Innovation Ecosystem for the Future of Europe”, organised by the Innovation Ecosystems unit of the European Innovation Council (EIC) Task Force. This was the peak event of the online and offline consultation process developed between November 2019 and February 2020 that involved representatives from all relevant sectors (large companies and investors, SMEs and Academia; innovation agencies and ministries; regions and cities) with the purpose of deepen the challenges, the barriers and needs of innovation ecosystems in order to help the EU Commission in the launch of future actions to boost the effectiveness of the European innovation system.
The Conference was chaired by Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation Research, Culture, Education and Youth and Apostolos Tzitzikostas, President of the European Committee of the Regions.
Ms. Gabriel recognized the importance of innovation as a driver of competitiveness and economic growth and the importance of Europe in this field. Europe, in fact, represents 7% of the world population and produces a 20% of the highest-level scientific publication and one third of total R&D. Despite these remarkable achievements, Europe lacks disruptive innovations and breakthrough that create new markets. Europe should turn its potentialities and strengths into leadership and entrepreneurship, the reasons why innovation ecosystem should be supported and connected.
The Conference has been also enriched by the contributions of the representatives of La French Tech, one of the most relevant start up incubators in the world and of the Founder & CEO of Cabify, one of the biggest transportation network companies in the Spanish and Portuguese-speaking world.
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Source: European Commission
