Europe INNOVA - Partnerships for better innovation support

The joint event of the EPISIS INNO-Net and the Europe INNOVA Annual Partnering Event was organised in Copenhagen on June 14-16, 2010 with the participation of more than 200 innovation stakeholders. Details on the discussions, outcomes as well as happenings during the 3 days of the event can be read at the Official Proceedings Report, which can be downloaded by clicking here.

Having reviewed the new trends and developments in supporting services innovation on the previous day, on its last day the EPISIS /Europe INNOVA event looked more closely at the sorts of support services that are needed to promote services innovation.

The first view came from Martin Kruse, a futurist at the Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies, who took the audience though the benefits that automation can offer, such as new services and improved types of jobs. Just as machines have replaced people in selling tickets for parking, he believed that many current jobs would be automated in the future and that new jobs would also be created from new emerging services. Our phones are also expected to provide much more information and data. For example, when visiting a foreign city square, you may be able to ask your phone to indicate the nearest bar with the highest environmental performance.

Andrea di Anselmo, from META Group and the Coordinator of the Europe INNOVA TAKE IT UP partnership presented the Expert Validation Platform that had been established as a testing panel for Europe INNOVA tools. The platform consists of experts drawn from throughout Europe and the world and aims to validate the tools developed by Europe INNOVA partnerships and, in particular, their usability, adaptability and subsidiarity. He insisted that “testing should start from the beginning, and investigate transferability to other players.”

Sven Brunsmann, Senior Project Manager at the Bavarian Aerospace and Satellite Navigation Cluster (bavAIRia) in Germany provided an example of a regional services provision platform. Active in satellite-enabled services, bavAIRia brings together key players from the different stages of the value-chain and develops services such as real-time traffic monitoring. He stressed the need for clusters to understand the whole process, from ideas generation and concept to operation, including validation and demonstration. The questions from the audience highlighted practical matters, such as the difficulty of integrating foreign organisations and the problems of growing when there was still a need to persuade some organisations to pay for the services that avAIRia can offer.

 

In the afternoon, Thomas Christensen, from the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation looked at how policies can promote services innovation and emphasised the need for evidence of the impact of policy actions. In order to be able to understand the degree of innovation in enterprises, the sectors they come from and the types of businesses they are, it is necessary to monitor their activity. He provided an example of the performances of Danish businesses. Some enterprises participating in the agency’s support schemes were compared to a control group of companies that were not involved in such schemes but had similar characteristics to the other enterprises when they started the support scheme. The main outcome was that there was a significant gross profit gain, after two years, by the companies receiving support. In this study, the evidence of both the need for support, and the need to monitor and promote the impact of such support was made obvious.

The conclusion that “policy matters” opened the door to three Roundtable sessions on ‘What are the framework conditions required for services innovation to flourish?’ The audience split into three groups to review support services in the field of eco-innovation, cluster initiatives and new forms of financing innovation in services. Thanks to the presentation of a variety of case studies and perceptive debates involving members of their audiences, each Roundtable was able to focus on the concrete aspects of its sector, its potential and its constraints and the general impact of services innovation.

 

  

In the closing plenary session, Mette Quinn, from the Support for Innovation Unit at DG Enterprise and Industry, presented two new initiatives in support of services innovation. She believed that “The new concept of transformative services innovation helps to better identify those areas where services innovation has a strong impact on the economy and on society.” The first initiative was a European creative industry alliance, to encourage a broad use of creativity in the economy at large, and it was expected that this initiative would mobilise at least €100 million. The second initiative was for satellite-enabled services, and is part of an overall plan for the further promotion of Galileo and Global Monitoring for Environment and Security (GMES).

 

Allan Mayo, Chairperson of the Expert Panel on Services Innovation in the EU, concluded the event by highlighting some lessons to be drawn from the discussions. These included the importance and value of evidence-based policies, the need to be more customer-focused, and the importance of networks and of promoting a local understanding of how businesses work. He suggested that on their ways home, all participants should think about what they would do differently next week to apply what they learned during the event.

 

 

  This second day of the Annual Partnering Event was opened by Charlotte Sahl-Madsen, the Danish Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation, who highlighted the value of services innovation.

The social challenges Europe faces, such as its ageing population and climate change, generate an increased demand for services and for new approaches. “Services innovation will unfold the potential of technologies” she said, adding that one efficient way of achieving this objective was to build upon public private partnerships. The minister also indicated that Denmark was establishing a new dedicated fund to support such partnerships.

 

Five national experts then presented their thoughts on the national role and economic impact of services innovation policies by responding to the following question “If you had 250m Euros per year for 5 years, how would you promote services innovation?”. The audience was invited to vote for the most appropriate proposal, and the Dutch approach outlined by Wilbert Schaap from the Dutch Agency of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, attracted the highest number of votes. It included a strong focus on user-driven programmes, tax credit systems and the wider use of voucher schemes. The Danish approach came second in the voting. It recommended that the budget should not be spent on programmes but rather on establishing networks of key stakeholders and on creating better conditions for private investment.

 

A few months after achieving his life-time goal of reaching the summit of Mount Everest, Reinhard Büscher, Head of the Support for Innovation Unit at DG Enterprise and Industry, presented the European perspective on services innovation using a climbing metaphor of “aiming high.” He highlighted the role that services can play in transforming society and in shaping new markets and sectors. Reinhard concluded that “Services innovation contributes in many different ways to smarter, more sustainable and more inclusive growth. This puts services innovation at the heart of the new Europe 2020 Strategy. To better support services innovation at European level, a more strategic approach is needed, based on clear policy targets and the commitment to deliver measurable results.”

Anssi Rantasalo, CEO of Kemppi Ltd in Finland, presented the case of how services innovation can help traditional manufacturing industries. Considering the example of IBM, which had transformed itself from an industrial software manufacturer into a services provider, he insisted that services had always been part of industrial products (e.g. explaining how the machines that they have manufactured actually work). But he indicated “The challenge today is to move from a ‘favour’ service that comes together with the product, to an added-value service where customers agree to pay for the services they get.”

In the afternoon, the audience split into three parallel sessions addressing the three types of growth identified in the Europe 2020 Strategy - smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Each Roundtable began with two innovative services case study presentations on the topic (such as eHealth tools to cure patients remotely, electric car hiring service as a new business model, or supporting disabled entrepreneurs to start and run their business). These were then discussed with additional two experts from the business, academic or institutional worlds. Questions from the audience enabled the issues that were under consideration to be clarified and the discussion to be deepened. Each moderator had a chance during the plenary session to report on the trends, drivers and barriers identified in the Roundtables concluding with the possible contributions of that growth area to the Europe 2020 Strategy.

In the plenary session, the EPISIS INNO-Net partners presented their project, its goals and the expected results. One of its main challenges is to place services innovation at the top of the policy-makers’ agendas and to convince them of the value of financing initiatives to improve the framework conditions for service innovators.

The restaurant Ravelinen, overlooking the moat that surrounds the ancient fortress of Christianshavn, hosted the official conference dinner. Everyone had a chance to enjoy the delicious menu, to discuss of the topics of day in greater details or to network during the more informal moments.

Today, on its last day, the event will address the new business support services that are needed to promote services innovation in support of the Europe 2020 Strategy, notably those being developed by Europe INNOVA partnerships. 

 

This Europe INNOVA Annual Partnering Event kicked-off in Copenhagen on 14 June. The three-day event is being held in conjunction with the EPISIS INNO-Net and it focuses on the theme of ‘Services innovation as a catalyst for the Europe 2020 strategy.’

The event is being hosted in the modern and welcoming buildings of the IT University of Copenhagen, which provides a suitable forum to foster exchange, and promote discussion, between participants. On this first day, several Europe INNOVA consortium meetings took place in some of university's hanging meeting rooms, including Bcreative, ImMediate and ABCEurope, as well as that of the Europe INNOVA Communications Consortium.

 The second workshop of the Expert Panel on Services Innovation in the EU was also held during the whole day. At its initial workshop in March 2010, the Panel had identified the criteria for selecting the services to analyse. This time, the twenty experts reviewed a selection of 39 examples of services innovation across the areas of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. They discussed the potential of these examples, and the drivers for, and the barriers to, their implementation, with the aim of analysing the new business models emerging and the corresponding support schemes to be developed.

The end result of the Expert Panel’s work will be an evidence-based policy roadmap to support action at political level. This second workshop was the half-way point in the process and the next two workshops in September and December 2010 will enable the Expert Panel’s recommendations to be published in January 2011. What is already apparent is how close the link is between services innovation and the Europe 2020 Strategy. The cases being explored by the Panel provide convincing examples of how new innovative services in one of the three growth areas can have an effect on the others, as well as a positive impact on the economy. “Services innovation strongly link with the Europe 2020 Strategy and the recommendations emerging from the experts' work roadmap  will ihelp EU policy- makers to implement it” concluded Emilie Normann who comes from the Danish Technological Institute and who manages the Expert Panel’s Secretariat.

Under the warm lights of June’s Scandinavian evening skies, Thomas Alslev Christensen, of the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation (DASTI) welcomed all the participants to a reception in the gardens of the Danish Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation. “Innovation and services play a vital role in the European economy” he said, in looking forward to the discussions amongst the many experts that are still to take place over the next two days. He also encouraged participants to discuss and exchange their experiences and concluded with a very appropriate quote from the Danish Nobel prize winner, Niels Bohr - “an expert is a man, or a woman, who has made all the mistakes that can be made, in a narrow field.”

 

The participants then had the chance to end an interesting evening with a stroll past the Queen’s Palace, and along the harbour directly opposite the Opera House.

Today, the conference will look at the new trends and developments in support of services innovation in Europe, from various national perspectives. Three Roundtables will also be dedicated to services innovation and societal challenges.

If you would like to keep up to date with what’s happening at the event, you will find a daily report on this page.