The Lisbon Regions Network has chosen to focus on “innovation towards sustainability” for the working year 2008-2009, in synergy with the “European Year of Innovation and creativity”. Globalization has modified in very little time the world economic order, creating new opportunities and challenges.Europe cannot compete in the global framework if it does not invest more on innovation and if does not respond effectively to the needs and preferences of consumers. The European Union faces new challenges that have to be addressed in a comprehensive way through a mixture of strategic policies at Community, national and regional level. The EU Research and Innovation policy promotes knowledge economy as a key factor for the realization of the “Renewed Partnership for Growth and Jobs” of the Lisbon Strategy. It means that research and innovation are seen as tools to achieve more growth and more and better jobs. The European Commission has developed several funding instruments to support research and innovation: 7th Framework Programme (7FP), the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), the Life Long Learning Programme, Life, the Rural Development Programme, the Fisheries Programme and the Cohesion Policy. In this framework, the goal of the latter is to reduce disparities among regions through innovation. To achieve this result, for the 2007-2013 period, 25% of the structural funds are dedicated to innovation, representing a massive increase compared to 2000-2006 period. Innovation is a very wide concept, it is a new way of doing things, it can refers to news ways of thinking, products, processes, or organizations and it can involves both public and private sectors at all levels of government. Regions play an increasingly active role in supporting innovation as they play a key pivotal role in both vertical links between the local level e.g. universities and the SME base and the national and European levels as well as retaining a horizontal overview of the regional challenges, competences and strengths.The regional dimension provides a pool of talent, skills and ideas linked to the proximity needed to build trust and confidence between the wide range of actors playing their roles in open innovation systems. Regions also play a key role in providing support structures and resources for innovation such as facilitating the development of the regional R&D base, the development of cluster policies, the support for human capital development within the region. The member-regions of Lisbon Regions Network intend to bring new energy in EU policies and actions on innovation and to contribute to makeEurope the place where ideas can fly. The Lisbon Regions Network has promoted the following actions to focus on innovation: § an “ad hoc” Working Group on innovation has been created with the following objectives: - preparation of a policy paper on the regional dimension of innovation - participation to the consultation on the “Effectiveness of Innovation Support in Europe" - Analysis and mapping of regional innovation strategy § Different initiatives have been organised: - A training seminar and a project cafè: “The Competitiveness and Innovation Programme: forthcoming calls for proposals and Project Café”jointly organized with ERRIN ICT Working Group; - A seminar intended to shed light on innovation’s intricate dynamics from a holistic point of view “Talking about innovation in EU Regions: let’s act!”; - A political conference aiming at contributing to the Lisbon Agenda post-2010, jointly organized by LRN and ERRIN: “Lisbon Strategy Post 2010: Regional strategies for innovation!”
Innovation - interesting links: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/index_en.htm http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/index_en.htm http://cordis.europa.eu/home_en.html http://www.proinno-europe.eu/ http://www.oecd.org/document/15/0,3343,en_2649_34413_41491343_1_1_1_37429,00.html
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