“The question is, would some things be better done together?” asked Pat Cox, President of the European Movement, in a session on the need for Global Collaboration in Innovation Policy, at the Science|Business Innovation Economy Conference in Brussels earlier this month.
“If innovation can help in the crisis, my answer is definitely yes,” said Jan Muehlfeit, Chairman, Europe, Microsoft Corporation. He pointed at Finland’s remarkable recovery in the 1990s. After unemployment reached 15 per cent, recovery was spurred by increasing government investment in innovation and education.
The issue for promoting innovation, then, is “What is the cookery book?”, Muehlfeit said, suggesting that a thirst to retain and attract talent, a robust technical infrastructure and openness, are essential ingredients. “Europe is very diverse and we can use that to our advantage,” he added.
The tendency will no doubt be to use the stimulus money to fix the current economic problems, but, said Muehlfeit, “There needs to be a balanced approach. You can fix the economy in 12 months, but you need to do other things over a far wider timescale.”
The R&D Commissioner Janez Potocnik echoed this sentiment, saying that while living in times of economic crisis, “It’s important to think about what shape we come out of it [in].”
All the issues being faced before the crisis – in healthcare, climate change, pandemics, water and energy supplies, migration and security – remain huge challenges. “All these are global, we are interconnected and interdependent,” Potocnik told delegates. “The raison d’etre of Europe increases in these times.”
Europe needs to speak with one voice and take leadership, as it has done, for example, in dealing with climate change. “This will give us the possibility to be amongst the most competitive economies in the future,” Potocnik said, adding, “The role of R&D is clear, and will determine our competitive capacity in the future.”
Dealing with these global challenges calls for both a cross-thematic and a cross-border approach. International cooperation is extremely important, and this is a central part of the philosophy behind moves to create the single European Research Area.
So, for example, grants given by the European Research Council can go to anyone of any nationality, though the research must be carried out in the European Union; Europe has shared scientific infrastructure such as computing grids, ITER, CERN and Galileo; twelve countries beyond the EU are associated with the Framework Research Programmes, and discussions will soon start with Russia on associated status; cooperation has been strengthened with countries including the China and the US.
“That’s the philosophy in which we work, and we will do more,” said Potocnik. “Europe may be seen as the model for regional integration.”
A similar collaborative approach is being taken by South Africa, a country at the early stages of its innovation journey, as Boni Mehlomakulu, Deputy Director-General, Science and Technology Directorate, described. “We have a young system and are looking at innovation in a two-part way. On one hand we are building our national capability; on the other we are positioning South Africa as a player in the global system of innovation,” said Mehlomakulu.
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