Europe’s technology organisations demonstrate their economic worth

Europe’s research and technology organisations make an annual economic impact of up to €40 billion, increasing the rate of innovation in industry and helping to remedy problems such as energy and food shortages. Yet they are not getting the recognition they deserve, according to a report released yesterday (October 27).

“What they do is to a large extent undocumented and misunderstood,” according to the report written by the technology consultants Technopolis Group for EARTO, the European trade association representing research and technology organisations, including Germany’s Fraunhofer centres and the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland.

Such research and technology centres provide R&D technology and innovation services to companies, governments and other clients, and according to the report can play “major roles” in making progress towards creating the European Research Area. They do this through linking innovation with research, establishing partnerships between major stakeholders and tackling climate change, and being involved in moves to ensure food, energy and water supplies. “This is [their] home territory,” the report notes, adding, “Improved policy can unleash their power to make significantly larger contributions.”

The problem is that research and technology centres have been “systematically ignored” in the development of the European Research Area, despite playing “a pivotal role” in the Framework Programmes, where they are involved in coordinating about one-third of the projects.

Two reasons help explain why the role played by EARTO’s members is not recognised. First, there is confusion about the difference between them and universities, and secondly, there few official statistics about the sector.

To remedy the lack of official statistics, the report attempts to model the economic impact of these organisations. Considering direct and indirect factors, as well as multiplier effects and social returns, the study estimates the overall annual impact of Europe’s research and technology organisations is between €25 billion to €40 billion.

The estimates highlight different ways in which impact can be measured. Although there are many uncertainties the results, “do indicate that, however you count, [these bodies] are a collective force in European innovation that is of considerable size.”

The report underlined the “urgent need” for proper statistics about the sector and called on the European Commission to ask Eurostat to establish definitions and collect statistics, and to encourage the OECD to do the same.