In his own words: Barroso’s innovation scorecard

The departing European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, is on his farewell  Grand Tour. At the end of the month, he will hand the keys to the European Union over to his successor, Jean-Claude Juncker.

This is the point at which politicians attempt to burnish their legacy – or begin running away from it.

After serving two five-year terms, Barroso is in the former category. While throughout the tumultuous period of 2008-2012 budgets for R&D were in retreat everywhere in Europe, Barroso wants to be remembered for the achievement of helping the EU emerge from the financial crisis.

“We’re not [fully] aware of all of the achievements of European research and science because we’re fragmented,” Barroso told Science|Business. “As a whole, Europe should be proud though.”

Innovation in the balance sheet

Under Barroso, ‘Innovation’ has become one of the most overused words in the R&D policy lexicon. However, there were some tangible advances and attempts to keep pace with rhetoric. The near-impossible was achieved last year when the budget for Horizon 2020, the European Union’s €80 billion research programme, was boosted by 30 per cent compared to its predecessor, the Seventh Framework Programme.

The creation of the European Research Council in 2007 and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology in 2008, also spring to mind. The former Barroso cites as the, “World leader in blue sky”, while the latter has had great success in bringing together universities and business under the ambit of its Knowledge and Innovation Communities, he claimed.

The profile and popularity of public-private partnerships, a combination able to pursue research questions, “that no company or country alone can [undertake]”, increased under Barroso’s watch. More than 150 such EU-backed alliances will be up and running by the end of 2015, he said.

The vital elements are in place for European science to grow further. “There’s twice the number of graduates in science coming from Europe than the US,” Barroso noted. Meanwhile, the European Research Area, a term used to denote the entire ecosystem of scientific research programmes in the EU, is, “The largest knowledge production house in the world.”

Handover notes

Whatever the strength of the fundamentals, Europe is left standing by the ability of the US, China, South Korea and Japan to spawn high-growth technology companies – gazelles in the jargon – that are one of the most important sources of job and wealth creation. Can the EU do more to help Europe’s Google or Apple take root? “Here I’m going to sound American and say ‘Yes we can’,” said Barroso.

The cost of the patenting and the relative paucity of seed and cash for small business to grow remain as significant gaps in the innovation framework.

But generally Barroso is upbeat about what he calls the continent’s, “Spirit of Discovery”, a motivating force that goes back eons, he said. “Look at our history. Portugal crossed the world in the early 15th century, there was no GPS or satellites at that time.”

When asked for his departing message to inspire Europe’s entrepreneurs for the future, Barroso says, “I would tell them that Horizon 2020 is open to everyone.” the ease of participating has greatly increased. “Europe is an exciting place to do research: if I were a young scientist, I’d be very attentive.”