Think carefully: what can a European Innovation Council add?

“When I heard about the idea of creating a European Innovation Council, I was rather flabbergasted,” says Peter Tindemans, secretary-general of Euroscience.

Such an undertaking suggests the Commission is thinking of taking a step beyond the traditional roles of public funding - of financing research and creating the conditions for innovation to occur - towards overseeing some parts of the commercialisation process.

Although acknowledging that innovation has always relied to some extent, on public support, Tindemans questions whether a new council should be picking and choosing which companies to back.

However, that seems part of the ambition of EU Research Commissioner Carlos Moedas who, inspired by the popularity and success of the European Research Council, is  embarking on a plan to set up a new EU institute aimed at innovators. Moedas first mooted the idea of a European Innovation Council (EIC) last July saying, Europe is, “Rarely succeeding in getting research results to market.”

But for Tindemans, innovators neither need, nor have the right to public grants. Rather, “they need venture capital,” he says. “At best governments can give support on the condition that if commercialisation succeeds, they get a share of profits.”

“No country in the world that has a funding council for innovators, unless you call, for example, the Small Business Innovation Research programme in the US a funding council,” Tindemans adds. 

The idea of a parallel to the ERC does not work. “Support for research and support for innovation; these are two very different animals. One involves public responsibility, the other private responsibility,” Tindemans says.

Moedas’ colleagues in the Commission have confirmed they are looking at a number of options, with one suggestion being that the function of EIC should be advisory.

However, Tindemans points out that there are already expert bodies advising the EU on industry policy, such as the RISE High Level Group, begging the question of exactly what the new EIC could add.

Also in the mix is the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) in Budapest, which risks being overshadowed by a new innovation body. The role of EIT should be clarified, suggests Tindemans.  

Policy on the hoof

More generally, Tindemans questions the timing of the announcement of the new initiative. Since Moedas is still figuring out what he is looking for from the EIC, announcing plans for its creation last July feels premature. “It’s probably not the best way to go about creating new policy [since] there’s been no solid thinking behind it yet,” Tindemans said.

Given this, the fact that there is no fixed date for when the EIC will open its doors is a good thing, Tindemans believes. “The timetable for this is the last thing you should worry about. It’s good to do some real thinking first, then come up with a concrete proposal.”