Regional ministries and agencies ask for a role in the European Innovation Council

The European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) is the latest lobby group to support the EU’s proposal to establish a new European Innovation Council (EIC), saying that it should help strengthen the competitiveness of EU regions.

“One of the roles of the EIC should be to support and add value to regional innovation ecosystems,” ERRIN says, in a draft position paper presented at a conference in Brussels yesterday. The council should increase the visibility of EU funding schemes and be “a single entry point” into the complex Brussels world, according to ERRIN, a body representing around 120 regional agencies.

Like the European Research Council, the EIC should manage a small number of funding schemes that are similar in design to the popular Fast Track to Innovation, a fully-bottom-up competition run through the Horizon 2020 research programme.

The EIC’s role should go beyond that of research funder however, with ERRIN saying it can play the part of a “practically-focussed think-tank on open innovation”. Here, the EIC would, “evaluate existing innovation activity” across Europe and “judge where exactly Europe needs to invest”.

There should be highly-qualified experts with operational experience of regional innovation funding on the EIC governing board, who would work closely with local and regional politicians to plug existing gaps in EU regions. 

However, there is a plea for the EIC not to usurp the role of national contact points, which provide advice to anyone who wants to submit an EU research proposal, or the Enterprise Europe Network, a consultancy network for small businesses.

There is also a small warning that the EIC must stay on the right side of EU state aid rules, which block state support of a company, if it will distort competition in the single market.