More specifically:
Sectoral Innovation Watch analyses innovation performance in 9 industry sectors (biotechnology, ICT, energy, automotive, food/drink, aerospace, textile, chemicals, machinery/equipment) and 2 horizontal areas (eco-industries, gazelles). Companies in different industry sectors follow different innovation patterns, for instance, non-technological innovation is more important in service sectors than in manufacturing. Sectoral Innovation Watch will seek to understand this kind of sector specificity in innovation behaviour with the aim of providing analytical information to shape future innovation policy.
Sector Innovation Panels aim to provide important feedback from innovating businesses on innovation drivers of and barriers to innovation. These panels will be composed of senior experts on innovation and will serve to complement the analytical findings of Sectoral Innovation Watch and other European innovation policy issues. To this extent, they will engage in the formulation of policy recommendations.
10 Innovation Financing Networks will aim to strengthen the current poor access to finance for innovative companies, which is a frequent obstacle to innovation in many sectors. The Networks will bring together entrepreneurs, incubators and the financial community in different sectors to analyse innovation finance needs, develop new tools for innovation finance and draw policy recommendations.
Clusters are regarded as hotspots for innovation. 11 Cluster Networks will provide platforms for existing industrial clusters in Europe to share experience and work on the better understanding and transfer of good practice in cluster management.
The Innovation Management project intends to provide new tools for SMEs aimed at launching innovative start-ups. This project attempts to make the growing incubation business more professional through employing new tools for innovation management including self-assessment for SMEs as well as certification of innovation capabilities.
Standards should be considered a catalyst for innovation. They play a crucial role in the definition of market conditions within many industrial sectors and they effectively accelerate technological and organisational change. To improve innovation performance through the use of standards a series of Networks has been created.
In preparation for policy initiatives designed to foster competitiveness and innovation, the Innovation Mapping scheme provides a specific study to map and analyse the evolution of existing and emerging clusters in Europe. The proposed study will create a consistent set of data and apply the same methodology throughout the EU-25. The study will enhance understanding of the role of clusters in strengthening innovation performance.
All Europe INNOVA discussions will be facilitated by Europe INNOVA Communications, a horizontal project responsible for enabling networking among the partners involved and distributing the results of their work. The main Europe INNOVA outcomes and policy recommendations will be promoted through annual reports and Europe INNOVA conferences.
The Europe INNOVA Forum is an interactive web-based platform for initiatives and projects in support of entrepreneurial innovation that will benefit and contribute to Europe INNOVA. With the Europe INNOVA projects at its core, the online Forum will offer policy makers, innovation intermediaries and enterprises a platform for exchanging good practice, ideas and policy recommendations.
