The Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union is preparing to present to the delegations of the Council’s Research Working Party on Monday 17 October a draft of conclusions on the new and substantially revised innovation agenda.
In its draft conclusions, the Presidency stresses the need to establish a level-playing field in innovation both within the internal market and in the context of open research and innovation cooperation.
The section on ‘strengthening, attracting and retaining talent’ is also being expanded. Instead of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) acting alone to provide targeted support to deep tech talent, those technologies that combine science and engineering, the Presidency proposes to make it clear that the Council values the support of the European Union and national policies to encourage universities to strengthen the entrepreneurial spirit among academics, including initiatives to target deep tech talent and to reduce gender disparities in Europe.
The text states that the Council welcomes the European Commission’s intention to assess the need for action at European level to remove administrative barriers to the admission of third country entrepreneurs.
The draft conclusions also welcome the interim solution around the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, which allows the Fund to take investment decisions, but want the Commission to move forward on a long-term solution by optimising existing tools rather than creating new ones.
With regard to the improvement and consolidation of innovation ecosystems, the text emphasises, among other things, the disparities of ecosystems at national level in addition to the regional level.
The Presidency wants the strong regional dimension of ecosystems to be taken into account when developing innovation policies and for ‘innovation valleys’ to connect regional ecosystems with similar and complementary specialisations.
The draft conclusions also stress the need for investment in basic research.
Link to the project: https://aeur.eu/f/3mi (Original version in French by Émilie Vanderhulst)