Brussels, 04/09/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission, in response to the recommendations of the report by Esko Aho, is to take steps to ensure that ICT (information and communication technologies) research creates more commercial opportunities. On Thursday 4 September, it called on the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament to support a new drive to cut red tape for innovative companies and allow greater flexibility to make European high tech research more effective. At the same time, it has launched a public consultation exercise to help it determine the best way to take Europe to the forefront of ICT research and innovation over the next 10 years. “We are falling behind in terms of the level and intensity of ICT research spending and we consistently fail to commercialise research results,” said Information Society and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding. She went on: “We need less administrative red tape and risk aversion and a more proactive policy environment”.
The conclusions of the panel of independent experts chaired by former Finnish prime minister, Esko Aho, unveiled in June, highlighted the real progress made by the EU in high tech research, but they also showed the difficulty the EU has in achieving tangible results from this research. “I believe a systemic change in the EU's research policy is needed to avoid that EU research spending is not more than a mere drop in the ocean,” Aho said at the time, calling on member states and the EP to “equip the EU with the right flexible tools to better focus European high-tech research and to open it up to more risk and to new international partners”.
The experts' recommendations highlighted the need to cut red tape to attract more rapidly expanding small and medium-sized enterprises to invest in European research, and what has to be done to take the results of the research through to marketing. Today, ICT accounts for 33% of research and innovation in developed economies worldwide, but only 25% in Europe. This deficit is due mainly to serious fragmentation, the Aho report regrets. Furthermore, the report notes that the EU represents 32% of the global ICT market, yet European firms take up only 22% of the global market. In concrete terms, the Aho report recommends increasing the numbers of public-private partnerships, such as joint technology initiatives for nanoelectronics and embedded systems in which the Commission invested €5 billion earlier this year (see EUROPE 9609). The report also recommends action to further cut red tape to make it easier for innovative companies to take part in EU research and to turn the results of this research into products and services for consumers in Europe and beyond. The Commission, aware of the challenges, intends to develop a more risk-tolerant approach to supporting research in the EU, and is calling on the Council and Parliament to support it. It is preparing to invest €9 billion in high-tech research under its ICT research programme between 2007 and 2013. Between 2003 and 2006, European research received €4 billion in funding, bringing together over 4,500 research organisations, and in addition member states and private companies invested some €100 billion.
The consultation exercise, which will run from Thursday until 7 November, will inform the Commission as it defines how best to take Europe to the forefront of ICT research and innovation over the next 10 years. Three main questions will be asked: - what are the main challenges ahead for ICT research and innovation?; - how, and in what fields, should Europe be able to lead?; - what is the role of public policy in putting Europe at the forefront of ICT innovation? The results will inform the Commission as it prepares a new research and innovation strategy to be rolled out in 2009. “We face challenges in energy, health and ageing that can only be tackled if we deploy ICT solutions,” Reding said. She added, “This consultation is the first step towards an integrated strategy for research and innovation in the ICT sector that I will put on the table early next year”. The public consultation document can be found at: http: //ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=ICTRDI (I.L./transl.rt)