EUREKA NEWS

VINNOVA, the Swedish funding agency for R&D performing companies and research organizations and home to the Swedish EUREKA National Office, welcomes and supports the efforts to discuss and further develop Community innovation policies. VINNOVA is grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the dynamicity of Research in Europe through the European Commission’s consultation, as well as through the three PRO INNO projects in which it is engaged. VINNOVA also agrees with the general description of the importance of innovation for long term sustainable growth and as a mean to address major societal challenges, as well as with the observations on how the preconditions for innovation in Europe and the rest of the world are changing rapidly.

VINNOVA pays special attention to the the support for the SMEs, and sees them as becoming increasingly important as change agents in the economy, as important channels for commercialization of research and as sources of new growth companies.

The solutions addressing the important challenges concerning the stimulation of growth of innovative SMEs, must be firmly based on a European Added Value perspective. This is especially important when it comes to public support to SMEs, since assessment of growth potential and competencies of SMEs applying for support often requires local knowledge and proximity. These are also important features when it comes to the monitoring of on-going projects, which is best served by a trust-based approach focusing on results instead of the accountant perspective of the current financial regulations. Another negative feature of current Community Programmes, especially problematic from the point of view of SMEs, is the prolonged selection processes. As a contrast, multilateral collaborations, such as EUREKA and EUROSTARS, are often brought forward as examples of regulations more adapted to the reality of targeted group of SMEs. Preferably a future Community Innovation Policy should include the possibility to top-up successful multinational or national programmes as was done in the case of EUROSTARS.