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EU Local and Regional Authorities'Contribution to the
Mid-term Review of Europe 2020
Assessment of the Innovation Union flagship initiative
CDR5172-2013_16_00_TRA_TCD
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Three years after its launch, the Committee of the Regions will take stock of the Innovation Union flagship initiative at a conference to be held on 27 November 2013 in Brussels. This conference will be the seventh in a series of CoR events and monitoring initiatives surrounding the mid-term review of Europe 2020. More news on this conference can be found on the CoR website[1].
By participating in this survey, you will:
ensure that your views are taken into account in the debate held during the conference;
contribute to the CoR's consultative activity in this field over the coming months;
provide input to the CoR's contribution to the mid-term review of Europe 2020.
If you wish to participate in this survey, please complete this questionnaire in any eu language, using the spaces provided, and return it in text format to:
by 27 September 2013
For more information on this survey and for details on how to join the
Europe 2020 Monitoring Platform, go to:
The questionnaire is available on this website in all official EU languages
You can find more information onInnovation Union, as seen from thelocal and regional authorities' viewpoint, in the Committee of the Regions' publication Delivering on the Europe 2020 Strategy - A Handbook for Local and Regional Authorities[2]. General information on Europe 2020 may be found on the strategy's official website[3].
Contributor information[4]
Name of sender: / Isabella Bressan – Michele Nulli – Nicoletta ClauserContact details:
(address, telephone, email) / Piazza Dante, 15
+39 0461 495111
On behalf of:
(name of local or regional authority) / Autonomous Province of Trento
Type of organisation / City/Town/Municipality Region
County/Province Association of local and/or regional authorities
Other (please specify)
Country: / Italy
Member of the EUROPE 2020 Monitoring Platform: / Yes No
Policy challenges and responses at regional and local level
BOX 1Innovation Union as specified in the European Commission's Communication
The Innovation Unioninitiative[5] was adopted in 2010, as an integral part of Europe 2020[6]. The overall aim of this flagship initiative is to re-focusresearch and development(R&D) and innovation policy on the challenges facing our society, such as climate change, energy, health and demographic change. Innovation Union is a crucial investment in our future. For example, it is estimated that achieving the target of investing 3% of EU GDP on R&D by 2020 could create 3.7 million jobs and increase annual GDP by €795 billion by 2025. The flagship initiative contains the following aims:
- In times of fiscal constraints, the EU and Member States need to continue to invest in education, R&D, innovation and ICTs.
- EU and national research & innovation systems need to be better linked up with each other and their performance improved.
- Education systems at all levels need to be modernised. Excellence must become the guiding principle even more than before. Researchers and innovators must be able to work and cooperate across the EU as easily as within national borders. The European Research Area must be completed.
- Access to EU programmes must be simplified and their leverage effect on private sector investment enhanced,sinceour research needs to result in more innovation. Cooperation between the worlds of science and business must be enhanced, obstacles removed and incentives put in place.
- The remaining barriers for entrepreneurs to bring "ideas to market" must be removed: we must have better access to finance, particularly for SMEs, affordable intellectual property rights, smarter and more ambitious regulations and targets and a faster setting of interoperable standards.
- European Innovation Partnerships should be launched.
- Strengths in design and creativity must be better exploited.
- Social innovationmust be championed and a better understanding of public sector innovation developed, identifying and giving visibility to successful initiatives.
- Better work with our international partners is needed. That also means adopting a common EU front where needed in international (trade) negotiations.
1)What type of policy programmes/actions are being implemented in your city/region to support the policy goals of the Innovation Union (see Box 1)?
1.1 Investing in R&D, innovation and ICT (own resources, public-private partnerships, other sources…) / Policy programmes/actions contributing to this aim?
Yes No Don’t know
Brief description:
The Autonomous Province of Trento invests the equivalent of 2.03% of GDP (2010 figures, source: ISTAT) in R&D, putting Trentino at the forefront of its Italian counterparts. This result has been achieved primarily due to two laws and a series of sectoral planning documents:
1. with reference to research and further training: Provincial Law (P.L.) No 14/05 on training;
2. with reference to the business environment:company incentive initiativesin conformity with Provincial Law No 6/99.
A number of specific planning documents have been produced in response to the above laws;
3. with reference to research: the Autonomous Province of Trento's multiannual research programme for 2010-2013, approved by Resolution No 2902/2010 of the Provincial Council, with specific reference to the technological transfer function delegated to two provincial foundations, the Bruno Kessler Foundation (FBK)and the Edmund Mach Foundation (FEM), and to the EIT investment.
4. with reference to ICT assisted innovation: Resolution No 1510/11 on strategy guidelines for ICT assisted service innovation. The activities undertaken in connection with these initiatives have, amongst other things, resulted in Trento being selected as a co-location centre forEIT ICT labs in 2011.
1.2 Providing support to potential beneficiaries to access EU funds and participate in EU initiatives in the field of research and innovation / Policy programmes/actions contributing to this aim?
Yes No Don’t know
Brief description:
In 2010 the Province of Trento developed a triple helix model along the lines of the territorial laboratories (Trentino is a member of ENoLL) for knowledge transfer between research centres, companies and local demand for innovation. Subsequent use of this model has fostered a robust synergy between research foundations – FEM and FBK - the University of Trento, provincial administrative bodies (Europe Service – Provincial Agency for the Incentivisation of Economic Activities (APIAE) – University and Research Service –Innovation Department – Trentino Sviluppo) and companies, resulting in a number of coordinating, guidance and support activities on the use of funding from the ERDF, the ESF, 7PQ, CIP etc. The Europe Service coordinates planning and monitoring requirements of the structural funds using the instruments provided for under EU regulations, ensuring that they are coherent and integrated, and provides support to provincial bodies in evaluating the conditions required in order to make use of the structural funds. It also prepares and implements initiatives promoted by the European Union in partnership with the European regions, ensuring that provincial, public and private bodies in the area are involved. It promotes, coordinates and provides assistance to the provincial authorities and technical bodies, as well as regional and public agencies in Trentino, in planning and implementing EU initiatives.
Trentino Sviluppo Spa is also the regional focal point for the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN).
1.3 Encouraging the use of the results of research projects in innovative products and services / Policy programmes/actions contributing to this aim?
Yes No Don’t know
Brief description:
Under Provincial Laws Nos6/99 and14/5, the Province of Trento has taken a number of actions to encourage innovation among SMEs across the region. A service has been set up to deal withthe whole gamut of European (ERDF) and local (P.L. No 6/99)funding, from financing innovative start-ups (with calls for seed money), to funding industrial research and experimental development under P.L. No 6/99, promoting systems for transferring know-how from research centres to businesses by means of specific ERDF calls and, more recently, issuing a specific "time to market" call to take innovative products through to the marketing stage. Through the intermediary of Trentino RISE, 6 pre-market calls for tenders have been issued to develop innovative platforms to meet the challenging demands of the public sector and 2 PCPs for SMEs, tailored specifically to small and medium-sized enterprises. The province promotes the creation of clusters (universities, research centres, businesses and the public administration as a leader in research), and there are in particular a number of technological districts/poles in the energy field (Habitech – Trentino's technological district for energy and the environment), green tech (Progetto Manifattura), ICT and mechatronics. The province also participates in national calls for tenders for technological districts (smart cities and smart communities) issued by the Italian Ministry of Education, Universities and Research (MIUR).
1.4 Removing barriers to innovation, such as expensive intellectual property rights and limited access to finance / Policy programmes/actions contributing to this aim?
Yes No Don’t know
Brief description:
Trentino Sviluppo is working with APIAE to reduce the cost of intellectual property protection, in accordance with P.L. No 6/99.
1.5 Participating in one of the European Innovation Partnerships / Policy programmes/actions contributing to this aim?
Yes No Don’t know
Trentino (through the intermediary of Trentino RISE) attaches particular importance to participation in EIPs; it is a member of the Active and Healthy Ageing EIP's Action Group C2 on independent living. It has also answered an EU call for tenders to run the secretariat and working groups of the Smart Cities and Communities EIP.
1.6 Stimulating social innovation / Policy programmes/actions contributing to this aim?
Yes No Don’t know
Brief description:
Social innovation is one of the key words of development and growth policies in Trentino, and a number of initiatives have been launchedin this area:in its Resolution No 556/2013, the Provincial Council approved a project designed to encourage young entrepreneurship in the promotion of social initiatives. The TechPeaks - People Accelerator programme (a joint initiative between Trentino RISE and Trentino Sviluppo) was launched,fostering 100 start-ups in the space of 4 years.
Resolution No 455/2013 set up a territorial lab between Trento RISE and the Autonomous Province of Trento's family agency for the development of health and wellbeing services.
Trentino Sviluppo's ERDF-seed money call for tenders dedicated a section specifically to social innovation start-ups. A series of public training and information initiatives have been undertaken, such as the annual ICT Days initiative.
1.7 Cooperation with international partners in the field of research and innovation / Policy programmes/actions contributing to this aim?
Yes No Don’t know
Brief description:
The research and innovation system in Trentino (FEM – FBK – Trento RISE – University of Trento – SMEs) has given rise to a number of international links, including by way of example (this is not an exhaustive list): ENoLL, Living Lab with the government of Mozambique in the area of eGov; cooperation between the Universities of Trento and Maryland on nanotechnology research; cooperation between research institutes in Trentino (FEM and the University of Trento) and Southern Australia in the agricultural sector; cooperation in industrial development projects with the State of Israel; participation in the ESEIA (European Sustainable Energy Innovation Alliance) consortium; agreement between Trento RISE, the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research and TECNOPUC of the Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul – Porto Alegre on innovation projects. Finally, under ERDF Objective 3, cooperation projects have been launched with other European regions in connection with the Alpine Space, Central Europe and South-East Europe programmes.
1.8 Encouraging innovation in the public sector[7] / Policy programmes/actions contributing to this aim?
Yes No Don’t know
Brief description:
Under the 2011 Finance Act (P.L. 27/2010), the Province of Trento already introduced the principle of reorganising public expenditureusing the same budget, directing funding towards innovative activities in strategic sectors (ICT – energy saving – sustainable construction). P.L. 10/12, which set out the criteria for the spending review in Trentino, also recommended PCPs as a means of improving public administration by launching innovative projects in areas of strategic intervention in response to public demand for innovation. P.L. 16/12 also helped to speed up the process of improving the quality of publiclyavailable data, using the Open Data model defined in strategic documents as "infrastructure facilitating innovation".
2)One of the main aims of the Europe 2020 Strategy is to increaseinvestments in R&D to 3% of EU GDP. This target is underpinned by several actions under Innovation Union. The latest Innovation Union Scoreboard[8] of the European Commission, a progress monitoring tool, shows that there are big differences in the progress made towards this target across the EU. Which of the following challenges would you consider as the most urgent to address?
Multiple answers possible
Under-investment in the existing knowledge base (infrastructure, public research centres etc.);
Poor access to finance for innovative start-ups;
High costs of intellectual property rights (IPRs);
Ineffective use of the innovation possibilities offered by public procurement;
Fragmentation and costly duplication of projects and programmes;
No strategic approach to innovation at national level;
No real cooperation between research and industry, limited scale of bringing ideas to market;
So-called "brain-drain"(best talents leaving Europe for opportunities elsewhere);
Other (please specify)
......
BOX 2
Regional Policy contributing to smart growth in Europe
The Communication of the European Commission entitled"Regional Policy contributing to smart growth in Europe 2020[9]" [COM(2010) 553] sets out the role of regional policy in implementing the Europe 2020 strategy[10]in the area of smart growth and in particular the flagship initiative Innovation Union.[11] The Communication calls on national and regional governments todevelop smart specialisation strategies to maximise the impact of regional policy in combination with other EU policies. As a follow-up, in June 2011 the European Commission launched an online platform with a set of tools which can be used to optimise the development of local and regional smart strategies. The Smart Specialisation Platform (SPP) provides users with practical guidelines such as the latest news and events, as well as many other features. In the Communication document, the European Commission provides a non-exhaustive list of ideas which regions could use to design their strategies:
1. Innovation clusters for regional growth
Clusters provide a favourable environment for fostering competitiveness and driving innovation. Support for their development needs to be concentrated on areas of comparative advantage.
2. Innovation-friendly business environments for SMEs
Regional and national authorities should support innovation-friendly business environments to assist SMEs, R&D-intensive ones especially, and the creation of new firms.
3. Lifelong learning in research and innovation
Focusing school, vocational and higher education curricula on cross-sector skills such as creativity and entrepreneurship will help young people to develop their full potential for innovation.
4. Attractive regional research infrastructure and centres of competence
National and regional authorities should consider, in particular, how EU regional policy can contribute to the 2015 objective of the Innovation Union flagship of completing or initiating 60% of the research infrastructure currently identified by the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI)[12].
5. Creativity and cultural industries
Cultural and creative industries, which flourish at local and regional level, are in a strategic position to link creativity and innovation.[13]They should be integrated into regional development strategies.6. Digital Agenda
With regard to the significance of ICT for the innovation system, Member States should consider how to better use the ERDF to accelerate achievement of the EU 2020 objectives for broadband access.
7. Public procurement
Innovative public procurement means the public sector taking on the role and risks of a lead customer, while improving the quality of its services and productivity.
3)In line with theInnovation Unionflagship initiative and the additional Communication on "Regional Policy contributing to smart growth in Europe 2020" (see Box 2), local and regional authorities are encouraged to build smart specialisation strategies, as a condition for having access to EU Structural Funds available for investments in research and innovation. Does your region/city have a smart specialisation strategy?
Yes No Don’t know
If you answered "yes" please describe briefly its main elements and the opportunities you have identified in your smart specialisation strategy, corresponding to the list in Box 2.
In Trentino the provincial programming methodology in the area of public support for research and innovation is based on the processes described in the EU documents on the development of a smart specialisation strategy. These include: definition of thematic priorities; choices in terms of efficiency, contents, expected results and tools; and a cyclical evaluation system (although these instruments could be more closely aligned from a methodological point of view, something the province is working on). The following strategic themes have been selected in particular in the current programming period:
In the research field, the province has undertaken strategic actions to:
- set up and consolidate theTrentino Further Training, Research and Innovation System (STAR)to reach a scale enabling the province to be genuinely competitive on the international scientific market;
- select more accurately the priority research areas in which to concentrate funding in order to bring these areas at least to a European scale;
- strengthen cooperation between private firms, including local ones, making the most of opportunities for transfer and innovation in the region;
- introduce incentives based on merit and evaluation of results achieved;
- develop closer integration between the University of Trento and research foundations in the region;
If you answered "no" please let us know whether your region/city was asked by your national government to initiate a smart specialisation strategy.
Yes No Don’t know
4)Innovation Union and the concept of smart specialisation encourage a better integration of cultural and creative industries in the overall economic development. Although they have a high innovation potential, they are not always included in strategies or projects. Are cultural and creative industries included in the economic development strategy and/or in the smart specialisation strategy of your city/region?
Yes No Don’t know
If you answered "yes"please describe how.
A number of innovative projects have been launched specifically in the area of culture, also making use of the pre-commercial procurement tool. Examples include the project set up to mark the centenary of the Great War and the inauguration in Trentino of the Science Museum (MUSE); the young entrepreneurs project (see question 1 above) also provides specifically for interventions and innovative start-ups in the cultural sector in its broadest sense. Worth mentioning here is the Trentino Creativo project (Trentino Sviluppo and the University of Trento), designed to foster cooperation between firms and creative young people.
How is the Innovation Unionrelevant to your city or region?