Improving Trans-National Policy Learning in Innovation - Luxembourg

Submitted by Administrator on 22 April, 2010 - 16:38
in
Nov 27 2002
Event Date: 
27 November, 2002 - 16:30 - 28 November, 2002 - 16:30
Venue: 
Luxembourg

On 27 and 28 November 2002, a policy workshop took place in Luxembourg, with the participation of 35 policy-makers and experts from 15 European countries, as well as European Commission representatives from the Enterprise and RTD General Directorates. The workshop took stock of the experience made with trans-national policy learning in innovation under the Trend Chart, compares this experience with other initiatives of transnational policy learning at the Union and national levels, and draws lessons on ways and means to make transnational learning in innovation policy more effective.

Overall, the following key general messages emerged:

  • A diversity of approaches and methods are concerning Trans-national policy learning in innovation is at work in Europe: e.g.: international platforms, benchmarking exercises and comparative studies, study visits and temporary assignments, use of foreign expertise in policy design, monitoring and evaluation, etc. know much about their (relative) effectiveness.
  • What seems important, however, is to ensure a complementarity between the various tools and methods used, rather than focusing on a single approach, like studies for example.
  • Beyond the question of the choice of the strategies to adopt, the main challenge seems to lie in ensuring a full involvement of policy-makers themselves in the learning exercise.
  • Innovation is a meta-policy, crossing over several policy spaces. This poses a particular challenge for the governance of policies at national level, as strong co-ordination is therefore necessary.
  • The main limitation faced by policy-makers involved in trans-national policy learning is the well-recorded problem of context dependence of any innovation policy. The experience shows, however, that there is a middle-way between the everything is context-specific and the let’s copy-cut this best practice theses.
  • The importance of mentalities was enlightened in several respects
  • It is essential to understand one’s own innovation and innovation policy system, before one can learn from others.
  • There are different ways through which European-level efforts contribute to trans-national policy learning.
  • Overall, the three pillars of the Innovation Trend Chart project can form good steps in the direction indicated by the debates in the workshop.
  • Linking these conclusions to the wider debates on the Open Method of Co-ordination at European level, it can be seen that, in innovation, the focus is very much on the more technical stages of policy benchmarking, but it is also clear that the whole needs to move towards a more political phase.

Information available for this workshop:

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