A number of recent studies highlight the significance of high-growth firms as an engine of economic growth, not least through their contribution to job creation and employment. They also show that the EU lags behind the US in the prevalence and impact of High Growth Innovative Enterprises (HGIEs). However, there is still debate on why there are these differences and on issues such as the need for specific support policies as opposed to generic support for SMEs and the effects of other elements of the innovation policy mix on the stimulation of high-growth innovative enterprises

Implications for innovation policies in Europe

The 9th PRO INNO Europe INNO-Views workshop “Improving Governance in European Innovation Policy” took place on November 26th and 27th in Brussels to discuss the rationales, challenges and opportunities to improve governance for innovation policies at European level. In order to make the ambitions of the EU 2020 strategy happen participants agreed that both horizontal and vertical coordination of policies in support of innovation needs to be significantly improved.

The setting of this event is somewhat different than other TrendChart policy Workshops as it is not on "invitation only" and focuses on a large target group of policymakers, researchers and companies. More information about this event can be found on: http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/innovation/e-business_en.htm