Commission Staff Working Document published on services innovation

Mette Quinn from the 'Support for Innovation' Unit of the Directorate-General (DG) for Enterprise and Industry continues: 'It is not enough to support services innovations only at activity or firm level. What is needed is a holistic approach that ensures that new ideas can be brought successfully to market. Such strategic approaches may either be built upon specific sector strengths, for example through clusters, or aimed at creating new market opportunities through services innovation.'   

This view is supported by Jenny Tooth, GLE Growth Capital, UK and Chairwoman of the Horizontal Steering Group of the Knowledge Intensive Service Innovation Platform under Europe INNOVA: 'Businesses involved in services innovations and especially those in the area of knowledge-intensive services often find it difficult to access the finance they need to grow. Europe INNOVA projects are addressing this challenge but more support is also expected from the European Investment Fund (EIF) to unlock the growth potential of service companies in Europe. There is still a bias towards better support of technological innovation, and this must be changed in the future.'

The new INNO-Net on services innovation will not only look at the question of how the development of new business models can be better supported through research but will also explore possibilities for new Lead Market Initiatives in this field. 'We have the ambition to use this INNO-Net as a strategic platform for the discussions on services innovation in the EU,' says Tiina Tanninen-Ahonen, Director for Service Innovation, TEKES, and Chairwoman of the Steering Group of the INNO-Net. 'Services innovation is already high up on the innovation policy agenda in those Member States that lead on innovation in Europe. It must now also be addressed more prominently at EU level,' she concluded, in view of the forthcoming European Innovation Plan.

 

The Staff Working Document is available here. 

 

          

 Mette Quinn                                               Tiina Tanninen-Ahonen                        
 'Support for Innovation' Unit,                       Director for Service Innovation, TEKES            
 DG for Enterprise and Industry          

 

Jenny Tooth
GLE Growth Capital, UK, and Chair-
woman of the Horizontal Steering Group 
Platform under Europe INNOVA