Introduction

The financial crisis has raised critical questions as to whether the current economic and development models are still able to reinvigorate the competitiveness and innovation of European regions, notably those that are least performing and often characterised by a predominance of traditional manufacturing industries and low-tech services.

For decades European programmes have provided support to the regions and Member States to develop better innovation programs. However, the ‘innovation gap’ with the capital market driven US innovation system is seemingly not closing, while the advantage over Asian countries with a strong role of public governance is narrowing.

What could be improved in order to change this? Does Europe need a distinct innovation model that builds on its recognised strengths: the social capital, the strong regions and the recognition of the critical but ultimately limited role of both ‘good governance’ and ‘capital markets’?

Within this perspective, the EU has launched the Innovation Union, as one of the seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 growth strategy, aimed at securing Europe's global competitiveness by:

• Removing obstacles to innovation – like expensive patenting, market fragmentation, slow standard-setting and skills shortages – which currently prevent ideas getting quickly to market.
• Helping innovative enterprise to develop their technological breakthroughs into viable products with real commercial potential.
• Revolutionising the way public and private sectors work together, notably through Innovation Partnerships between the European institutions, national and regional authorities and business.

In line with the Innovation Union initiative, the 2012 PRO INNO Europe® Annual Partnering Event promotes better practices and envisages new approach toinnovation support, focusing on the following themes:

How can industries under pressure from global competition transform and re-emerge with enhanced competitiveness?

Can innovation support continue to focus on small and single enterprises if sectors need transformation? And if not, who should be targeted instead and might this require new forms of support provision?

How could a permanent learning mechanism for better innovation support be established that overcomes the problems of being implemented through projects?

Against this background, the objectives of the Annual Partnering Event are:

·         To network existing INNO-Nets and recently launched Innovation Alliances for a transfer of knowledge, insights and methods.

·         To investigate how public innovation support can accelerate the transformation of industries.

·         To develop recommendations and partnerships to be supported in the future European programmes that more effectively connect experimental actions with peer learning and transfer activities.

As a lead-in to the theme of the event, the local host - Corticeira Amorim (The world leader in the cork industry) will offer an interesting visit and presentation of how the new innovation challenges have been addressed by this traditional sector.