In Europe, innovation has been high on the policy agenda for several years now, as its impact on competitiveness and growth is widely accepted. The use of public procurement to enhance innovation has recently seen a significant increase in political discussions.
The European Commission''s Directorate-Generale Enterprise is organising a policy workshop on the topic "Innovation in Services” This workshop will be held on June 19 and 20 2006 in Porvoo, Finland (approx. 50 km from Helsinki) and is hosted by the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation TEKES.
How to improve innovation policy governance in Europe. The European Trend Chart on Innovation will organise a policy workshop on "a European Innovation Agency - How to improve innovation policy governance in Europe?” to be held on 5 and 6 April in The Hague (The Netherlands).
The objective of the workshop will be to collect feedback from innovation actors in Europe to support the Commission services in exploring best ways to improve innovation governance at EU level.
The European Commission''''s Directorate-Generale Enterprise is organising a workshop to look in more detail into the innovation gap between Europe and the United States. This workshop ?the innovation gap between EU and US: myth or reality? will be held in Brussels on 15-16 November 2005.
Hotel President World Trade Centre, Blvd du Roi Albert II, Brussels
The European Union is facing a paradigm shift from a traditional industry driven economy to the new knowledge based economy. This is impacting on every facet of life and requires a radical transformation of Europe?s economy and society. In the knowledge economy skills, market and technical knowledge, networks, business relationships, are important drivers for a companies'' ability to innovate and gain competitive advantage.
Charlemagne Conference Centre ? Room S3, Rue de la Loi 170, Brussels
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
Hotel President World Trade Centre, Blvd du Roi Albert II, Brussels
Considering the importance of innovation to achieve the goals of the Lisbon strategy and secure long-term sustainable economic growth in Europe, the Commissions DG Research and DG Enterprise and Industry have decided to prepare a joint ERA-NET call on collaboration between Innovation Agencies on innovation programmes to be published in October/November 2005.
If Europe is to become "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy by the end of the decade", there is an implicit reliance on appropriate skills being available to drive the knowledge economy and contribute to innovating enterprises.
Human Capital is one of the key factors influencing innovation and there is evidence, from studies of both consumer and producer behaviour, that better skilled individuals tend to adopt innovation sooner than less-skilled individuals.
Promoting innovation in enterprises and spreading innovation excellence is one of the priorities of the new Commission Innovation Action Plan that was opened for consultation in April 2004.
Europe must identify, analyse and promote existing "excellence". Such a showcase for excellence needs to be promoted to spread the culture of innovation through examples of best practice and success stories, and foster the creation of innovative businesses and processes
