Studying the European innovation potential

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Dominique Foray will share his expertise in the "Innovation for Growth" group to support the Europe 2020 strategy.

In February 2011, the European Council called for the implementation of a strategic and integrated approach to boost innovation and take full advantage of Europe’s intellectual capital. This project aims to benefit the citizens, companies - in particular SMEs – and researchers and at monitoring progress in the framework of the follow up to the Europe 2020 Strategy.

The overall objectives of the work programme are:

- To enhance the effectiveness and coherence of national and EU research policies and their articulation with other policies

- To improve the impact of public research and its links with industry

- To strengthen public support and its leverage effect on investment by private actors.

The "Innovation for Growth" (i4G) expert group has been put together as part of one of the actions to support the strategy developed in the Europe 2020 flapship initiative "Innovative Union" and has been mandated by the DG Research and Innovation to develop and analyse indicators of research activity and its impact on the economy. As a renowned researcher and economist, Dominique Foray has been nominated as a member of this highly selected group of economists in charge of supporting the European Union Commissioners for a Coherent Development of Research Policies.

The group is composed of a Bureau of 10 members (in charge of the output) and 15 Corresponding members who will share their experience as regards to innovation best practices:

The objectives of the group are

- To advise the Commissioner/Commission on research-based innovation, technology creation and how it is best transformed into economic growth
- To assess the innovation potential and economic growth aspects of actions in the realm of the Innovation Union Flagship Initiatives and of best practices in R&I activities
- To provide recommendations and suggestions as regards economic policies in order to make the Innovation Union work at European, national and regional level
- To consider the economic benefits of the European Research Area and explore related issues
- To support the Commissioner/Commission in communication and dialogue on research and innovation policies with stakeholders at European, national and regional level