6.2. Innovative societies

The Union share of global knowledge production remains considerable, yet its socio-economic impacts need to be maximised. Efforts will be made to increase the efficiency of research and innovation policies and their transnational policy synergies and coherence. Innovation will be addressed in a wide sense, including large-scale policy, social-, user- and market-driven innovation. The experience and innovative power of creative and cultural Industries will be taken into account. These activities will support the achievement and functioning of the ERA and in particular the Europe 2020 flagship initiatives 'Innovation Union' and the 'Digital Agenda for Europe'. The following specific objectives will be pursued: In order to assess and prioritise investments and strengthen the Innovation Union and the ERA, the analysis of research, education and innovation policies, systems and actors in Europe and third countries as well as the development of indicators, data and information infrastructures will be supported. Forward-looking activities and pilot initiatives, economic and gender analysis, policy monitoring, mutual learning, coordination tools and activities and the development of methodologies for impact assessment and evaluations will also be needed, exploiting direct feedback from stakeholders, enterprises, public authorities, civil society organisations and citizens. This analysis should be conducted in coherence with studies on higher education systems in Europe and third countries within the Erasmus+ programme. To ensure a single market for research and innovation, measures to incentivise ERA compatible behaviour will be implemented. Activities underpinning policies related to the quality of research training, mobility and career development of researchers will be supported, including initiatives to provide for mobility services, open recruitment, women's participation in the sciences, researchers' rights and links with global researcher communities. These activities will be implemented seeking synergies and close coordination with the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions under the priority 'Excellent science'. Institutions presenting innovative concepts for the rapid implementation of ERA principles, including the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, the Commission Recommendation on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and Code of Practice for universities and other public research institutions COM(2008) 1329 final, 10.4.2008. , will be supported. As regards coordination of policies, a facility for policy advice will be set up to make expert policy advice available to national authorities when defining their National Reform Programmes and research and innovation strategies. To implement the Innovation Union flagship initiative, there is also a need to support market-driven innovation, open innovation, public sector and social innovation in view of enhancing the innovation capacity of firms and fostering European competitiveness. This will require improving the overall framework conditions for innovation as well as tackling the specific barriers preventing the growth of innovative firms. Powerful innovation support mechanisms (such as improved cluster management, public-private partnerships and network cooperation), highly specialised innovation support services (on e.g. IP management/exploitation, networking of IPR owners and users, innovation management, entrepreneurship skills, and networks of procurers) and reviews of public policies in relation to innovation will be supported. Issues specific to SMEs will be supported under the specific objective 'Innovation in SMEs'. Social innovation generates new goods, services, processes and models that meet societal needs and create new social relationships. As means of innovation are constantly changing, further research is needed into the development of all forms of innovation and the way innovation meets the needs of society. It is important to understand how social innovation and creativity may lead to change in existing structures, practices and policies and how they can be encouraged and scaled-up. It is important to assess the impact of on-line platforms on networking citizens. Support will also be given to the use of design in companies, networking and experimentation of the use of ICT for improving learning processes, as well as to networks of social innovators and social entrepreneurs. Research will also focus on the processes of innovation and how they develop, succeed or fail (including risk taking and the role of different regulatory environments). It will be essential to promote innovation in order to foster efficient, open and citizen-centric public services (e.g. eGovernment). This will require multidisciplinary research on new technologies and large-scale innovation related in particular to digital privacy, interoperability, personalised electronic identification, open data, dynamic user interfaces, lifelong learning and e-learning platforms, distributed learning systems, citizen-centric public service configuration and integration and innovation driven by users, including in social sciences and the humanities. Such actions will also address social network dynamics and crowd-sourcing and smart-sourcing for co-production of solutions addressing social problems, based, for example, on open data sets. They will help to manage complex decision making, in particular the handling and analysis of huge quantities of data for collaborative policy modelling, simulation of decision making, visualisation techniques, process modelling and participatory systems as well as to analyse changing relationships between citizens and the public sector. Specific measures shall be developed to involve the public sector as an agent for innovation and change, at national and Union level, in particular through policy support and cross-border innovation measures at the widest geographical level enabling the smart use of ICT in and by public administrations for seamless delivery of public services for citizens and businesses. Activities will contribute to exploring Europe's opportunities to innovate in terms of new products and technologies, improved services and new business and social models adapted to the changing demographic structure of the society. Activities will enhance taking advantage of the potential of all generations by fostering the development of smart policies to make active ageing a reality in an evolving intergenerational context and by supporting the integration of the generations of young Europeans in all domains of social, political, cultural and economic life, taking into account, amongst others, perception of opportunities for innovation in the context of high unemployment in many Union regions. Horizontal activities will ensure the strategic development of international cooperation across Horizon 2020 and address cross-cutting policy objectives. Activities to support bilateral, multilateral and bi-regional policy dialogues in research and innovation with third countries, regions, international fora and organisations will facilitate policy exchange, mutual learning and priority setting, promote reciprocal access to programmes and monitor the impact of cooperation. Networking and twinning activities will facilitate optimal partnering between research and innovation actors on both sides and improve competencies and cooperation capacity in less advanced third countries. Activities will promote coordination of Union and national cooperation policies and programmes, as well as joint actions of Member States and associated countries with third countries in order to enhance their overall impact. Finally, the European research and innovation 'presence' in third countries will be consolidated and strengthened, notably by exploring the creation of European virtual 'science and innovation houses', the provision of services to European organisations extending their activities into third countries, and the opening of research centres, established jointly with third countries, to organisations or researchers from other Member States and associated countries.

← anx_I__cpt_1__cpt_6__cpt_6__cpt_1__cpt_4__text_2 · All articles · anx_I__cpt_1__cpt_6__cpt_6__cpt_2__text_1 →

Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.