Key demands of WKO’s innovation strategy are met
Vienna (OTS) – The European Commission today presented its “New Innovation Agenda” with around 21 measures and initiatives for the coming years until 2024. “The aim is to better mobilize Europe’s research and innovation potential and thus strengthen Europe’s innovative capacity, because solving and mastering today’s challenges requires ideas with effective innovations to leverage more added value. This means that important requirements of the WKO innovation strategy are now being implemented at the European level”, says Mariana Kühnel, stv. Secretary General of the Austrian Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ). The proposed measures include, in particular, initiatives aimed at facilitating experimentation and testing of new innovations, with the EU’s innovation agenda focusing on the areas of “scaling up”, “framework conditions”, “innovation ecosystems”, “innovation policy” and the “talent” stand.
With the new innovation agenda, the EU Commission is trying to improve the network of innovation hotspots in Europe and thus strengthen knowledge transfer. This is essential because innovation is very much at the local level. However, in order to optimize synergy effects as an economic and research area, Europe needs to transfer knowledge and technology between individual hotspots.
In addition, the innovation agenda proposes solutions for better access to finance for start-ups and innovative companies. In particular, this involves creating incentives for private and institutional investors to strengthen venture capital in Europe. At the same time, Brussels is calling for measures to make it easier for companies to mobilize capital – such as modernizing stock tax rules or allowing intellectual property to be used as collateral. This means that WKO’s proposals from “ECONOMY. GROWTH. PROSPERITY.” assumed at European level.
The new innovation agenda also includes a European framework to attract and retain research, innovation and entrepreneurial talent in Europe. This theme is a priority for the WKÖ, because practical innovation needs talent, and the global competition for the best minds among business locations has significantly intensified. Specifically, an initiative is being launched by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and the European Innovation Council (EIC) to make around 1 million additional deep tech talent available in Europe’s research and economics area in the short term. deadline. in the medium term.
Many of the approaches of the New European Innovation Agenda are evaluated very positively by the WKO. However, the EU research program “Horizon Europe” must also be optimized through further simplifications. “Administrative effort and ambiguity in funding rules – especially with the European Innovation Council (EIC) – are still a big bureaucratic barrier for potential participants, which doesn’t get us anywhere as desired. This needs to be transformed, because the success of the whole is the result of the innovative contribution of each one”, concludes Kühnel. (PWK299/FA)
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