Open Innovation 2.0 Yearbook 2013 - European Commission - Europa

42 O P E N I N N O V A T I O N 2 0 1 3
2.2. Collaborative innovation ecosystems for solving societal challenges
According to the Europe 2020 Innovation Union
flagship initiative [1], research and innovation for
entrepreneurship are the key engines for smart,
sustainable and inclusive growth and job creation.
The Europe 2020 Innovation Union is a bold
attempt to solve the ‘European innovation emergence’
[2]. In terms of inputs to European R & D,
the EU, on average, was lacking (2 % of GDP) in
comparison to the United States (2.8 %) and Japan
(3.4 %) in 2010 [3]. Even though the EU is slowly
advancing towards its 3 % R & D target, there is
a widening gap between the EU and its world competitors
[4]; the overall picture is that Europe is falling
behind the United States, Japan and China. The
global R & D funding forecast 2012 [5] views that
this tendency will continue even though the growth
of overall global R & D spending continues, especially
in China, Japan and the United States, while
globalisation accelerates. Europe maintains the
problem of lacking R & D in the business sector and
some Member States. However, countries such as
Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Austria and Germany [4]
still rank high in international R & D comparisons.
Horizon 2020 [6], the new EU framework programme
2014–20, proposes a major investment of EUR 80
billion in research, innovation and entrepreneurship.
Horizon 2020 aims at strengthening Europe’s global
competitiveness through, firstly, globally competitive
science and technology excellence in Europe and,
secondly, European global industrial leadership in
research, development and innovation (RDI). Horizon
2020 also proposes a further third pillar (EUR 32
billion) that is a new key element to the programme:
the RDI around major societal challenges of our time.
These are the grand challenges shared by all Europeans,
such as climate change, well-being and ageing,
sustainable urban and rural development, sustainable
transport and mobility, energy efficiency and
making renewable energy more affordable, ensuring
food safety and security, and coping with challenges
of globalisation, poverty, and immigration.
Horizon 2020 reflects the understanding that
Europe’s current problems are outcomes of underlying
structural problems and lacking economic and
social dynamism. Europe needs to invest in RDI
that renews and strengthens economic and social
foundations. At its best, Horizon 2020 — with its
emphasis on solving societal challenges — opens
new avenues for transformative innovation, balanced
economic and social development, and
entrepreneurial activities, in the business sector
and across sectors, whether private, public or civic.
However, this calls for the engagement of firms,
academia, public agencies and people in a strategic
dialogue and collective actions that aim at making
the world a better place in which to live.
Horizon 2020 and European Innovation Union mean
— in terms of how to solve the major societal challenges
— strategic partnerships of firms, academia,
cities, public agencies and people in RDI. Traditionally,
the innovation partnership is viewed as relevant
to technology development. We argue that it is
even more relevant for solving societal challenges.
Public–private partnerships in RDI around solving
societal challenges are crucial: they are needed in
order to guarantee a wide and deep impact (i.e. all
the relevant players should get involved). We even
argue that the strategic collaboration in solving
societal challenges brings opportunities to create
new firms, joint ventures, social entrepreneurship
and entrepreneurial activities — along with wider
societal, institutional and structural transformation.
However, solving societal challenges brings about
questions such as: who is in the position to define
the societal challenge in the first place, and how?
How should the consequent leadership and organisation
of the joint effort to solve that challenge be
viewed? Who sets, and how, the strategic goals to
solve these societal challenges? How should we
organise the creation of the strategic agenda and
organisation for the process of collaborative RDI?
Who should lead and organise the collaboration
around solving the societal challenges?
However, these problems should be solved: the
strategic collaboration of firms, academia and public
agencies — even with people — offers a potential
for shared value creation that reforms markets
and industries, improves the productivity of public
and private services, and tackles the grand challenges
with new approaches; the societal challenges
can be taken as starting points and the main
focus in RDI — they should not be viewed just as
side effects or impacts of techno-economic development
but, rather, as main sources for new social
and economic innovations. While doing so, there is
an opportunity to apply a human-centric approach
that values quality of life and nature.
Human-centric approaches and shared value creation
may, however, challenge our understanding of
the sources of productivity, efficiency and global
competitiveness. We may find new dynamic socioeconomic
patterns of competitiveness. We may