I527-290 ESRIF Final Report (WEB).indd - European Commission

202
9.3.1.6 Fostering a culture which celebrates innovation
Partnerships between research, industry and end-users are seen as an important enabler to stimulate innovation in the
security domain. For such partnerships to work effi ciently, it is important to build on a well-organised knowledge base and
to establish market conditions, mechanisms and incentives that foster innovation. One example in this context could be
fi eld laboratories.
Independent testing for technology validation
Technological developments are moving fast and the security relevant product portfolio is very wide. In this
labyrinth of technologies, first responders, fire brigades, customs officers and other operators in the field are not
always sufficiently aware of the technology potential and technology readiness to support their operations and can
therefore not access those potential products and services. Therefore, there is a need for independent validation
of technologies. The result must influence the R&D prioritisation in order to enhance the fast implementation of
innovative solutions.
Field labs for validation
The result of the complete innovation chain, starting from R&D will be systems and solutions which should
enhance safety and security, e. g. first responders. However, before implanting such new solutions, Field labs are
needed for the validation (verifying whether it is fit for purpose), i.e. realistic environments for the demonstration,
validation and optimisation of innovative systems for security tasks or meeting points where end-users, security
authorities, industry and the research community can have access to the technological solutions relevant for their
daily work.
Encourage SMEs
SMEs account for 67% of Europe’s private sector employment and represent 99.8% of all European enterprises 6 .
They suffer more than large companies from administrative and regulatory burden, lack of access to finance,
taxation, insufficient access to public procurements and research funding, unfair or too strong competition, etc.
This is not specific for the security domain, but ESRIF WG 9 does believe that future EU research and innovation
initiatives should be designed so as to alleviate SME problems and to grow SME participation in EU RTD. Specifically
for security research how to stimulate and optimise SME involvement in projects, targeting 25% by 2011, could be
explored.
In addition, security is an extremely broad domain requiring input from most industrial sectors and expert disciplines.
Many SMEs that would normally not operate in the security arena have relevant skills for security applications. This is an
‘untapped potential’. Dedicated initiatives should be undertaken that would encourage more SMEs to enter exploitable
high-tech niche security markets. As such, Europe will drive investment in knowledge and innovation and thereby enhance
its competitiveness. A further benefi t is that this action will improve the competitiveness of large European enterprises
by broadening and deepening the pool of potential partner SMEs. ESRIF recommends to launch a structured initiative to
identify exploitable demand by public and private security end-users and to entice non-security SMEs into these niche
markets and, to a lesser degree, to encourage existing security SMEs to diversify. It is noted that for SMEs the large enterprises
are legitimate end-users.
9.3.2 Capitalisation of Europe’s knowledge base
In order to strengthen and dynamically integrate R&D resources and competences to make optimal use of its knowledge base,
Europe would need:
Mapping of technological and industrial competences,
Innovation ecosystem,
Exploiting the value of instruments such as technology platforms or joint initiatives for security,
Education and scenario-based training.
6 http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/entrepreneurship/docs/sme_pack_en_2008_full.pdf
ESRIF FINAL REPORT - PART 2 • Working Group: Innovation Issues