Brussels, 25 April The European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) have backed the Commission’s Resource Efficient Roadmap, but are pushing for more ambitious measures. ENVI supported a proposal by Danish MEP Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy for EU national and sectoral resource efficiency targets. Elsewhere, the call for an EU landfill ban was made more…
Berlin, 5 April – The German federal environment ministry, Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit (BMU), has issued a report showing that 85-87% of Germany’s electricity requirement could come from renewable sources by 2050, with the average price of renewable energy predicted to be cheaper than gas and coal by 2030. The study recommends a variety of…
Brussels, 21 March 2012 – A study by DG Enterprise has revealed that 85% of all jobs created in the EU between 2002 and 2010 were created by SMEs, a considerably higher figure than their 67% share of total employment. SMEs showed employment growth of 1% each year in the period, compared with larger companies who…
Brussels, 20 March 2012 Commercialisation activities should be run in parrallel to R&D activities in publicly funded R&D projects, and should be carried out by innovation professionals. This was the key message at a dinner debate on how to get more innovation out of EU-funded research under the next EC programme for research and innovation –…
London, 15 March – With rising concerns about the supply of scarce metals essential to the UK economy, DEFRA (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) today launched its Resource Security Action Plan, with a £200,000 ‘challenge fund’ to encourage businesses to find new ways of recycling scarce materials, particularly from electronic devices. The Action…
Luxembourg, 12 March – The European Investment Fund (EIF) has launched the European Angels Fund (EAF), a fund which provides equity to Business Angels and other non-institutional investors for the financing of innovative small and medium-sized enterprises in the form of co-investments. It works hand in hand with Business Angels and helps them to increase…
Brussels, 9 March The European Commission has claimed that €50bn per year could be saved through stronger implementation of environmental legislation. This would be saved in health costs, as well as direct costs to the environment. In a press release, Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik said, “Our environment is protected by some 200 pieces of well established law,…
Berlin, 29 February – In an effort to meet its national sustainability targets, the German government has adopted a new Resource Efficiency Plan. Germany’s 2002 National Sustainability Strategy set the target of doubling resource productivity by 2020, compared with 1994 standards. However, recent figures showed that the country was only on track to achieve an 82%…
Brussels, 29 February – With the intention of encouraging research into more sustainable and efficient use of raw materials and agriculture, the European Commission has launched two European Innovation Partnerships (EIPs), which it believes can deliver results within three years. EIPs were first introduced in 2010, as part of the Innovation Union strategy which intended to…
“Innovation Union” Speech by Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, EU Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, Berlin 23. February 2012 Excerpt from the Commissioner’s speech: “Our future depends on competitive industries that are able to create jobs. This means investing in research, in new technologies and in creating a climate that boosts innovation. The Europe 2020 Strategy sets…
With funding from the Dutch government, EIM Business and Policy Research has just published the results of a study into eco-innovations and their revenue models. The study investigates the kinds of revenue models SMEs use to scale up their eco-innovations successfully, and aims to uncover policy opportunities to stimulate eco-innovation. Expert interviews and case studies…
Brussels, 19 January 2012 – The fourth INNO-GRIPS II workshop – Social attitudes toward fostering entrepreneurship and innovation demand – was held to validate a study carried out by the Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT). The event attracted over 60 participants from a wide range of backgrounds, including policy makers, innovation…
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