28 October 2013 – Last week’s European Council summit devoted much of its time to a discussion on the Digital Economy, Innovation and Services.
28 October 2013 – Last week’s European Council summit devoted much of its time to a discussion on the Digital Economy, Innovation and Services.
The Council noted the importance of research and innovation spending for fuelling productivity and growth, realising that, “Member States that have continued to invest in research and innovation have fared better in the current crisis that those that have not.” The main barriers, it said, were “difficulties in accessing finance, market barriers and excessive red tape.”
Ongoing innovation initiatives were discussed, including annual monitoring of performance in the Europe 2020 framework, the establishment of a Research and Innovation Observatory and the recently released Indicator of Innovation Output.
The Council reconfirmed its desire to achieve the full European Research Area by the end of 2014 and the prerequisite aims of reforming national systems and strengthening progress monitoring. Of particular concern was improving mobility and career prospects of researchers through adequate pension solutions, transnational access to research infrastructures and open access to publicly funded research results and knowledge transfer as part of innovation strategies.
Discussions will continue at the February 2014 summit.