Foro Cañada Blanch 2024 | Andrés Rodríguez-Pose

The dilema of Innovation in Europe.

In today's globalized world, many societies —and countries in the European Union (EU), in particular— face a formidable policy challenge: how to enhance competitiveness while preserving their distinctive economic and social models. Unlike places that rely on cost-cutting measures and labour rights reductions, Europe's path to success hinges on inventiveness and creativity rather than cheap labour. Achieving competitiveness and safeguarding the European social model thus requires a more emphatic shift towards technological advancement and innovation.

To attain this objective, both individual European countries and the EU as a whole need to prioritize research and innovation (R&I) policies. But these policies have to go beyond simply relying on investment in research and development (R&D). Policies based on R&D investment have not always lived up to expectations. In recent years Europe’s innovation has fallen behind competitors such as the United States, China, South Korea, or Taiwan in terms of innovativeness and innovation-based production. Moreover, innovation has become increasingly concentrated in a limited number of places, accentuating an innovation divide among countries and regions in Europe. Efforts have been made to bridge both the internal and external gaps by promoting research in the EU, as a whole, and, particularly, in less-developed areas. Still, the Great Recession and subsequent austerity measures, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic and the current geopolitical crisis, have hampered progress, resulting in slow and highly uneven recovery. The innovation divides with the rest of the world and within Europe persist, posing challenges for addressing European wealth, employment, and productivity growth and inequalities.

The stakes are high, as failure to harness Europe's innovation talent and potential risks undermining its economic and social stability, which has made it one of the world's most prosperous and equitable societies. Hence, a fundamental re-evaluation of innovation policies is needed.
The forum will deal with how new innovation policies can be implemented and designed so that effective mechanisms that facilitate innovation generation and absorption by economic actors, firms, and value chains across different territories can be put in place and help maintain and, why not, enhance Europe’s place in the world.

➕ More info: https://www.fundacioncanadablanch.org...

➕ Other forum presentations:

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Marte C W Solheim | Untapped Potential of Diversity    • Foro Cañada Blanch 2024 | Marte C. W....  
Neil Lee | What would a pro-worker innovation policy look like?    • Foro Cañada Blanch 2024 | Neil Lee  
Antonio San Segundo Hernández | Navegando en el marco de la Innovación: Tendencias y Oportunidades en Venture Capital.    • Foro Cañada Blanch 2024 | Antonio San...  
Round Table | How can Europe successfully deal with its innovation challenge.    • Foro Cañada Blanch 2024 | Round Table  

🤝 Fundación Cañada Blanch + Cañada Blanch Centre + London School of Economics + CaixaBank