EVENTS :: ICT R&D and Globalisation
High-Level Event on ICT R&D and Globalisation
24th April 2007, Berlin, Germany
The theme of the conference was “ICT R&D and Globalisation”. The main objective was to share knowledge and experiences and gain better insights into the impact of globalisation on European ICT R&D and innovation policies. Europe’s preparedness to meet the challenges linked to growing globalisation and its capability to turn them into advantages for its economy on regional, national and European level were discussed. The viewpoint and role of the main actors (large industry, SMEs and public authorities) formed the basis for the discussions in the working sessions.
Opening
The conference opening speeches were given by:
- Dr. Wolf-Dieter Lukas, Director General “Key Technologies for
Innovation” Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany
Opening speech by Dr Lukas - Dr. Peter Zangl, Deputy Director General “Information Society and Media” European Commission, Directorate General Information Society and Media
Morning key-note presentations
"Trends and drivers in the globalisation of R&D"
Prof. Dr. Luc Soete, Professor of International Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht University, Director of the research institute UNU-MERIT, Maastricht, The Netherlands
"The impacts of globalisation on European ICT R&D"
Dr. Matthias Weber Head of Department Technology Policy Austrian Research Centres (ARC) – Systems Research, Vienna, Austria
"Investing in Europe – the perspective of a global company"
Dr. Hans Deppe, Corporate Vice President and General Manager, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Dresden, Germany
"A national strategy for linking multinational cooperations to SMEs and
regional excellence"
Prof. Pedro Guedes de Oliveira, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Porto (FEUP), Porto, Portugal
Working groups
After the morning key-note presentations a break-up into three parallel working groups took place. Each working group was headed by a panel composed of National ICT Directors, a Commission representative and domain experts.
"The role of ETPs and JTIs with respect to globalisation"
Moderator: Dr Manfred Dietrich (Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany)
Panellists: Louk Teunissen (Ministry of Economic Affairs, The Netherlands), Kari Tilli, (TEKES - Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation), Andrej Flogie (Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Slovenia), Rosalie Zobel (Directorate General Information Society and Media), Christian Grégoire (Alcatel-Lucent), Ian Phillips (ARM)
Technology Platforms are set up to bring together the key stakeholders and research fields, individual companies, research institutions, and university labs, with a view to defining, at European level, a common strategic research agenda (SRA). They address technological and non-technological issues for implementing this agenda. JTIs will pool the resources of private industry, EU and national programmes to pursue ambitious common research and innovation objectives. This session discussed the influence of growing internationalisation on the proposed research agendas, the role and impact of these instruments in the international R&D scene and their role as innovative product and service developers expanding the market for ICT R&D and reinforcing the existing companies.
"European SMEs and globalisation"
Moderator: Pouline Middleton (Crossroads Copenhagen)
Panellists: Reinhard Goebl (Ministry for Transportation, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT), Austria), Luis Magalhães (Knowledge Society Agency, Ministry of Science, Technology and Higher Education, Portugal), Khalil Rouhana (Directorate General Information Society and Media), Georgios Sakas (MedCom GmbH), Epifânio da Franca (Chipidea - Microelectrónica, S.A), Patrick Cocquet (Pôle de compétitivité Cap Digital), Philippe Vanrie (EBN)
Recent analysis shows that Europe faces difficulties in establishing a suitable framework to allow innovative companies (in particular the ones in the ICT sector) to grow and become competitive on a global scale. European high-tech SME's in particular, are facing a very challenging environment as technology competition is global. It is not only the search for lowest manufacturing and production cost that is global today, but also the search for new technologies, products and talent. High-tech SME’s can only survive and prosper in this environment if they are able to achieve a strong technology/product position in a specific market segment or niche. The challenge today is to allow SMEs to grow and develop new market sectors thereby encouraging an increase in the investment in ICT R&D.
"National research and innovation strategies in an international context"
Moderator: Wim De Waele (Interdisciplinary Institute for Broadband Technology, IBBT)
Panellists: Emmanuel Gabla (Ministry for Economy, Finance and Industry, France), José Luis Martinez Pena (Ministry for Education and Science, Spain), Gita Revalde (Ministry of Education and Science, Latvia), Johann Sollgruber (Directorate General Regional Policy), Eberhard Seitz (Rapporteur for the CREST WG on "How to make better coordinated use of Structural Funds and the FPs to support R&D"), José Encarnação (GraphicsNet Stiftung, INI-GraphicsNet Investitions Holding GmbH, INI-GraphicsNet Foundation)
Only a coherent interaction between the different levels of R&D strategies (regional, national, European) and the different actors will allow Europe to position itself on the international scene and benefit from the impact of rising Globalisation. New opportunities and mutual benefits will arise both at regional/national and European level by bridging the use of the Structural Funds and FP schemes. This new way of thinking needs to be strongly coordinated with national policies. The ultimate target is boosting investment and capacities.
Afternoon key-note presentation
-
"How pro-active should R&D management be?"
Mr Christian Grégoire, CTO Europe, Alcatel-Lucent, Paris, France
Working-group summaries
- Mr Bob Malcom
"The role of ETPs and JTIs with respect to globalisation" - Mr Paul Drath
"European SMEs and globalisation" - Mr Mike Sharp
"National research and innovation strategies in an international context"
Closing
- Dr. Manfred Dietrich
Director “Information and Communication Technologies; New Services”, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany - Dr. Peter Zangl
Deputy Director General “Information Society and Media”, European Commission, Directorate General Information Society and Media.
Conference Report