Research & Innovation :: Private Investment
Encouraging Private Investment in ICT Research and Innovation
Public funding of research and innovation can only be part of the story.
While public funding has a critical part to play in the development of innovative ICTs, the private sector must provide the lion's share of research funding if cutting-edge technologies are to be developed and widely exploited by industry.
Europe's industry sells to a global marketplace, and so would benefit from coordinating its private research activities across Europe to meet this challenge. The EU plays a role by encouraging private investment in ICT research through a number of initiatives:
- European Technology Platforms bring together companies, research institutions, and any other organisations, to define, at European level, a common strategic research agenda (SRA) which should mobilise a critical mass of national and European public and private resources ... more
- Joint Technology Initiatives: In a limited number of cases, the scale of a research or technological objective and the resources involved justify setting up long-term public-private partnerships in the form of "Joint Technology Initiatives" (JTIs) ... more
- Joint Research Programmes: Member States sharing common needs and/or interests in a given research topic sometimes initiate jointly implemented national research programmes. Article 169 of the European treaty allows for the EU to also participate in such member state initiatives. In ICT there is one such Joint Research Programme that exists: ICT for Ambient Assisted Living (AAL).
- Pre-commercial Public Procurement: 'innovation-friendly' procurement by the public sector, encouraging the development and acquisition of technologically innovative solutions ... more