Document(s): 

51-_cambridge_csap_chatham_rules_note_on_innovation_workshop_24_nov_15.pdf

Author(s): 

CSaP - Chatam

Year of publication: 

2015

On 24 November 2015 CSaP held a Policy Workshop for the European Commission's Senior Adviser on Innovation to President Juncker – Robert Madelin. Robert, a CSaP Policy Leaders Fellow, began the meeting by setting the participants an ‘exam’ question: "If innovation is the output of a complex system, what politically feasible systemic steps could be taken to get the innovation machine working better?"

Aims of the workshop
1.    To bring together participants from government, academia and business to consider how best to create pro-innovation ecosystems in the EU. 
2.    To distil policy-relevant insights from the deep knowledge and experience of the Cambridge ecosystem.

Questions addressed during the workshop
1.    What policy, regulatory and financial initiatives could better position Europe as a pro-innovation actor in the global context? 
2.    What are the unsuspected prime issues? What are the familiar but overrated or even counter-productive themes? 
3.    Where are the blind alleys?

During the course of the discussion a range of different views were expressed, sometimes in contradiction to one another. The notes below assemble the views expressed by attendees under thematic headings, but do not attempt to synthesize the debates which took place. 

Summary Points
•    Efficiency can act as a brake to innovation, as the economic calculus for investment in innovation ‘at the frontier’ does not correspond to standard cost-benefit analysis techniques
•     Speculative capital from public and private sectors should be used to fund ‘frontier’ research on a mission driven basis: this will deliver commercially viable products, and high-end public research
•    Government procurement and regulation, if aligned in the right way, can help create a much greater demand for innovation
•    A key role for governments and universities is to understand and provide information about ecosystems so that it can be shared with investors, innovators and other relevant stakeholders
•    Public infrastructure and regulation can help provide a platform for innovation 
•    It is important that innovation ecosystems are pleasant and affordable places to live
•    There are new investment trends – speculative funding tends to be geographically tied to successful ecosystems. There is a move away from IPOs toward more informal funding streams
•    The structures underlying successful innovation ecosystems are global and open but local specificities are key. General EU policies will not always fit, and work is needed to ensure they do not cause inefficiency (e.g. through excessive reporting burdens)
•    ‘Small’ investors do respond to tax breaks when they begin investing. Larger ‘Angel Investors’ do it because they enjoy it – tax breaks are less important
•    In an innovation ecosystem, large numbers of products patented and a high take-up of research tax breaks are not always a sign of high-levels of innovation – it may be existing, dominant actors exploiting their status to safeguard their position
•    The EU could play a major role in protecting European IP and ecosystems against international ‘raiders’ and promoting the role of start-ups against entrenched interests