Tsvetan Simeonov: INNOVATION IS A LIFE-SAVING OPERATION FOR BUSINESS
For the business, innovations may turn out to be a life-saving operation and this has to become the focus of attention not only of the science circles and the state bodies and institutions, but mostly of the business circles. Because, if the companies are not interested in the achievements of science, if they don’t push the scientists to look for useful solutions which bring higher efficiency and productivity, there won’t be progress in any country. The efforts of the new EU leaders have also become very organized. Ahead of the European Council’s discussions on innovation this week, the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry “EUROCHAMBRES” urged EU leaders to commit to a more business-driven approach to innovation policy.
“The conventional, heavily research-driven approach to innovation policy in Europe is outdated,” said Arnaldo Abruzzini, Secretary General of EUROCHAMBRES. “Innovation is about bringing ideas to markets and entrepreneurs and businesses are of course pivotal to this process. We look to the heads of state this week to confirm that the emerging new approach to innovation policy reflects this commercially-driven dynamic.”
For example, the new European Innovation Partnerships – proposed in the Commission’s Innovation Union paper to address major societal challenges – must be judged also on the number of ideas they bring to the market and thus create growth and jobs.
The 2010 Innovation Union Scoreboard confirms that Europe’s top innovation performers (Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden) excel in the commercialization of their technological knowledge and demonstrate good linkages between the science base and business.
The question of innovations has been discussed in Bulgaria for quite some time, but the results, we would say, are still quite unsatisfactory. The attempt to gather all inventions in a data base and to wait for the companies to like them and to pay for their implementation was also unsuccessful.
The time has come to address the matter of innovations with a lot of concern, because especially for the EU economies this is beyond necessary. The approach of the quickly developing economies towards innovations is much more pragmatic – their large turnovers allow them to be more dynamic and to develop. It is time for all countries in the EU, as a common space for the movement of goods, capitals, services and people, to make innovations a priority. Otherwise, we risk becoming a conservative stagnant structure with slim perspectives for development in a dynamic economic situation. We must keep in mind that not only the Asian tigers, but also the South American jaguars are ready to make the most of this situation.
The Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has found out similar results from its recently conducted research among over 3500 companies, which is not encouraging. The number of companies which take interest in the matter is insignificant. Even the ones that express some interest in innovations are not aware of the opportunities, including of the benefits from European projects. This is a much more serious signal for quick actions. At the same time, even though some measures for the easier absorption of EU funds under the operational programme “Competitiveness” have been taken, they are not adequate to the country’s delay in comparison to other countries.