In order to raise the public profile of creativity as a driver of innovation, the EU has declared 2009 the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, which will help increase the momentum of the Union’s efforts to become a world-class knowledge-based economy.
Given the importance of creativity and innovation to Europe’s economic and social well-being, the EU has decided to designate 2009 as the European Year of Creativity and Innovation.
“Creativity is often associated solely with artists and fine arts, whereas innovation is often thought to be about technological progress in manufacturing only. The European Year of Creativity and Innovation allows us to look at these concepts from different angles,” reflected European Commission Vice-President Günter Verheugen, responsible for Enterprise and Industry policy.
“The challenges that Europe and other parts of the world are facing today are tremendous – climate change, poverty, globalisation and the current economic slowdown, just to mention a few. Tackling these complex challenges will require new knowledge as well as new approaches to combining existing knowledge and finding holistic solutions,” he added.
Innovation is at the heart of the EU’s flagship Lisbon Strategy to foster growth and job creation by transforming Europe into a knowledge-based economy. The Year aims to ensure that the Union continues to make progress towards these aims. In 2008, the European Innovation Scoreboard, the Union’s benchmark of innovative performance, delivered encouraging news. It found that Member States are not only continuing to close the transatlantic innovation gap, but their performance is converging, with most stragglers mounting a concerted effort to catch up.
Despite these successes, there is no room for complacency, and the EU needs to redouble its efforts to boost its innovation potential. This is particularly so in light of the emerging economic slowdown; under such circumstances, innovation becomes even more important, but the temptation to reduce investment in it also becomes greater. “The European Year of Creativity and Innovation will influence the policy debate and encourage co-operation between policy-makers and enterprises on how to harness the creative potential of humans for economic and societal purposes,” explained Verheugen.
Creatively plugging innovation
It was first suggested that the Year should be the Year of Creativity, but the theme was then expanded to include innovation at the request of Commission President José Manuel Barroso, since the two concepts go hand in hand. The Directorate-General for Education and Culture is in the lead together with the Enterprise and Industry DG. Other DGs and stakeholders will be involved as well, with many external events organised under the banner of the Year.
The Commission has compiled a busy agenda which will help showcase and raise awareness of related issues. Since much of Europe’s innovation takes place in smaller businesses, which often lack the know-how and resources to take full advantage of their innovative potential, many events organised by the Enterprise and Industry DG will focus on SMEs. For example, the EU’s first SME Week in May will have a strong innovation dimension.
In addition, a series of workshops on relevant issues will be held. The Commission will publish a handbook on creativity and innovation, as well as a video on responsible entrepreneurship, both targeted at SMEs. The agenda presenting the main events will regularly be updated and available online.
Patently important
Patents encourage the creativity of researchers and innovators, allowing them to profit appropriately from the marketing of their ideas and inventions. Patents are therefore a crucial tool for promoting innovation. But as innovation evolves along new lines so will the nature of patent protection.
To discuss patents against the rapidly developing innovative landscape, the European Commission has again teamed up with the European Patent Office to organise the regular Patinnova conference, which will take place at the end of April in Prague. “The seemingly unstoppable wave of innovation accompanying the rise of digital technologies and digital design over the last ten years has infiltrated all aspects of modern life, raising the prospect of the need for new economic models and posing challenges to the intellectual property system as we know it,” say the conference organisers.
Innovation by design
Another topic under the spotlight will be design, which is a far broader area than commonly perceived. Many people believe that the only purpose of design is aesthetic; that it relates only to objects and that only exclusive, luxury products are designed. Moreover, design is seen as the preserve of large companies, whereas the reality is very different.
In fact, design can be used as a tool for innovation, competitiveness and differentiation. It ensures that user needs and abilities are taken into account when developing a product, service or system, and has the potential to take environmental considerations into account too, to create “eco-design”. It can be used to boost innovation by SMEs as well as by large companies, low- as well as high-tech companies. As such, design helps making attractive, user-friendly and commercially viable products out of technological inventions.
Given its potential to “close the innovation loop” from research to the consumer, it has a role to play in innovation policy. The Enterprise and Industry DG’s Innovation Policy Unit is currently looking at what can be done at national and EU level to ensure its optimal use. In 2009, the Commission plans to publish a document on design as a tool for user-centred innovation.
