Investment in Research and Development is growing globally, but France and Europe are losing ground to the benefit of emerging economies. The innovation war is getting more intense as countries try to spend heavily in science and technologies, but many solutions remain unexploited.

Innovation has become a key success factor for emerging economies. Thanks to investments in Research and Development (R&D), and creativity, it is now possible to foster growth and increase exports of high technology products all over the world.

In France and in the European Union innovation is a hard matter, due to many different aspects – and realities – of national markets. But European countries are slow to adopt new measures that could encourage R&D spending and creativity, eventually leading to job creation and more competitiveness.

Why has innovation become so important?

First, it is a key sector to the economy. Indeed, high technology products provide high-margins and high returns on investment. Both global companies and SMEs are seeking new opportunities created by innovation, because global competitors now are quick to adapt and to develop their own products.

Second, innovation is provoking social battles. In his book The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman stressed that talents from India and China with the same qualifications than Europeans or Americans counterparts, are now on the job market at half the salary a French engineer could claim. It is scary for young professionals, but one of the consequences is that many global companies are moving their research centers to emerging countries.

Third, innovation is a central political issue. Indeed, the innovation cycle involves many different political aspects such as immigration policies, public university funding, research joint ventures or intellectual property. The innovation war has accelerated the competition for well-qualified talents. Therefore, the international brain drain is put on many political agenda.

In order to adapt quickly to this new paradigm, the EU encourages initiatives and programs aiming at fostering innovation throughout the region. It has set objectives to make Europe a global contributor in R&D, encouraging countries to reach the threshold of 3% of their GDP spent in research by 2020 (part of the new Lisbon strategy). Europe encourages PPP (Private Public Partnerships) and wants to focus on Yollies (Young leading innovators, read a recent Bruegel research paper here), as a way to win the innovation war.

France has not waited long to react, by creating in 2005 what it called the Pôles de Compétitivité (France’s answer to clusters). But still, figures are here, Europe does not create much growth through R&D, and France does not lead the innovators club. Thus, France is loosing control of its innovation strategy and there are many reasons for that, ; from the number of clusters (there are 71 clusters in the territory, that’s too many), to the lack of real money for developing projects. What is more, France and the European Union lack the ability to prioritize and assess their plans.

Instead of trying to get inspired by the recent success of the 2.0 Internet Company Facebook, embodied in the 1.0 movie The Social Network (read a review here), here are three tips to make things work:

- Focus on talent immigration policies: talent immigration does not mean here that immigration policies should only focus on skills and professional experience, but we need to address the needs of French universities and businesses willing to attract talented researchers with quick and easy administrative procedures and ready to apply visas.

- Create closer ties with university research centers: select 5 universities in the country, with the ability to work with national research institutes and businesses. The good example to look at is not the Harvard Campus or the Silicon Valley but Israel. This country has created an efficient Institute of Technology that succeeded in contributing to the emergence of international Start Ups.

- A better access to finance, with a Europe-wide market: this could provide a greater scale for Start-Ups and investors, and a true regional approach for policymakers.

Everyone knows that a PPP or a Pôle de Compétitivité did not create Google and Microsoft. In fact, young entrepreneurs with strong academic networks created them, commensurate with a dynamic venture capital sector. If France and the EU want to lead the innovation war, they’d better make clear choices.

Par William Spac

Membre des Cabris de l’Europe

Link added November 26, 2010: Why Are More France’s Best and Brightest Coming Here?

(retour à l'accueil | haut de page)

partager :