Innovation Act, this is how Europe wants to bridge the gap with the USA and China

Reduce the gap that makes the EU companies less effective than those of United States o China in expanding and marketing the innovation especially in deep tech and in cutting-edge sectors. This is the objective of the proposal European Innovation Act which the European Commission is expected to present next week, a draft of which AGI has seen.

In this regard, the proposal intervenes on two fronts. The first concerns the public procurement for research: the regulation introduces common European rules that allow administrations to purchase research activities research and developmentincluding technologies not yet available on the market, even jointly between several countries to reach the necessary critical mass. According to the Commission, “others major world economies invest in research and development (R&D) through public procurement 5 to 8 times more than the EU”, and the objective set by the European executive is to “bring EU public investments in procurement into R&D from 0.6% to 3% of total public procurement, i.e. from 17.28 billion euros to 86.4 billion euros”.

Intellectual property and financing

The second front is that of intellectual property: the proposal provides for a European system for evaluating patents and intangible assets and a common “market” to market them, so that the innovative companies can use them more easily to obtain financing. To date, in fact, “in the EU, intellectual property is still rarely used as a guarantee to obtain financing”, we read in the proposal. This penalizes them start-up that in fact, “by their tenth year of operation, they raise approximately 50% less capital than their US counterparts”, it is stated.

Scientific research and the single market

“The European Union is a world leader in scientific research and produces a significant share of high-quality scientific research at a global level”, is the Commission’s analysis, according to which however “this strength does not translate into an equally high level of performance in terms of innovation and commercial success within the Single market“.

Innovation, competitiveness and prosperity

“Since research and innovation represent a significant share of the earnings of productivitythe Union’s ability to transform knowledge into marketable innovations is a determining factor for his competitiveness and long-term prosperity,” it says.