We are all innovators now.  Gone, surely, must be the days of free-riders, of subsidised mediocrity and creative malaise. A new world beckons. But doubts remain.
I had the privilege of moderating an excellent post-Lisbon event on innovation for ERRIN, the European Regions Research and Innovation Network.  What was so exciting was to hear from different [...]

Annalee Saxenian, an astute observer and analyst of the regional advantage of Silicon Valley, observes in her book, The New Argonauts, that the Valley has gained as its home-grown entrepreneurs have built overseas businesses in China, India and elsewhere.  She notes: “By promoting the development of local capabilities in Tel Aviv,  Hsinchu, Shanghai, Bangalore, and [...]

Considerable public funding goes into research.  To the dismay, though, of many, European countries in the main are very poor at commercialising this research, and thus return of this public investment is often zero euros.
Reasons lie in at least two places:

EU member states (outside of the ‘anglo’ tradition) tend to ‘own’ their own research facilities, [...]