While the importance of research and technology development has long been recognised in policy, the focus of attention is increasingly shifting to innovation as the intended outcome of research activities. Key questions in this context are how to ensure the effectiveness and efficiency of research and innovation (R&I) support programmes – notably in terms of the commercialisation of the results – and how to improve the framework conditions for innovation in general, i.e. creating an “innovation culture” within the R&I system. Increasingly, innovation is seen as a horizontal issue that is cross-cutting different policy domains, such as research, education, economic and infrastructure policy. These considerations are detailed in the European Commission’s Europe 2020 strategy and in the “Innovation Union” Communication. The Commission sees an “Innovation Union”, one of the seven flagships of the Europe 2020 Strategy, as key to achieving the goals of a smart, sustainable and inclusive economy set out in this vision.

empirica has a deep understanding of R&I systems and policies, gained in many years of research about different fields of technological innovation. empirica provides research and consulting services for analysing a broad area of issues related to R&I systems and policies. Our expertise is in quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis as well as organising and moderating expert workshops and conferences.