issue 9 winter 06
News
Finns push innovation deadlines
Europe's research investment
View from philanthropy
Charitable organisations fund 'difficult' R&D projects that may be too risky for businesses to back. If the results come good, charities are becoming increasingly sophisticated about working with business to exploit them for mutual benefit
View from venture capital
How the venture capital community can help large companies make the most of their innovations. Clue – they're not going to pay for your R&D
Feature: Revitalising European research careers
Europe trains lots of scientists but isn't very good at persuading them to move into research careers. What can be done to motivate these scientists to believe that life in industry will be interesting, varied and well paid, offering a wealth of opportunities at the cutting edge of knowledge and business?
Feature: Achieving effectiveness in Framework Programme projects
There's more to being involved in a Framework Programme project than just getting the money. Marine Giraud of ALMA Consulting explains how to get the most out of participating in one of these projects
Feature: Protecting service innovations
Some mature industries are recasting their offerings as services in the hope of restarting their growth. But how do they protect something as tenuous as a service from being copied by others?
A Day in the life of
Dr David Brown
Former head of the UK technology and innovation management practice at Arthur D Little CEO of the UK Institution of Chemical Engineers
Intellectual Property
Europe needs a simpler and more coast-effective intellectual property regime. Here's some steps legislators should take on the way to that goal
Country Profile
Germany
Back page bytes
Upcoming activities

Catching Up

About EIRMA

Looking Ahead

Credits

Welcome to Innovation Quarterly.

eIQ is published by EIRMA to give you an insight into trends and policies that affect business R&D and innovation management, and to enable you to access background data to explore the issues further, as well as sharing the information with colleagues.

In this issue we look at a range of topics, focusing on a theme of connections and partnership. Our Views from philanthropy and venture capitalism examine two sides of the funding coin. On one side, collaboration between industry and academia is improving, following a period when each appeared to be pursuing diverging agendas, according to Ted Bianco of the Wellcome Trust. On the other, large organizations are working with venture capital companies to make the most of their innovations – but can’t expect their R&D to be funded this way.

Our first feature looks at research careers in Europe. While many scientists train in Europe, they lack the skills and the willingness to succeed in industry. We look at ways in which industry can make itself a more attractive option for talented, qualified people. In our second feature, Marine Giraud of ALMA Consulting Group suggests ways in which companies participating in a European Commission Framework Programme project can make the most of their involvement. And in Seeking Protection, we examine the ways in which partnerships can protect new service offerings.

In our Day in the Life story, eIQ meets Dr David Brown, former head of the UK technology and innovation management practice at Arthur D Little and now CEO of the Institution of Chemical Engineers. This issue’s intellectual property column finds European countries forming regional partnerships to ease the European patent issue while we await a community-wide patent.

In the news, Finland has demonstrated its commitment to fostering innovation by setting a series of deadlines for policy actions, while the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard shows EU companies are sustaining their position among the world’s top 50 R&D investors. As always, this issue includes details of upcoming activities and a chance to catch up on recent conferences and round tables, as well as information about EIRMA. Our featured Country Profile is Germany.

You can share the contents of this newsletter with colleagues using the email buttons, or download and print PDF files of all stories and diagrams. To retrieve articles from this and previous issues of eIQ, the digital object identification (DOI) number at the end of each item can be used as a reference on the EIRMA website. To learn more about EIRMA and eIQ or to send us your feedback and suggestions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Walter Steinlin
President
EIRMA

doi:eiq-2006-009-0001