The European Union (EU) is now facing a range of challenges on its way to economic recovery. It will only be able to continue developing the high level of life opportunities, social security and economic well-being that many Europeans enjoy by further developing its capacity to innovate.
To do so, European innovation policy as well as the innovation strategies of many Member States, need to be re-examined. So far, these strategies have almost exclusively focussed on technological development and research expenditure. They should embrace the concepts of people-driven innovation and related soft skills, including the notion of creativity. The role that the arts, culture and the creative industries play in fostering a more creative and innovation-friendly society as well as a more competitive and sustainable economy should be more strongly reflected by EU innovation policy makers.
KEA European Affairs is a strategic consultancy committed to supporting creative and knowledge-based organisations and recognised for its leading expertise on the creative industries and cultural, entertainment and media sectors[1]. We welcome the opportunity to comment on the European Commission’s (EC) Communication on “Reviewing Community innovation policy in a changing world” and strongly believe it is important to closely examine the links between culture and innovation.
The European Year of Creativity and Innovation sought to highlight the important links that exist between culture, creativity and innovation. However, the EC’s Communication does not unfortunately reflect these endeavours and many of the concepts and ideas which the Year helped bring to the surface have not found their way into the document. We would therefore encourage the EC to re-assess its strategy on the basis of the comments made below.
Read the full document here : http://www.keanet.eu/contriinnovationpolicy.pdf
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