EU SEEKS TO DOUBLE ICT RESEARCH AND INNOVATION FUNDING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BRUSSELS 000399 SENSITIVE SIPDIS FCC FOR WEISLER DOC FOR ITA, NTIA - ALEXANDER, MAC - DEFALCO STATE FOR EUR/ERA, EB/CIP, EB/IPE PLEASE PASS TO USTR E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECPS ECIN EINV EINT ETRD ECON EUN SUBJECT: EU SEEKS TO DOUBLE ICT RESEARCH AND INNOVATION FUNDING ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY. The European Commission released a March 13 Communication calling for doubling funding for information and communication technology (ICT) research and innovation and other steps to boost ICT in Europe. "A Strategy for ICT R&D and Innovation in Europe: Raising the Game" emphasizes that ICT provides vital tools to promote economic recovery and address long-term aging, environmental and energy concerns and lays out plans to make the EU the world leader in ICT development by 2020. The Commission notes that the EU lags the U.S. and Japan in the proportion of R&D devoted to ICT and the economic value generated by ICT. The report cites regulatory barriers to ICT business growth, fragmented markets, disjointed R&D efforts and inadequate funding for the shortcomings. The Commission calls specifically for doubling ICT R&D investment by 2020, to be matched by member states. The Communication also calls upon EU institutions and Member States to coordinate efforts to overcome fragmentation of ICT R&D efforts and markets, to raise the number of ICT "poles of excellence," and to set the right conditions to grow new innovative ICT businesses across Europe. The new strategy forms part of preparations for an EU research and innovation plan as called for by the December European Council, and underpins EU efforts to promote greater emphasis on R&D and innovation as a critical factor to speed recovery from the global economic crisis. END SUMMARY. COMMISSION PROPOSES ICT RESEARCH AND INNOVATION STRATEGY -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) The European Commission released a Communication on March 13 calling for doubling funding for information and communication technologies (ICT) research and innovation and other steps to boost the ICT sector in Europe. The report follows upon a public consultation, launched in September 2008, on an EU research and innovation strategy for ICT, and responds to the December 2008 European Council call for an EU plan for innovation and research. The Communication, "A Strategy for ICT R&D and Innovation in Europe: Raising the Game," stresses the importance of deepening, rather than cutting R&D support during the current economic crisis, and lays out plans to make the EU the world leader in ICT development and use by ¶2020. The Communication underlines that Member States, EU institutions and industry must pool resources and better coordinate ICT research and innovation efforts to reach this goal. EU LAGS OTHERS IN ICT RESEARCH -------------- ¶3. (U) The Communication notes that in the EU, ICT represents 34 percent of the two trillion euro global ICT market, accounts for 12 million jobs and generates six percent of EU GDP. ICT R&D accounts for a quarter of all private R&D spending, a third of all R&D employment, and fifth of all patents in the EU. Nevertheless, the EU ICT business sector spends less than half as much as its U.S. counterpart on R&D spending. The EU also lags other OECD members in the proportion of R&D devoted to ICT, who on average devote more than 30 percent of total R&D to ICT. The Communication notes a growing deficit of ICT skilled workers across the EU, resulting in "several hundreds of thousands" of unfilled jobs. Value added by the EU ICT sector is only 23 pecent of total value added, which lags the U.S., Japan and advanced economies. ¶4. (U) The Communication cites a number of problems for the shortcomings. It notes barriers to ICT business growth, wherein sub-optimal conditions for SME access to markets, innovation and finance, plus excessive regulatory burdens, prevent SMEs from expanding and growing their market shares more rapidly. The Communication highlights how fragmentation of EU ICT markets is also a key limiting factor for SME growth and innovation. The EU's failure to achieve a real internal market in telecoms, and to standardize ICT regulation and IPR regimes, limit the ability of firms to grow rapidly. The Communication calls for creation of a Community patent to help remedy this situation. The lack of collaboration between public procurement authorities and those overseeing R&D and innovation results in many missed opportunities for innovative products to flourish. ¶5. (U) In addition, the Communication outlines how Europe's ICT R&D landscape remains fragmented, despite new efforts under the seventh EU Framework Program for R&D (FP7). Member State ministries continue to develop R&D, innovation and education policies in isolation, without adequate cross-ministerial consultation. The plethora of varied EU, Member State and intergovernmental R&D funding mechanisms also lead to confusion for innovators. THE SOLUTIONS - GREATER AND MORE COORDINATED ICT R&D INVESTMENT -------------- -------------- BRUSSELS 00000399 002 OF 003 ¶6. (U) In response to these shortcomings, the Commission says Europe "needs to raise its game." The Commission calls for a systematic ICT R&D strategy that mobilizes resources and stakeholders along three paths: raising public and private ICT research and innovation; prioritizing ICT research and innovation into key areas and reducing fragmentation; and facilitating the emergence of new public and private markets of ICT-based innovations. ¶7. (U) In specific terms, the Commission calls for doubling ICT R&D investment by 2020, beginning with a boost in EU-level spending under FP7 from 1.1 billion Euros in 2010 to 1.7 billion in 2013, to be matched by Member States. This could be accompanied by direction of additional regional/cohesion funding toward ICT innovation and research. The Commission urges Member States to develop more public-private partnerships, to boost public procurement of innovative ICT products, and to explore pre-commercial procurement. OVERCOMING FRAGMENTATION -------------- ¶8. (U) The Communication calls for a series of actions to better coordinate its R&D and innovation policies and specialize its resources. It urges Member States to work with EU institutions to develop shared strategies and policies, to enhance the dialogue within the National ICT Research Directors Forum and to work more closely with ICT advisory groups. The Commission commits to strengthen stakeholder groups and use instruments such as the ICT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) to bring industries, entrepreneurs and academics together. Member States and regions are urged to redouble efforts to develop knowledge-based innovation clusters, and increase sharing of R&D infrastructures for sectors that require large investments, such as nanotechnology and high-performance computing. FACILITATING MARKETS FOR INNOVATION -------------- ¶9. (U) The Communication discusses ways to facilitate the emergence of markets for innovation, so that the EU can "produce and commercialize the equivalent of its share in the global ICT market." The Commission calls for both general policy measures and targeted procurement as means to create more favorable conditions for EU-wide innovation markets. Member States and regions should promote closer collaboration between innovation users and producers across the public sector. Governments should ensure interoperability and work harder to promote common standards, and the Commission will work to revise the ICT standardization process. ¶10. (U) Also, the Commission plans to support a series of substantial pilot projects to deploy innovation ICT products and develop new pan-European ICT-based service infrastructures. Among these may be projects to focus on innovative ICT solutions for sustainable healthcare or for energy efficiency, as well as an effort to develop an electronic identity management (eID) infrastructure, to increase the trustworthiness of e-government and e-commerce services. ¶11. (U) Finally, the Communication calls for simplification and streamlining of R&D administrative procedures, to cut red tape and allow for greater flexibility in program procedures. The Commission notes it will expand international cooperation on the largest-scale ICT challenges, such as the Future Internet and quantum computing. CONCLUSION AND COMMENT -------------- ¶12. (U) The Commission's new proposed ICT R&D and innovation strategy projects that if fully adopted, by 2020 the EU will have: doubled its private and public investment in ICT R&D, doubled venture capital investment in high growth ICT SMEs, developed an additional five ICT poles of world-class excellence, to make ICT research careers more attractive to bridge the current skills gap; grown new innovative ICT businesses so that one third of all ICT R&D business expense comes from new firms; and ensured that the EU ICT sector supplies at least the equivalent of its share in the global market. ¶13. (SBU) The proposed strategy is part of a larger series of EU initiatives to boost the EU's innovative capacity across sectors. These were triggered by the seminal 2005 Aho report detailing the EU's R&D and innovation shortcomings. The new ICT strategy is designed to build on the EU i2010 ICT policy framework, the broad-based EU innovation strategy and ICT-related initiatives under the European Research Area framework. The effort will need approval by the European Council, which is likely. It is unclear whether BRUSSELS 00000399 003 OF 003 this and other EU innovation promotion initiatives will allow the EU to overcome the persistent innovation gap remaining versus the U.S., and in any case, will take time to show measurable results. MURRAY