A window on European innovation policies: the revamped European Trend Chart on Innovation

Brussels, 17 Nov 2004

The European Trend Chart on Innovation has been re-launched on CORDIS, the Community Research and Development Information Service.

Businesses across Europe often claim that governments do little to support their innovative activity. At the same time, the public authorities point out that new initiatives are underway to reinvigorate the capacity of the business sector to invest in research, product development, organisational change and commercialisation of new technologies.

Since 2000, the European Trend Chart on Innovation has helped both policy makers and enterprises to keep abreast of new developments in innovation policy across the EU. Designed originally as a tool enabling the European Commission and EU Member States to monitor and coordinate progress towards common innovation policy objectives, Trend Chart is also a unique 'knowledge base' for enterprises providing direct online access to detailed information on innovation support measures.

The revamped and restructured website allows interested users to subscribe to a targeted information service. Hence, if you are, for instance, an enterprise interested in finding out about funding for product development in the three new Baltic Member States, you can select a user profile ensuring that you receive the latest 'hot news' only for financial support for product development in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Re-launched for a new four-year period in January 2004, Trend Chart tracks innovation policy developments in all 25 EU Member States, plus Bulgaria, Iceland, Israel, Liechtenstein, Norway, Romania, Switzerland and Turkey. It also provides a policy monitoring service for three other non-European zones: NAFTA/Brazil, Asia and the MEDA countries.

Innovation is a priority in all Member States and within the European Commission. Throughout Europe, hundreds of policy measures and support schemes aimed at innovation have been implemented or are under preparation. The variety of these measures and schemes reflects the diversity of the framework conditions, cultural preferences and political priorities in the Member States.

In the context of these measures, the Trend Chart on Innovation in Europe is a practical tool for policy makers, innovation support organisations and enterprises. Funded by the Directorate-General for Enterprise of the Commission, it provides summarised and concise information and statistics on innovation policies, performances and trends. It is also a European forum for benchmarking and the exchange of good practices in the area of innovation policy.

In terms of information relevant for enterprises, the Trend Chart website provides access to the following services and publications:
- a database of innovation policy measures across 33 European countries;
- a news service and related innovation policy information database;
- a 'who is who' of agencies and government departments involved in innovation. http:///trendchart.cordis.lu/

CORDIS RTD-NEWS / © European Communities
Item source: http:///dbs.cordis.lu/cgi-bin/srchidadb?C ALLER=NHP_EN_NEWS&ACTION=D&SESSION=&RCN= EN_RCN_ID:22936