Linking Innovation to the Public Sector: Contexts, Concepts and Challenges

Abstract

In March 2000, when the European Council met in Lisbon, it set out the Lisbon Strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda. This strategy is an action and development plan for the European Union (EU). Its aim is to make the EU ‘the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for the environment by 2010’ (European Union, 2000). The assumption behind this strategy is that innovation is the main driver of economic change. It is often perceived that more innovation is required when relatively low productivity and slow economic growth in the EU are detected, and certainly when comparisons are made between the EU’s economic performance and that of other countries such as China and India. The idea is also that innovation is a necessary condition for creating a competitive economy that will have a positive influence on environmental and social renewal.