Research and Innovation and the Lisbon Strategy

Abstract

Research and innovation policy have been the cornerstones of the European Union (EU)’s Lisbon Strategy. This is true for the original Lisbon Strategy (Lisbon I) but even more so for Lisbon II. In Lisbon I, the European Council had stressed the importance of knowledge generation and its application for economic dynamics aimed at ‘preparing the transition to a knowledge-based economy and society by better policies for the information society and research and development (R&D), as well as by stepping up the process of structural reform for competitiveness and innovation and by completing the internal market’ (Council of the European Union 2000b, highlights Jakob Edler). The perceived failure to improve the innovation performance in Europe (Kok 2004) was one of the key motivations for the re-launch of Lisbon in 2005 (Lisbon II). In Lisbon II ‘the support of knowledge and innovation in Europe’ was the first out of eight high-level actions (including other goals such as the completion of the internal market for services, reform of state-aid rules, or the removal of mobility barriers) (European Commission 2005d). Thus, the Lisbon Strategy for research and innovation was foremost about improving the conditions and support mechanisms for knowledge creation and its application into innovation in the market across Europe. The policy area relied on a simple problem definition, centrally defined goals for policy substance and co-ordination at the national level, newly allocated funds and programmes, as well as institutional innovations at the EU level and, above all, the experimentation with new mechanisms for trans-national learning and co-ordination of hitherto isolated national or European activities.