A European Innovation Act to boost commercialisation and enable growth

Europe does not suffer from a lack of innovative ideas and research – it suffers from a lack of commercialisation. This is the core challenge the European Innovation Act must address if Europe is to remain globally competitive.

To translate ideas into growth, the Act must: 

• Put commercialisation at its core, ensuring public and private funding spans the full innovation cycle with targeted support at the scaleup phase. Equity partnerships and blended finance must be expanded to bridge the ‘valley of death’ and strengthen Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) frameworks so that valuation and licensing support EU innovation and competitiveness. 

• Simplify Europe’s funding rules and related regulatory environment by, for example, harmonising definitions for startups used in public funding and encourage the use of cross-border regulatory sandboxes. Funding rules must be adjusted to also cover operational costs for cloud or cybersecurity solutions, reflecting the realities of digital business models. 

• Raise ambitions on finance, helping to close the scaleup gap by creating an innovation-friendly environment that leverages public funds to crowd in private capital, anchors support on market uptake, streamlines rules via a €450 billion Competitiveness Fund, and accelerates the Savings and Investment Union.

• Secure talent by launching a Tech Talent Pact with fast-track visas and simplified cross-border employment rules, a harmonised stock option regime, a Digital Skills Passport and EU-recognised micro-credentials. 

• Boost demand for innovative solutions through modernised procurement, using joint or coordinated EU-wide purchasing of strategic technologies, fast-track R&D procedures, procurement challenges and stronger incentives for private buyers to adopt innovation-friendly practices. 

• Guarantee affordable access to technology infrastructures (such us AI factories and gigafactories, and European Digital Innovation Hubs) via EU-wide schemes with simplified conditions, whilst recognising technology infrastructures as hubs for collaboration and competitiveness. 

If designed with simplicity, urgency and scale, the European Innovation Act can close Europe’s commercialisation gap and make the EU a more attractive place to innovate, invest and grow.