Innovation-Driven or Challenge-Driven Participation in International Energy Innovation Networks? Empirical Evidence from the H2020 Programme

Giuseppe Calignano,Michaela Trippl

doi:10.3390/su12114696

Abstract

The European Union (EU) Framework Programmes represent the ideal platform for exchanging knowledge potentially leading to innovation outcomes, in addition to providing vital research funds for various types of organisations (firms, universities, agencies, etc.) The present paper aims to assess whether innovativeness (‘innovation-driven’ participation) or energy demand/vulnerability (‘challenge-driven’ participation) determine a different degree of participation in the context of the energy programme funded under Horizon 2020 (2014–2020 period). By combining social network analysis and econometrics, our empirical analysis clearly shows that the more innovative EU regions hold a central or key position, while the regions characterised by higher energy demand or vulnerability play a marginal role in the EU energy network. These findings are not dissimilar to what other scholars have observed in relation to different EU programmes and funding schemes. Based on this, we argue that EU policymakers and evaluators should aim at encouraging challenge-driven participation and, more generally, a more balanced participation through appropriate and specific policy actions.

Highlights

The transition to a climate-neutral society by 2050 is among the top priorities of European Union (EU) policy and represents one of the core pillars of the European Green Deal
Innovation-driven participation: We argue that the capacity of regions to take part in international energy innovation networks is primarily related to innovativeness by virtue of critical factors such as well-functioning research systems, high degree of entrepreneurship, competences, technologies [10] and strong institutions [11,12]
230 projects funded under the H2020–ENERGY programme, involving organisations located in 221 EU regions (NUTS 1 or 2 level based on how they are classified on the RIS), were surveyed

Summary

Introduction

The transition to a climate-neutral society by 2050 is among the top priorities of European Union (EU) policy and represents one of the core pillars of the European Green Deal. Regions are diverse and a number of different challenges and opportunities for energy transition may be found in different types of regions. We contend that both strong innovation capacities (supply side) and the need to solve environmental challenges (demand side) may explain why regional organisations take part in international energy innovation networks. In this article, the former is referred to as ‘innovation-driven’ participation, while the latter is called ‘challenge-driven’ participation

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Conclusion