Abstract
COVID-19 pandemic-related direct public support mechanisms have received more attention than previously and budgets for SME subsidies have skyrocketed around the globe. Currently, most support measures focus on short-term liquidity needs. However, policy makers have already started thinking about which role subsidies should play in the renewal of the economic structure once the pandemic dust has settled. The pandemic offers a good opportunity to restructure a company support system taking into account the structural barriers that innovation support systems have been subject to over the last decade. The aim of the analysis in this paper is threefold: (1) to map the barriers to innovation support, (2) to offer policy makers and SME support agencies a set of solutions to overcome these barriers and (3) to re-interpret these results against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic that started to unravel shortly after finalising the set of research interviews.
Highlights
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, direct public support mechanisms have received more attention than previously and budgets for SME subsidies have skyrocketed around the globe (e.g. VNK, 2020; OECD, 2020)
Policy makers have already started thinking about which role subsidies should play in the renewal of the economic structure once the pandemic dust has settled (e.g. EIT, 2020)
The pandemic offers a good opportunity to restructure the company support system taking into account the structural barriers that innovation support systems have been subject to over the last decade
Summary
Since the outbreak of the pandemic, direct public support mechanisms have received more attention than previously and budgets for SME subsidies have skyrocketed around the globe (e.g. VNK, 2020; OECD, 2020). The pandemic offers a good opportunity to restructure the company support system taking into account the structural barriers that innovation support systems have been subject to over the last decade. The analysis is based on semistructured interviews with 16 representatives of 11 EU and UK innovation support agencies and policy makers. The interviews were conducted during the last quarter of 2019 In this discussion paper we depart from the results of the policy brief document and re-interpret them against the background of the ongoing pandemic. The aim of the analysis is threefold: (1) to map the barriers to innovation support, (2) to offer a set of solutions to policy makers and SME support agencies to overcome these barriers and (3) to re-interpret these results against the background of the COVID-19 pandemic that started to unravel shortly after finalising the set of interviews. The letter concludes with a discussion on the way forward (Chapter 5)
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