Universities and collaborative innovation in EC-funded research projects: An analysis based on Innovation Radar data

Abstract

The European Commission's Framework Programme (FP) contributes an important share of R&D expenditure in Europe. For example, the Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever launched which makes nearly €80 billion available over 7 years (2014 to 2020). In addition to financing science and technology development, one of the main objectives of the FP is to foster international collaboration among research organizations and private firms, both large and small. Collaboration is a key conduit for innovation-related knowledge flows for both firms that use R&D and those that are not R&D-active. The main idea behind the Framework Programme is that innovation often results from the interaction and cooperative efforts of different organisation devoted to the achievement of a common goal. This study builds on the first IR report: it extends the number of reviewed projects, and it looks at the relationship between the type of innovators and the potential of their innovations. A particular emphasis is put on collaboration between universities and private organizations. Furthermore, the report analyses whether universities and private organizations have different needs and face different bottlenecks to bring their innovations to the market.