Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol2-1 > Towards a European Innovation Area

These are exciting times for the European Technology Platforms. They are approaching maturity and reaching the critical mass necessary to make a real impact. The challenge now is to turn European Technology Platforms from networks for technological research into platforms for delivering a Europe of Innovation.

The European Technology Platforms (ETPs) continue to go from strength to strength. There are 36 European Technology Platforms in areas as diverse as biofuels technology, nanotechnologies for medical applications, photovoltaic technologies, water supply and sanitation, and future textiles and clothing. What began as a political aspiration seven years ago to bring together “technological know-how, industry, regulators and financial institutions to develop a strategic agenda for leading technologies”, is now a key feature in Europe’s research landscape.

By bringing together stakeholders, the European Technology Platforms have built common visions in technological areas that will be essential for Europe’s future prosperity and well being. Rather than being left in abstract terms, these visions have been formulated into strategic research agendas (SRAs), setting out in a clear, practical and attainable way what needs to be done for the technological goals to be realised. The SRAs have helped make connections between actors and industries that did not exist before and have proved pivotal in shaping the latest European Framework Programme. In short, the European Technology Platforms have – from a standing start – built communities of interest in strategic areas that will be key to Europe’s technological future.

Having put their plans in place, the European Technology Platforms are ready for the next stage in their journey – implementation. Some have already developed implementation plans detailing how they will realise the SRA. Research projects funded jointly and/or under the Framework Programme are a fundamental element. In addition, some European Technology Platforms are looking to tap into national and regional programmes and the Structural Funds. Several European Technology Platforms have participated in the launch of public-private research partnerships known as Joint Technology Initiatives.

Increasingly, the European Technology Platforms are looking beyond research, contributing to policy initiatives that are complementary to or build upon research policies in their particular field. European Technology Platforms are also adopting a more professional approach to their activities and in several cases have incorporated as non-profit organisations.

It is this agenda of delivering real added value for Europe that dominated the ETP 2010 Conference held in Brussels in May 2010. Innovation is key for Europe in seeking the path to economic recovery and to sustainable economic growth in the decade ahead. Innovative products and services will also enable us to tackle the “grand challenges” facing Europe, such as the ageing population, personalised healthcare, sustainable transport, and climate change. Market solutions alone will not be enough to address these issues, which are also beyond the reach of any individual member state. The challenges are at such a scale that only Europe-wide partnerships can tackle them – and in that the European Technology Platforms have a head start.

The challenge, then, is to turn the current technological networks into platforms for delivering innovation. This requires that the European Technology Platforms reach out beyond their original constituencies to embrace an even broader range of stakeholder groups, and in particular those on the demand side. Having excellent research is one thing; turning that research into viable products and services is quite another. Successful innovation requires change at many levels – business models, regulations, standards, public procurement, intellectual property, finance – which can only be accounted for by bringing users into the loop at a very early stage. With user-driven and open innovation becoming the dominant paradigm, it is essential that the European Technology Platforms make building partnerships with users their top priority.

One example of this is in the ICT field, where five European Technology Platforms have come together to develop a common vision on the Future Internet. The Future Internet will be an enabler for “smart infrastructure” that will have applications in a wide variety of sectors: smarter energy, smarter health, smarter transport, smarter cities, and smarter living. To maximise the societal benefit it will be essential to involve these user industries, which will be a key part of the Future Internet value chain, as well as end-users and public authorities. With this in mind, leading industrial players from the European Technology Platforms have joined forces under the European Future Internet Initiative.

This helped prepare the ground for the Future Internet Public Private Partnership (FI-PPP) launched in Valencia in April 2010. This aims to foster partnerships between the ICT industry and other industry sectors in the next generation of internet infrastructures and applications. Thus, whereas technologists once spent their time talking to each other, they are now engaging with users – who, of course, are also potential customers for these innovations further down the line.

Clean water supplies are under severe pressure in Europe due to insufficient infrastructure and climate change, posing a major risk to public health. SusChem, the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry, and the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (WSSTP) have announced a partnership to address these issues.

The co-operation has set out a high-level roadmap for sustainable water use in an integrated water management system between the chemical industry, urban water and value chain partners. This new approach to water management will mean water for public use and water used in industry would no longer need to compete for the same resources. The integrated water management system will include water reuse, complementary water streams, and reduced water consumption.

Future materials and processes like renewable feedstocks and biotechnology, which are water intensive, will also be addressed by the project which aims to provide a new framework for water use. The overall collaboration has been very positively received by the European Commission and a FP7 project is being launched in 2010. In the next stage, SusChem and WSSTP hope to be able to present a demonstration project.

This approach is indicative of a general trend towards closer working between the European Technology Platforms. By joining forces in activity clusters the European Technology Platforms will be able to shift their focus from research to innovation and broaden their scope to address the whole innovation chain. In some cases, such as the Future Internet and Factory of the Future, this collaboration is formalised into a public-private partnership. In other cases, a looser collaboration is being considered.

These “clusters” or “partnerships” aim to become the foci for activity in their fields, linking to and leveraging from relevant activities being undertaken through regional and national programmes and initiatives. They will develop specific plans detailing how they will contribute to innovation and how their proposals will be implemented. Most are also developing separate plans in relation to education, training and skills.

Collaboration was already very apparent at the European Technology Platforms 2010 Conference. For instance, ERTRAC – the technology platform for road transport – is exploring the requirements for the widescale take-up of electric vehicles with the power sector (represented by SmartGrids) and systems integrators (represented by EPoSS).

Another example is nanotechnologies, where several European Technology Platforms with interests in nano-related research have come together to form NANOfutures, the European Technology Integration and Innovation Platform (ETIP) in Nanotechnology. It aims to address barriers to commercialisation of nanotechnologies – public acceptance, fragmentation, technological convergence – that require an integrated, cross-platform, collaborative approach.

No-one could ever have doubted that the European Technology Platforms would come up with excellent technology – Europe has never been short on ideas. Where we have fallen down is in putting those ideas into action. Now, by uniting the excellence of European industry with the critical eye of users and customers, we appear, at last, to have the formula for success. 

Collaboration for sustainable water use

Clean water supplies are under severe pressure in Europe due to insufficient infrastructure and climate change, posing a major risk to public health. SusChem, the European Technology Platform for Sustainable Chemistry, and the Water Supply and Sanitation Technology Platform (WSSTP) have announced a partnership to address these issues.

The co-operation has set out a high-level roadmap for sustainable water use in an integrated water management system between the chemical industry, urban water and value chain partners. This new approach to water management will mean water for public use and water used in industry would no longer need to compete for the same resources. The integrated water management system will include water reuse, complementary water streams, and reduced water consumption.

Future materials and processes like renewable feedstocks and biotechnology, which are water intensive, will also be addressed by the project which aims to provide a new framework for water use. The overall collaboration has been very positively received by the European Commission and a FP7 project is being launched in 2010. In the next stage, SusChem and WSSTP hope to be able to present a demonstration project.