Publications
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Economic Complexity for Regional Industrial Strategies
Innovation and industrial policies in the EU is often undertaken at regional level. Policymakers that have to design regional industrial… Show more strategy need quantitative tools for guidance. Economic complexity can support policymakers especially during the early phase of policy design: patent and trade data are fed into predictive models to assess the chances of success of a strategy. The methods of economic complexity follow the driving principles of machine learning to predict the probability that a region becomes successful in a given technology or product. We present a series of quantitative tools for regions: (1) relative innovation capabilities; (2) expected diversification by sector; (3) expected diversification by product; (4) fitness of a region for a project. Show less
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A resilient, competitive and fair EU: Industrial Innovation for Open Strategic Autonomy
This article gives a short EU policy contextualisation of “Industrial innovation for Open Strategic Autonomy – leaving no one and… Show more no place behind’’ followed by a digest of the results of CONCORDi 2023 conference (Oct. 24-26, 2023) on the same subject. It focusses on policy relevance, drawing on new scientific evidence, insights and recommendations highlighting some of the policy challenges ahead. The content of this document – original for its comprehensive and new science-to-policy handling of the topic - reinforces the messages related to Open Strategic Autonomy of recent Communications of the Commission.Main highlights arising from this Brief are: 1) Industrial Innovation as a pillar of industrial policy is central to achieving Open Strategic Autonomy (OSA); 2) In pursuing OSA, social and territorial cohesion should be integrated into industrial innovation policy; 3) Institutional capacities as well as quality and good governance are crucial to OSA; 4) More research and cooperation between practitioners and scientists is needed to underpin and monitor OSA. Show less
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PDF Where the EU stands vis-à-vis the USA and China? Corporate R&D intensity gap and structural change
Industrial innovation has always been key in the European Union (EU) to achieving competitive sustainability. Its role has become even… Show more more crucial in the context of COVID-19 recovery plans, the implementation of the twin green and digital transition, and the global sustainability agenda.1 Investments in research and development (R&D) by private sector companies drive industrial innovation. An analysis of differences in R&D intensity across world regions and their development over time is therefore of particular relevance. We examine the trends of the EU’s overall corporate R&D intensity relative to competing economies. Our findings reveal that the R&D intensity gap has changed over the last decade, and we explore to what extent the EU economy’s sectoral composition compared with that of its main competitors, the United States and China, has influenced this change. Our analysis covers 10 years (2012–2021) and is based on company data that is freely accessible on the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard website. Show less
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PDF Top R&D investors recovering fast from the Covid-19 crisis: Preliminary insight to the 2022 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard
This policy brief presents preliminary insight in the 2022 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard (the Scoreboard). It is based on… Show more a subsample of companies with available published accounts for the year 2021. The subsample consists of 678 companies representing 66.5% of the global R&D in the previous year’s Scoreboard. It includes 274 companies based in the EU, 198 in US, 112 Chinese companies, 16 Japanese companies and 78 from the rest of the world. Show less
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PDF The regional green potential of the European innovation system
The brief provides an overview of green technological development across European regions employing the Economic Fitness Complexity approach to establish… Show more a green technology space. The study explores the associations between comparative advantage in specific technological domains and a region’s capacity to develop green technologies, i.e. its Green Fitness. Furthermore, it addresses the interaction between the green and non-green knowledge bases, with a particular focus on whether regional know-how in the non-green technological realm can be exploited in the green domain and vice versa. To this aim, a metric of regional Green Potential is proposed. The analysis suggests that regions specialised in green domains, irrespective of their complexity, have a higher propensity to develop technologies connected with green technologies. Green technologies are linked mostly to technologies related to the production or transformation of materials; with engines and pumps; and with construction methods. The regions with the highest Green Potential are not necessarily those with the highest Green Fitness. The results suggest that there is a potential for green and non-green technological advances to generate positive spillovers in terms of capabilities to produce innovations across the spectrum of technological complexity. Show less
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PDF Industrial innovation for competitive sustainability: Science-for-policy insights
New scientific evidence points out key issues helpful to designing policies and understanding new challenges. This brief article holds the… Show more outcomes of the CONCORDi 2021 conference focused on ‘Industrial innovation for competitive sustainability’, and organised by the European Commission’s JRC in collaboration with EARTO, OECD and UNIDO. The brief introduces the key takeaways from the scientific research presented and a summary of key policy insights arising from the mentioned event. Show less
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PDF HOW INNOVATIVE EU FIRMS FACED THE COVID-19 DOWNTURN
-The Covid-19 pandemic has triggered many challenges, but also opportunities, for businesses across Europe. -We examine how the innovation and growth… Show more of firms in the EU have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and how as “European Innovation Champions”, SMEs reacted to the resultant shock. -We find that compared to non-innovative firms, the economic performance of innovative firms in the EU has been considerably less affected by the pandemic. 1. Pandemic effects for business innovators… an exceptional context with little evidence in the literature -We also identify five different paradoxical behaviours of ‘European Innovation Champions” during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic. -Industrial policies targeting SMEs should be flexible and allow companies to adapt their investment plans in line with the evolving conditions to preserve and succeed through the crisis. -EU instruments, such as the Recovery and Resilience Facility and Horizon Europe, offer wide opportunities for firms to exit from the Covid-19 crisis and boost their future competitiveness. Show less
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PDF Policy Brief: GLOBAL VALUE CHAINS AND INNOVATION NETWORKS IN THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL ERA
This policy brief provides insights into several issues from a policy perspective that are closely related to the implementation of… Show more I4.0 in the European context of digitalisation. The successful implementation of Industry 4.0 (I4.0) within the European Union (EU) should build upon existing global innovation networks (GINs) and global value chains (GVCs) and the ecosystem of EU firms, especially in the manufacturing industry where I4.0 could play an important role. Due to the large share of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that define the EUs competitiveness, it is vital to integrate I4.0 by ensuring these companies can benefit from their efforts in implementing it and create and offer value. It is important to address training, requalification and workers’ concerns about I4.0 in order to support its implementation while maintaining the EU social model. Harnessing the EU’s strength in industrial application, while bearing in mind its lag in traditional ICT industries, could make I4.0 a viable policy option ensuring future leadership of the European economy, if certain factors discussed in this policy brief are included in future industrial policies. Show less
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PDF Economic Complexity for competitiveness and innovation: a novel bottom-up strategy linking global and regional capacities
EU manufacturing has lost ground due to the low growth of the EU domestic economy and its diminished participation in… Show more global manufacturing value chains. EU industry is facing different transitions at the same time, including the digital transformation and the transition towards a net zero emission and circular economy. Developing technologies, products and solutions for this while having access to finance, resources and human capital equipped with the right skills are amongst the huge challenges to be overcome in the next decade. This implies the need for new business models and actors to ensure future competitiveness and employment. These competitive pressures challenge the EU as leading innovator in the world, which in turn is crucial for future industrial competitiveness. From the policy side, a more integrated approach to industrial, innovation and regional policies is necessary to trigger successful industrial transformation. In this environment, conventional economic analyses have shown limited usefulness. Indeed, Complex System analysis has highlighted since the '80s the limitation of conventional economic analyses to identify hidden trends in complex environments (Anderson, Arrow and Pines 1987). Economic Complexity is an alternative, non-conventional bottom-up and data-driven approach inspired by statistical physics and complex systems science. By producing quantitative, falsifiable results and relationships, it has great potential in the analysis of the current challenges in Innovation Systems. Show less