Transcript Andrea Tilche

Andrea Tilche
European Commission
DG Research
Head of the Unit « Environmental
Technologies and Pollution Prevention »
Strengthening innovation in chemical
clusters
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The current economic
downturn
• Not a cyclic crisis
• Need for a more strategic approach to
design the recovery path
• Combination with the need to build a lowC economy
• Environmental Technologies and Ecoinnovation become the key elements for
future growth
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Vision for Tomorrow
• All industry becomes “green”!
• eco-innovation, environmental technologies
across all sectors
• Need fundamental transformations – not just “add
ons”
• Make use of ecological principles: life-cycle,
diversity, symbiosis, resilience, bio-compatible,
networking, etc.
• All in all, in the future all innovation should
also be eco-innovation
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From Eco-Innovation to Innovation:
assuring that green is really green
The potential environmental impacts of an innovation
should be already assessed at the phase of conceptual
development
(eco-design).
This
require
the
implementation of specific evaluation criteria based on
Life Cycle Thinking.
Before an innovation is scaled-up from pilot to
demonstration scale, an assessment based on robust
Life Cycle Assessment methodologies should be
carried out in order to verify if the innovation is an ecoinnovation.
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Huge challenges for the
European Chemicals
Industry
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International competition
Costs of feedstock
Climate change
Creating skills
Financial markets
...
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What to do in Europe
• The Chemicals Industry in Europe is still
the larger in terms of world market share
with respect to other competing areas,
but...
• Its market share is decreasing
• It is relocating in other parts of the world
• Its competitiveness is at stake
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What is our competitive
advantage
• Europe cannot compete for lower salaries,
for cheap resources or for relaxed
environmental quality standards
• Europa can compete for its knowledge
base, its research potential, its skills, its
potential of growing new skills, its
organisational capability at regional level
and along the value chain, its first class
infrastructures
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How to reverse the trend?
• INNOVATION is the only European asset that
can make the difference
• More investments in high-tech sectors
• Start-up programmes in Universities linked to
chemical entrepreneurship programmes
• Promotion of Public-Private-Partnerships and
Open innovation schemes
• Better exploitation of funding opportunities along
the innovation chain
• Focus on excellence – clusters and regions
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The importance of
clustering/networking
• 3 main types of innovation clusters
and networks may exist:
– At thematic level
– At regional/local level
– Along the value chain
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Thematic clusters
• To share basic research costs
• To share costs of development in
open innovation schemes
• To promote and share logistics
• To share production facilities
•…
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Regional/local clusters
• To develop “industrial Ecology”
schemes
• To improve energy and resource
efficiency
• To share logistics
• To make better use of local/regional
high education, training and research
facilities and infrastructures
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Clusters along the value
chain
• To better target the specific needs
• To ensure product sustainability
• To maximise the resource use
• To ensure efficiency at all levels
• To maximise quality through
specialisation
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Is innovation facilitated by
clustering?
• Succesful innovation is a complex process,
based on a combination of factors where
clustering may play a major role:
– Scientific and Technological developments
– Availability of skills
– Market conditions
– Regulatory environment
– Business models
– Risk capital availability
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A new model: the EIT
• The European Institute of Innovation and
Technology proposes a model of full
integration of the “knowledge triangle” of
research, innovation and education
• First Knowledge and Innovation Clusters
(KICs) – on energy, climate change and
ICT - to be launched within 2009, and new
ones after 2012
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Thanks for your attention!
[email protected]
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