From left to right: Juan Carlos Salazar, Daniele Archibugi, José Ramón Seoane and M. Paloma Sánchez.
On 30 March, the Second Breakfast with Innovation of the UAM-ASSECO Chair “Linking Regional Innovation Performances to EU Science & Technology Policies” took place at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM).
The breakfast was attended by Daniele Archibugi, Research Director of the Italian National Research Council (IRPPS-CNR) and Professor of Innovation at Birkbeck College, University of London (UK), together with Juan Carlos Salazar-Elena, Professor of Economics at UAM and researcher of the UAM-ASSECO Chair.
The event was chaired by José Ramón Seoane, General Director of Fundación de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and M. Paloma Sánchez, Director of the UAM-Asseco Chair.
First, Professor Archibugi presented his main ideas on the relevance of innovation to economic activity, highlighting we live in a society in constant change with many different actors involved in the innovation process. These actors include institutions, different levels of governance (local/regional/national/supranational), and companies. All of them with a high degree of heterogeneity, which is a challenge in terms of understanding what innovation means.
In the European Union, the situation is even more complex because the excellence of research activity does not translate into higher productivity for a large number of regions. This contrasts with the EU’s market-based concept and at the same time constitutes a problem, because research activities are localised in very specific areas, where a large number of innovative companies are concentrated. This is why the existence of initiatives such as the Framework Programmes, which seek to create innovation networks, is crucial.
Professor Juan Carlos Salazar-Elena then gave his speech, which focused on the existing methodologies for measuring innovation at the regional level in the European Union, in which the Regional Innovation Scoreboard (RIS) stands out.
This was followed by an interesting debate with the attendees and finally, the director of the UAM-Asseco Chair, M. Paloma Sánchez, closed the event.
