The purpose of the MLE on innovation-enhancing procurement is to set up an EU knowledge-sharing service on innovation-enhancing procurement, encouraging mutual-learning, identifying good practices and providing advice in the field. The MLE aims to support Member States in designing, implementing and/or evaluating different policy instruments in relation to innovation-enhancing procurement.
This Science for Policy Report describes national support instruments to improve access to finance for high growth innovative enterprises and analyses available evidence for their effectiveness and economic impact on beneficiary companies. The analysis covers Germany, Finland, Lithuania, Poland and the United Kingdom.
Differences exist across EU Member States with regard to the administration and control of the R&D tax incentives systems, notably in relation to the use of R&D definitions (stemming from e.g. Frascati manual or EU block exemption regulation), the interpretation/implementation of those definitions, the eligibility of costs, etc. This MLE was an opportunity to investigate those various topics which so far had not been discussed at this level of details in any other forum and to learn from each other on possible approaches to tackle those issues.
The Modus Operandi defines the scope, the objectives, envisaged outcomes and the preliminary time schedule of the MLE. It also describes the working approach and methodology the group will follow as well as the distribution of work of all participants.
With a view to improve efficiency of public funding in research and addressing major societal challenges, Member States have identified the need to improve the alignment and interoperability of their national programmes. Building on the Lund Declaration, the ERAC Joint Programming Group (GPC) has launched an MLE to address the need to foster national coordination by looking at national preconditions for participation in JPP (Joint Programming Process) / JPI (Joint Programming Initiatives), national governance structures and communication flows and visibility.
Research performance based funding is used by most EU Member States to increase the performance of their public research system. This report analyses the different nature of systems in EU Member States, selected associated and third countries. It aims to inform Member States which are in a process of mutual learning to improve the design of their research funding allocation mechanisms.
The European Semester starts with the Commission's Annual Growth Survey (AGS), which outlines general economic priorities for the EU. In 2015, the focus of the AGS was on boosting investment, accelerating structural reforms and pursuing responsible growth-friendly fiscal consolidation. In line with those priorities, in February the Commission publishes a series of Country Reports presenting an asssessment of economic and social developments and challenges in different areas, including research and innovation.
