The phase 2008-2010 of the Sectoral Innovation Watch aimed to provide policy-makers and innovation professionals with a better understanding of the sectoral innovation dynamics across Europe. A fundamental question was to what extent and why innovation performance differs across sectors.
Central to the work of the Sectoral Innovation Watch was analysing trends in, and reporting on, innovation performance in nine sectors (Task 1). For each sector, the focus was put on identifying the innovative agents, innovation performance, necessary skills for innovation, and the relationship between innovation, labour productivity and skills availability. The analysis of the sectors was based on a thorough quantitive assesment of innovation performance, completed with qualitiative analyses. The results on innovation performance and main trends in the nine sectors were included in nine sector reports on innovation performance.
A second major element was the foresight of sectoral innovation challenges and opportunities (Task 2). This aimed at identifying markets and technologies that may have a disruptive effect in the nine sectors in the future, as well as extracting challenges and implications for European companies and public policy. The foresight exercise explored and identified the main drivers of change, as well as the key future developments such as future innovation themes and emerging markets and related requirements and impacts. Moreover, scenario sketches were developed and key policy issues for the future were highlighted. The results of the foresight exercise were included in sectoral foresight reports, as well as in a final report including cross-cutting issues and sectoral futures. Two foresight workshops were organised to discuss and validate the findings and to identify future requirements and policy issues.
A third exercise was the identification and analysis of current and potential bottlenecks that influence sectoral innovation performance, paying special attention to the role of markets and regulations (Task 3). Specifically, the analysis covered the importance of the different factors in the propensity of firms to innovate. A distinction will be made between generic and sector-specific factors, and national differences in the relative effect of the different market and policy factors were identified as well. The results of this exercise were included in a final report addressing cross-sectoral and sector specific findings about the different factors that influence the propensity to innovate.
In addition to the three main tasks focusing on sectoral innovation trends, performance and factors, there were also five horizontal, cross-cutting, themes related to innovation (Task 4). The five horizontal themes covered the important but diverse areas of national specialisation and innovation performance, organisational innovation in services, emerging lead markets, the potential of eco-innovation, and high-growth companies (gazelles). The analyses of these horizontal themes were fed by the insights from the sectoral innovation studies performed in the previous tasks. The results of the horizontal analyses were included in five horizontal reports.
The horizontal reports were used for the organisation of five thematic panels (Task 5). The purpose of these panels was to provide the Commission services with feedback on current and proposed policy initiatives. Based on the horizontal reports, the panels discussed the current situation concerning the topic, the question how policy might affect the topic, as well as policy recommendations. For the five panels input and output papers were produced.
The horizontal themes and the sectors were analysed in close concert, using a so-called ‘matrix approach’ that enabled the taking into account of important cross-linkages between sectors. Sector-specific insights coming from the several tasks were combined in nine final sector reports.
