Innovation and innovator assessment in R&I ecosystems: the case of the EU Framework Programme

Abstract

The EU Framework Programme (FP) has evolved from supporting pre-competitive research to cover the entire innovation value chain and became the world’s largest research and innovation (R&I) ecosystem. It facilitates the creation of R&I networks among organizations from around the world. To oversee and manage the innovation activities of complex collaborative R&I projects, new data, indicators and tools were needed. We present the Innovation Radar (IR), an initiative of the European Commission to identify and manage innovations and innovators in the FP R&I ecosystem. The IR is used as an intelligence platform providing insights on innovation activities in large collaborative R&I projects. The internal IR tools allow policy officers to monitor R&I projects and provide custom support to facilitate the commercialisation of their results. External actors use the public IR data platform to seek for collaborative partners or for investment opportunities.