Cutbacks on innovation funding have raised important discussion on the future of innovation policy in Finland. For Tampere Region this is an especially relevant debate because its RDI expenditure, amounting to nearly one billion euros, are among the highest in Europe in relation to GDP. Innovation related activities offer significant employment opportunties for regional talent, both directly and indirectly.
It is extremely important to secure a sufficient level of innovation funding and research. At the same time, however, we need to assess the efficiency and impact of the operations being funded. Do our investments produce results, competitiveness, new jobs and wellbeing? Do our selected operating methods and financial instruments build truly new opportunities? Do they serve the sustainable development of our environment and society?
In Tampere Region, the status of innovation related activities is assessed annually. Government, university and business organisations create in cooperation a situational picture of innovation, which consists of continuously monitored results from nearly 50 indicators, and shared interpretations and conclusions are prepared in a collaborative process. The recent situational picture 2015 reconganizes the need for change.
The traditional vision of innovation policy, where programme-based R&D activities led by university-level research and major corporations leads to reform in business life at a sufficient pace, does not seem to be a reality. Key drivers of exports are reformed slowly and often through deep crises. Funding of development projects has become partly a permanent operational subsidy paid to vast network of organisations. Radical and risk-taking projects are all too rare. Innovation paths from the universities and the transfer of technology are not sufficiently strong and dynamic.
We are in need of more agile and ambitious experiments from teams of entrepreneurial experts, and we need to seek new innovations through open competition and choise. Increased talent focus, openness and competition should result in higher number of high-technology leads and startups that quickly penetrate international markets. High-quality individuals and teams will be linked with emerging global value chains and competence networks, while connecting them to Tampere Region and its industrial and research-based strengths.
A different kind of an innovation vision cannot be fulfilled through traditional policies and focus areas, especially considering that budget assets are being reduced. The boldness to seek new focus areas and public-private partnerships in more risky global scale projects is a necessity. Public funding and policy should always set up an open innovation market, not exclusive rights to innovation activities. At the same time, we need to take care of the foundation of our competence – above all, resources at the highest level of research and education – and to support the general reform of our universities.
Petri Räsänen, Director, Innovation and Foresight
Council of Tampere Region
Summary 2015
Situational Picture of Innovation 2016 - Contents
- Value Network Capability
- Funding of RDI
- Internationality
- Growth Companies
- Innovation Platforms
- Higher Education Institutions
In depth analyses and about the process
- Innovation health check-up for Tampere Region
- Analysis over growth period 2010-2013
- Comparison of regional performance
- Workshops and materials 2015
- The process
