27.7.2009
Sectoral innovation foresight: key drivers, innovation themes & emerging markets, Brussels on 23-24 June 2009

‘Sectoral innovation foresight: key drivers, innovation themes & emerging markets’-workshop was organised in Brussels on 23-24 June 2009. This workshop was part of the Sectoral Innovation Watch (SIW) project of the Europe
INNOVA initiative launched by the European Commission’s Directorate General Enterprise and Industry. Europe INNOVA aspires to become the laboratory for the development and testing of new tools and instruments in support of innovation.

The SIW-project is conducted by a consortium consisting of eleven organisations from eight European countries, led by TNO from the Netherlands. One central element of the current SIW-project is the implementation of a foresight activity on sectoral innovation challenges and opportunities in nine different sectors, coordinated by Austrian Research Centres ARC. The aim is to identify technologies and market opportunities that may have a major effect (in the nine sectors under study) in the future as well as at extracting challenges and implications for European companies and public policy. The nine sectors under study are biotechnology, electrical and optical equipment, automotive, space and aeronautics, construction, wholesale and retail trade, knowledge intensive services, food and drink and textiles.

At the Sectoral innovation foresight workshop, interim findings were presented and discussed in nine working groups that dealt specifically with each individual sector as well as with the main cross-cutting issues. The aim of the workshop was to provide an opportunity for the exchange amongst peers of views on trends of potential disruptive effect. According to the results of the workshop, further more in-depth sectoral investigations will be undertaken. On the basis of this consolidated understanding of key drivers of change, a final scenario consolidation workshop will be organised in early 2010.

The keynote speakers of the workshop included Reinhard Büscher from DG Enterprise and Industry, and Annalisa Primi from OECD. Juha Vänskä from Lappeenranta University of Technology/SC-Research participated the workshop as an invited expert.