Vision Era-Net 2005 - 2009

The importance of research and planning in pursuit of a Europe-wide innovation policy is emphasised by innovation's increasing importance as an engine for European economic growth. Vision Era-Net, a European collaborative network linking leading national innovation policy agencies, has sought to improve the quality and efficiency of innovation policy planning, while enhancing collaboration between the participating countries. Coordinated by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy, this project was launched in 2005 and ended in 2009.

Vision Era-Net brought innovation policy agencies together

The Vision Era-Net network included 12 partners from ten nations. Era-Net funding scheme under the EU's sixth framework programme provided the total budget of EUR 2 million, with the objective of promoting the creation of the European Research Area (ERA).

This ten-nation consortium evaluated national innovation system development paths and the current status of innovation policy research. It also formulated a shared vision and strategy, through which collaboration was implemented, funded and managed. Research results were utilised in line with this strategy. Through Vision Era-Net collaboration, national innovation agencies were successfully networked and concrete collaboration forged between member states.

The project resulted in mechanisms and practices for specifying and managing joint European research programmes. Through these, joint research subjects can be identified, projects evaluated, and shared ground rules and funding principles agreed. Creating shared mechanisms highlighted the strongly national character of European research. A number of obstacles to the execution of joint European research programmes were identified:

In most cases, needs for new knowledge occurred at national level
Most of the funding was national
Research and the research infrastructure were dispersed on national level
Policy planning is under the thrall of national strategies.

Vision Era-Net achieved extensive practical understanding of how joint European programmes should be implemented. Such knowledge can be exploited in the further development of ERA.

The consortium used calls for joint research proposals to test the newly developed mechanisms. Two such calls were arranged in 2007 - 2008, focusing on topical European innovation policy issues:

Collaborative and open innovation: Future challenges for national innovation policies in the emerging European Research Area
Governance structures in national research and innovation policy: Comparison and assessment of the approaches in the VISION Era-Net partner countries.