Past Workshops

Innovation policy and sustainable development: Can public innovation incentives make a difference?

The focus of innovation policy has traditionally been on productivity and economic growth, but pressures to contribute to environmentally sustainable growth have steadily been gaining ground. The spring 2002 workshop of the Six Countries Programme, hosted and organized by the Institute for Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT), addressed a number of questions in relation to this issue: What can the innovation policy community learn from the impact of environmental technology policies? How can innovation policy instruments contribute to their primary goal of improving innovation performance, and simultaneously to the policy goal of sustainable development? Can the two policy goals be combined in instruments that address both issues? Can innovation policy do more to have a major impact on environmentally friendly growth? Have we developed the right tools to measure this impact? Operational experiences with policy measures and programmes that have combined 'traditional' innovation policy objectives with sustainability were presented and debated during the workshop.

Documents for download

Presentations & papers

• Setting the scene of this conference: Merging innovation performance and sustainability by Ken Guy Wise Guys Ltd., United Kingdom. Paper

• Policies for innovation and the environment: Toward an arranged marriage by George R. Heaton, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts, USA

• Impact & additionality of innovation policy by Luke Georghiou, Policy Research in Engineering, Science and Technology (PREST), University of Manchester, United Kingdom. Paper

• An integrated policy for innovation for the environment by René Kemp, Senior Research Fellow, Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT), The Netherlands

• Green Innovation: Integrating environmental and technology policies in Denmark by Jesper Holm, Department of Technology, Environment and Social Studies, Roskilde University, Denmark. Paper

• Sustainability research in Austria: Part 1 and Part 2 by Hans Günther Schwarz, Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology, Austria

• Does public-private S&T collaboration have an effect on competitiveness? Some empirical findings from the Netherlands by Tom Poot, Delft University of Technology (TUDelft), The Netherlands

• Cost-benefit analysis and indicators for measuring the impact of innovation policy: Empirical evidence from Norway by Jon Hekland and Mette Rye, Møre Research Molde, Norway. Paper 1 . Paper 2

• Measuring 'relative effectiveness': Can we compare innovation policy instruments? Paper by Erik Arnold and Patries Boekholt, Technopolis Group, The Netherlands

• Innovation for sustainability by Corine van As and René Wismeijer, E.E.T (Economy, Ecology and Technology) programme, The Netherlands. Paper

• Innovation subsidies in Flanders & sustainability by Paul Zeeuwts, IWT-Vlaanderen, Belgium

• Green technology programmes: The experience so far by Karl Ulrich Voss, Federal Ministry for Education and Research, Germany. Paper

• Summary of conference contributions by Patries Boekholt, Technopolis Group, The Netherlands

Reports and other related information

• Workshop review, volume 40 of IWT-Studies, Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology in Flanders

• Workshop programme

• Position paper

Top of page …