Research and Innovation Policy after the Crisis

The economic crisis has had a negative effect on the state of the public budgets. Consolidation measures and the slow recovery of the economy will continue to influence the budget until 2014. However, an increase in public spending on innovation and education is possible in principle, despite budget consolidation. A "frontrunner strategy" can be implemented despite limited public resources, mainly by focussing resources and policy instruments on a strengthening of the leverage effect, in order to optimally make use of potential for private financing. Measures to implement this frontrunner strategy by 2020 and establish the pre-conditions for sustainable, innovation-based growth must go beyond a public funding system providing subsidies in the narrow sense. The elimination of bottlenecks in the education system and the improvement of the environment for innovative companies are of central importance to this approach. Intensified start-up dynamics, more dynamic growth of innovative businesses and additional international R&D headquarters can enable the structural change required to achieve these objectives.