Innovation Importance

• Just as enterprises (SMEs particularly) are “engine” of economic growth, innovation is fundamental existing and future competitive advantage of those enterprises;
• Innovation and entrepreneurship at the centre of the Lisbon partnership for jobs and growth;
• EU recognising it lags US & Japan is putting a greater focus on innovation and industry driven applied R&D (Jose Manuel Barroso 13 October 2009 1st European Innovation Summit).”Good at ideas not good at bringing them to market”

EU Approach

• Improving Framework Conditions
• SBA making Europe a breeding ground for Entrepreneurs
• Education, Skills & Training
• Triggering Uptake of Innovative Goods & Services
• Using regulation & standardisation to provide incentives and stimulate markets and increase demand (LMI)
• Building Synergies
• Stimulating cooperation & coordination & clustering
• Improving Financial Support and Access to Finance for Research and Innovation
• 7th Framework Programme & CIP

Ukrainian Situation

• Very Inventive not very innovative
• There is a lack not only of a market focus but a dearth of commercial management skills within both the research and enterprise communities 
• 250,000 research papers 6,000 patent filings (< 100 PCTs < 80 foreign filings) 
• What proportion leading to commercial products? 
• Internationally only two products for every 3,000 patents are launched and only one in every 5,000 is successful!
• “There are around 1.5 million patents in effect and in force in this country, and of those maybe 3,000 are commercially viable” (Richard Maulsby, Director of the Office of Public Affairs for the U.S. Patents & Trademark Office Business Week November 10, 2005)

Ukrainian Situation?

• Can Ukraine expect to do better? 
• Compare this with Australian experience. Their Universities only patent a small number of technologies every year (average 40) but 70% are commercialised. Why 2 factors:

• market orientation of research 
• rigorous ‘screening’ of inventions with regard to their commercialisation potential by the commercialisation offices prior to patenting

Australia also has a well defined National Innovation System (NIS) and recognition that enterprise is the conduit between research and the market.
Lessons to be learnt perhaps and improving the Ukraine ?

•  Ukraine has significant but unrealised innovation potential;
• Need for greater interaction and partnership between research community and enterprise (innovation vouchers, research tax credits);
• Need for commercial teams with commercial skills at the research centres to facilitate the innovation process;
• Adoption of a correct business development approach;
• Need for State enterprise support organisations and initiatives
• Business Planning and the commercialisation of innovation is not based on models but a process of thinking.