Towards a Comprehensive EU Innovation Policy

While there is a large body of EU innovation policy to build on, the EU’s conception of innovation fails to take account of the true breadth of innovative activities and processes that can contribute to societal progress. There has been an unfortunate failure to understand that support for innovation is not the same as support for R&D. Innovation cannot be organised by decree. It comes from people, and only people. Innovation is neither an explicitly economic process, nor indeed an objective itself.