The energy transition through crowd-based innovation: a challenge for the EU

With its Energy Union Research Innovation and Competitiveness Strategy (EURICS), the EU can kill three birds with one innovative stone: to boost its competitiveness, Europe should become the global provider of low-carbon solutions, an objective best achieved democratically - with citizens at the centre and in the driving seat of Innovation.

To do this, this Tribune by Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, research fellow at the Jacques Delors Institute and Pierre Serkine, End-User Architect at KIC InnoEnergy, argues that:

• Europe needs a renewed approach to competitiveness and put innovation at its core.
• Innovation policy is more legitimate when it is democratic. The EU should therefore create a citizen-based instrument to steer European energy innovation.
• To the benefit of both competitiveness and democracy, the EU should propel a crowd-based digital platform where innovators and citizens can co-create innovations that are democratically selected, and crowd-financed by citizens, business angels, local communities and the EU. On this platform, EU budget allocation would be very simple: where an EU citizen invests one euro, the EU invests one euro. Supported projects can then become a start-up or an intrapreneurship project.

ESO: Background information: From distraction to action - towards a bold Energy Union Innovation Strategy http://www.europeansources.info/record/from-distraction-to-action-towards-a-bold-energy-union-innovation-strategy/

European Commission: Roadmap: Energy Union Integrated Strategy on Research, Innovation and Competitiveness http://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/roadmaps/docs/2016_rtd_001_energy_union_research_strategy_en.pdf

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