Research, Higher Education and Innovation: Redesigning European Governance in an Period of Crisis

Investments in research, innovation and higher education ('knowledge investments') are crucial to secure EU’s future competitiveness and growth. This Policy Paper by Jo Ritzen and Luc Soete invites readers to redefine the division of labour between the EU, the national governments and the regions in the fields of research, innovation and higher education.

According to these two experts, the current economic and financial crisis raises some fundamental issues with respect to the future of Europe’s long-term knowledge based strategy. At a moment when many EU countries are faced with serious budget constraints as a result of the crisis, it is essential to re-visit the meaning of subsidiarity in the field of research, innovation and higher education. It is also essential to re-define EU and national support to knowledge investment in order to better respond to the challenges of globalisation and the spatial agglomeration of research, which have been exacerbated by the financial and economic crisis. Jo Ritzen and Luc Soete conclude by putting forward some proposals to advance towards the development of an efficient 'layered' European innovation system through reforms in regulation and finance.