In July 2025, the European Commission published a call for feedback on a European Innovation Act. EURASHE submitted a response, which you can read below.
The goal of this initiative by the Commission is “to create an innovation-friendly environment that supports innovative companies to grow in the EU,” breaking down existing barriers that hinder the ability of European companies to grow.
EURASHE’s response:
The European Association for the Applied Sciences in Higher Education (EURASHE) welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to develop a European Innovation Act.
As centres of practice-based research and lifelong learning, applied universities make an important contribution to research and innovation, especially at higher technological and societal readiness levels. In drafting the European Innovation Act, EURASHE urges the Commission and co-legislators to develop a legislative instrument that:
- Creates a genuine single market for knowledge generation, dissemination and adoption in synergy with the European Research Act.
- Harnesses the entrepreneurial and innovative talent from all regions and parts of society.
- Captures the diversity and complexity of innovation, avoiding a linear approach and supporting the Using, Doing and Interacting mode of innovation.
- Recognises the importance of place for exchange of tacit knowledge and scaling up of enterprises, and therefore the need to support regional innovation ecosystems that draw on all parts of the quadruple helix.
- Strengthens the role of universities for knowledge valorisation and partners for enterprises of all sizes in a range of activities, avoiding a narrow interpretation of university-industry interaction.
- Reduces bureaucratic obstacles that has a disproportionate impact on smaller firms and other innovation actors.
- Connects European value chains to create critical mass in innovation priorities, building on the 100+ Smart Specialisation Strategies, and linking them better at European level. In this respect there is an urgent need to align spending on innovation by the European Regional Development Fund with the Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ Programmes.
- Ensures access to finance and regulatory sandboxes for different types of innovation actors and regions.
- Links policies for innovation and education through the Knowledge Triangle, giving a prominent role to the Innovation Communities of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), and the European Education Area (Union of Skills, European University Alliances, Centres of Vocational Excellence).
For more information, you may access our response on the European Commission’s ‘Have Your Say’ website.
