The European Innovation Summit reaches its 12th anniversary and represents again
the perfect opportunity to speak about research and innovation, together with the
friends of Knowledge4Innovation and its wide community of partners. We always try to
keep up with the times, but this year is a special one, given the increased digitalisation
of our activities. For the first time ever, we are having a virtual Summit, all online.
The pandemic and the need to recover from all its impacts show once again how
innovation must be a central element in the European answer. Doctors, researchers,
teachers, business owners, and many others, have seen how innovation was the
main resource they had to fight against an unprecedented situation. It is about the
discovery of a vaccine, but also about how to palliate the symptoms or to help those
infected by the virus. It is about finding new ways to communicate with our loved
ones when we could not leave our homes, how teachers could make students engage
from the other side of the screen, or how companies could step up in the digital
transformation to be able to maintain their businesses in a changing ecosystem.
Innovation is the cornerstone of the European plans, but also of the national measures
to implement the recovery package. Innovation is the main driver to achieve the
targets to ensure that we move to a greener and digital society and economy, whilst
ensuring a strategic and open resilience.
Less than one month ago, Knowledge4Innovation organized one of the first events
launching the idea of a European Innovation Area, which will be developed under the
guidance of Commissioner Mariya Gabriel. On that occasion, we stressed together
how investing in innovation means investing in the European way of doing things.
We can then be more resilient, autonomous and set our standards worldwide when
it comes to emerging technologies. The 12th European Innovation Summit is devoted
to finding the proper ways to boost the European Innovation Area and make our
European innovators worldwide champions. We will touch upon the role of innovation
in the recovery plan, but also the need to boost it to achieve the targets to reduce
fossil emissions in the proposed timeframe. The construction of an ecosystem where
innovation can flourish is a precious objective that a European Innovation Area can
contribute to. We need to attract talents, to nourish their efforts and protect their
rights to work. Women are particularly disadvantaged as women innovators face
even more hardship to get funds or access to resources and this is why I am glad that
this year we give voice to awarded innovators and other experts that together with
Commissioner Gabriel can explore ways to increase the institutional attention towards
women-driven initiatives, investments and initiatives.
The summit is also about Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, focusing on their impact
on society and developing a positive narrative towards these new technologies
that promise to change our habits but still hold a certain level of skepticism among
European citizens. The topic is very wide and will be tackled in events with specific
angles on health, green transition and competitiveness, but it is through platforms
like the K4I European Innovation Summit, that we can show how artificial intelligence
can have a constructive tangible impact on our daily lives, on our society and on our
overall competitiveness.
Maria da Graça Carvalho, MEP
Chair of the Knowledge4Innovation
Forum in the European Parliament