The Lisbon Council took a leading role at this year’s Innovation Convention, the European Commission’s flagship summit, which brought together more than 3000 participants for two days of intense dialogue on innovation and the challenges ahead. Ann Mettler, executive director, chaired the opening plenary, which included major keynote addresses from José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission; and Mark Rutte, prime minister of Netherlands, who were later joined by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European commissioner for research, innovation and science, to award the EU Prize for Women Innovators.
The Lisbon Council also convened two high-level fringe sessions: Plan I(nnovation) for Europe: Priorities for the Next European Commission, and Driving Public Sector Innovation, which was hosted by the European Centre for Government Transformation. Stian Westlake, executive director for policy and research at Nesta, spoke at the first fringe, presenting the key recommendations of Plan I(nnovation) for Europe: Delivering Innovation-Led, Digitally-Powered Growth, a policy brief jointly written by the Lisbon Council and Nesta. Xavier Damman, co-founder and general manager of Storify; Matthias Kaiserswerth, director of IBM Research Europe; Max Senges, lead manager of Google for Entrepreneurs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and manager of Factory, Google’s technology hub in Berlin; and Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation, joined the debate, discussing next steps for mainstreaming innovation and delivering on the digital agenda.
Later in the day, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn joined the session on Driving Public Sector Innovation. Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn used the occasion to highlight the importance of public sector innovation in Horizon 2020 in a keynote speech – and announced the winner of a year-long case-study competition on public-sector innovation, conducted by College of Europe students, Voltaire promotion. Michele Chang, professor at the European political and administrative studies department of the College of Europe; Peter Dröll, acting director for Innovation Union and the European Research Area at the European Commission’s DG research and innovation; Teodoro García Egea, member of the Spanish National Parliament and researcher in the Technical University of Cartagena (UPCT); Bernard le Masson, global managing director for health and public service, management consulting at Accenture; John Kolm-Murray, seasonal health and affordable warmth co-ordinator at Islington Council, United Kingdom, joined the session, along with several winners of the European Prize for Innovation in Public Administration, awarded last year by the European Commission. Later, Commissioner Geoghegan Quinn awarded The 2014 Public Service Innovation Prize to the winning College of Europe case study: a proposal for expanding solar-energy innovation, based on the experience of the regional energy agency of Murcia, Spain.
The following day, Ann Mettler chaired a plenary on The Digital Revolution: Riding the Next Wave of Innovation with Eduardo Navarro, chief commercial digital officer of Telefónica; Anne-Marie Imafidon, head and founder of Stemettes; Doug Richard, former dragon from Dragons’ Den and founder of SchoolForStartups, Mark Surman, executive director of the Mozilla Foundation; and Erki Urva, chairman of the management board, Estonian Information Technology Foundation for Education.
Download College of Europe Student Case Studies Final Report 2014
Download Plan I(nnovation) for Europe Delivering Innovation-Led, Digitally-Powered Growth
Download Stian Westlake’s presentation
View Photos on European Commission photostreamThe Lisbon Council took a leading role at this year’s Innovation Convention, the European Commission’s flagship summit, which brought together more than 3000 participants for two days of intense dialogue on innovation and the challenges ahead. Ann Mettler, executive director, chaired the opening plenary, which included major keynote addresses from José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission; and Mark Rutte, prime minister of Netherlands, who were later joined by Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European commissioner for research, innovation and science, to award the EU Prize for Women Innovators.