Eco-Innovation Observatory

Setting up a European Eco-Innovation Observatory, which provides a comprehensive information source on eco-innovation in Europe for policy makers, innovation service providers as well as enterprises.

This project sets up an EU observatory for the theme of “eco-innovation”. The EIO will support various EU activities, such as the Europe INNOVA Eco-Innovation platform and the Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP). The project team will provide market and strategic intelligence that can enhance eco-innovation potentials of companies and will generate concrete policy recommendations.

More specifically, the EIO will
• develop an eco-innovation scoreboard reflecting different aspects of eco-innovation at micro, meso and macro levels using appropriate indicators.
• provide users with a prospective vision of where eco-innovations may be fruitfully pursued, in order to generate new lead markets.
• produce thematic and country reports on new markets and comparisons of barriers and drivers to eco-innovation.
• publish a flagship annual report accessible in an interactive manner, allowing indepth investigation at low cost by users.
• disseminate knowledge via a web platform & training modules for innovation service providers.

SERI is leader of the work on “data collection and analysis”, where SERI in cooperation with the Wuppertal Institute and the other project partners
• sets up a comprehensive data base on eco-innovation in the EU27 countries on different levels of eco-innovation, i.e. products/companies, economic sectors and the macro level. This data base will be the empirical basis for the various eco-innovation briefs, country profiles and annual reports produced as part of the EIO.
• constructs an innovative “European Eco-Innovation Scoreboard” from a core set of eco-innovation indicators, allowing for comparative analysis across the EU.
• analyses eco-innovation developments in various industrial and service sectors in order to contribute to market and policy intelligence.