Innovation: A key pathway to Europe's green deal and economic security

Innovation plays an increasingly important role in the EU and globally; it is essential to creating better jobs, building a greener society, improving quality of life, as well as to successfully competing in global markets. As the interface between research and technological development policy and industrial policy, innovation policy aims to create a framework that is conducive to bringing ideas to market.
During this lecture, H.E. Jean-Eric Paquet, the Ambassador of the European Union to Japan will present the key elements and achievements of the EU innovation policy, including the Innovation Union; the European Innovation Scoreboard and a regional innovation scoreboard; the EU Research and Innovation Framework Programme (currently Horizon Europe), with the emphasis of the European Innovation Council and European Partnerships; the European Institute of Innovation and Technology; and recently adopted initiatives, including a New European Innovation Agenda, the proposals for European Critical Raw Materials Act and the Net-Zero Industry Act. Innovation policy plays an increasingly important role in the context of economic security, where multilateral collaboration in research and innovation among like-minded partners brings high added value.
In this context, the lecture will also be an opportunity to learn about the EU-Japan collaboration in addressing the common objective of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, digitalizing our economies, and de-risking supply chains, which, among many other topics, will be on the agenda of the EU and Japan leaders at the 29th EU-Japan Summit, which took place in Brussels on 13 July.
Finally, Ambassador Paquet will present key tools and modalities to boost the EU-Japan collaboration in research and innovation, and in particular, the possibility of associating Japan to Horizon Europe.