At IGL, we hosted a panel session as part of the the EU Industry Week, an annual event on industry organised by the European Commission.

Boosting experimental innovation policy to encourage SME growth in Europe 

Increasing EU competitiveness demands effective SME support. Finding the most impactful approaches requires combining new ideas with rigorous testing. In this session, we showcased why the EU Commission has encouraged a more experimental approach to innovation policy. Drawing on the experience of European innovation agencies, a presentation and a panel discussion showcased how attendees can also use experiments to increase SMEs’ productivity.

The session was chaired by IGL and consisted of a virtual workshop with a panel discussion and interactive activities. We launched a new report on 'How innovation agencies are embracing more randomised experiments', and we presented a short video animation. Other speakers included:

Chair: Alex Glennie (Senior Policy Manager, IGL)

Introductory remarks: Isoline Roger-Dalbert (Policy Officer - SME Support to Innovation and Access to Markets, Directorate-General Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, European Commission)

Report presentation: Hugo Cuello Diaz (Researcher, IGL)

Panel discussion:
Marta Truco Calbet (Team Leader Strategy, Unit Chief Economist, Strategy and Foresight, DG Research and Innovation, European Commission)
Silvana Sanfeliu Giaimo (Project Manager, Torino Wireless Foundation)
Harald Hochreiter (Strategy & Data Analysis, The Austrian Research Promotion Agency | FFG)