Franco Malerba among the EU experts to monitor innovation

Franco Malerba, director of the Kites Bocconi research center (Knowledge, internationalization and technology studies) and professor of industrial economics, is one of the 13 experts nominated by the European Commissionerfor Research, innovation and science, Maire Geoghegan-Quinn, in the 'High-Level Panel on the Measurement of Innovation', to advise her and the European Commission on an indicator measuring Europe's progress towards a more innovative economy.

At the Spring European Council last March, EU leaders agreed that such an indicator should be produced to complement the Europe 2020 target of investing 3% of GDP in Research & Development. Such an indicator would benchmark the progress of the Europe 2020 strategy and will aim to capture overall research and innovation performance and the reasons why it differs between Member States. It could also help to benchmark Europe's performance against its main trading partners.

The Panel members are 13 leading business innovators, academics and economists and will be chaired by Andreu Mas-Colell, Secretary General of the European Research Council.