Euractiv – Innovation chief: Venture capital can turn science into commerce

“Europe produces more research papers than the US or Japan but needs an influx of venture capital to turn inventions into commercial success, according to Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, EU commissioner for research, innovation and science.

Geoghegan-Quinn cited the example of the MP3 standard for compressing audio files, which was invented in Europe but commercialised in the US.

“This has to change. If we could deliver a large and harmonised single market for services, together with a European venture capital market, just imagine how much we could achieve,” she said at the American Chamber of Commerce in Brussels today (18 February).

The commissioner’s voice adds to growing clamour to link public and private venture capital funds in a concerted effort to boost innovation in Europe.

Private sector investors and high-level policymakers will meet in Brussels on 2 March to discuss ways of boosting long-term venture capital investment in the EU. However, risk adversity and limited experience in fund management mean Europe remains a tough place for innovative businesses to raise money.

The 2 March event, hosted by the Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (EVCA), comes the day before EU commissioners are due to discuss innovation in the context of the ‘Europe 2020′ strategy at their meeting on 3 March.

Venture capitalists are pushing the idea of a series of privately-managed ‘funds of funds’ with the expertise to attract billions of euro from international investors keen to back high-risk, high-reward companies.

(…) Georges Noël, director of the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, said public support schemes should be used to ensure that professional venture capitalists can “fulfil their role of very selectively backing the best innovation Europe has to offer”. Writes Euractiv

Read the full article