Regional innovation alliance SYSTEMEU publishes roadmap calling EU to action

The platform proposes three policy shifts to connect regional ecosystems and strengthen Europe’s global position on innovation

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, July 10, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ -- SYSTEMEU, a cross-regional initiative working to foster systemic innovation in Europe, has published a new white paper urging policymakers to rethink how innovation is supported, scaled and connected across the continent. The paper outlines three strategic recommendations for improving collaboration between regions, moving beyond isolated projects, and creating long-term frameworks that can help Europe compete globally.

The recommendations reflect the discussions that took place at a high-level gathering in Brussels in March 2025, where over 130 participants – from European institutions, regional governments, industry, and academia – shared concerns about the lack of alignment in Europe’s innovation landscape. The paper also draws on the Draghi report on European competitiveness, and calls for a distinctly European model of innovation based on shared values, place-based development, and long-term commitment.

Titled “Toward a New Deal of Innovation in Europe”, the document sets out a practical path forward for strengthening regional ecosystems and improving coordination between them. SYSTEMEU, which brings together five innovation regions working in fields such as healthcare, energy and mobility, is presented as a working example of how this collaboration can be built in practice.

“Europe has the talent, the infrastructure and the institutional frameworks to lead in innovation,” said Professor Klaus Sailer of the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship, lead author of the paper. “What’s missing is the connectivity. SYSTEMEU shows what is possible when regions work together systemically. We now need to embed these practices more broadly and support them with long-term instruments.”

The first recommendation calls for co-development to become a core principle of EU innovation policy. Rather than relying on venture capital or isolated incubators, the paper advocates embedding start-ups into regional value chains through partnerships with SMEs, public institutions and corporates. This would allow new business models to emerge through hands-on collaboration. Examples cited include energy communities, regional health platforms, and Germany’s “Startup Factories” initiative. To support this approach, the paper proposes updating Horizon Europe and European Innovation Council calls to prioritise projects built on joint value creation and shared responsibility.

The second recommendation is the creation of an interconnected European innovation hub. The authors argue that stronger cross-border collaboration requires investment in shared infrastructure – what they call “Open Co-Development Commons.” These could include joint research spaces, open-access data repositories, and regulatory sandboxes. The paper also proposes a European Network of Innovation Hubs to align local experiments with EU missions, backed by regular events: co-creation summits, hackathons, and living labs, to encourage exchange. A flexible financial system is also essential, the authors say: they propose dynamic funding frameworks, long-term investment agreements, and a European Innovation Passport to track and value partner contributions.

Finally, the paper proposes a European Innovation Community Platform, an online environment where regional ecosystems and innovation actors can find partners, launch projects, and exchange knowledge. The platform, which could operate under the name of the European Commission, would allow independently-run communities to remain connected to a wider European ecosystem. In doing so, it would help overcome fragmentation and support cross-border scale-up.

The roadmap is not intended as a one-off policy proposal but as a long-term shift in approach. SYSTEMEU partners, who bring two decades of practical experience in innovation and regional development, argue that building Europe’s innovation capacity will require moving from short-term funding cycles to lasting collaboration between ecosystems and levels of governance.

The full paper Toward a New Deal of Innovation in Europe is available to download here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Bmujn8rpFCjL3eA3Uf59AV55g3etwQhc/view

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