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Experts gathered at the 2016 Cañada Blanch Forum unanimously agreed that the biggest risk of innovation is not innovating at all

The Forum, held in Valencia, was organized for the third consecutive year by the Cañada Blanch Foundation, Ivie, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), the Valencian Entrepreneurs Association (AVE) and Bankia

The Cañada Blanch Forum, in its third edition, aimed to promote innovation policies among firms, institutions and government administrations. With this in mind, the sessions, that took place on November 30 and December 1, analyzed the risks involved in investing in Research, Development and Innovation (RDI) and the possible ways to manage them with success. Also, the sessions highlighted examples of good practice and compared the Valencian Community’s position in terms of innovation with other Spanish regions and European Union countries.

All contents about the Cañada Blanch Forum 2016 are already available on a web page that includes the presentations of the speakers, the main messages of the participants in the discussion tables, the images, the videos and the conclusions gathered during the two working days. Access the website of FCB2016

This debate forum was initiated three years ago with a long-term perspective to independently and rigorously help analyze the local and international economic situation. The Cañada Blanch Foundation, Ivie, LSE, AVE and Bankia are the drivers of this initiative, which year after year has become an important event in the Valencian agenda.

The President of the Valencian Regional Government, Ximo Puig, inaugurated the third edition of the Forum, in which important members of Valencian firms, as well as experts in international innovation and representatives of the banking sector participated.

Ivie’s research director, Francisco Pérez, closed off the Forum with a summary of the main conclusions. The speakers unanimously agreed that, while it is true that there are risks involved in innovation, the greatest risk of all is not innovating.

As for the Valencian region, Francisco Pérez highlighted four weaknesses which hinder it from advancing at the same rate as other Spanish regions:

1. The Valencian System of Innovation (SVI) is small. Many firms are too traditional to innovate, their directors/managers do not consider it necessary or their size does not allow them to take risks.
2. The integration of the different parts of the SVI is not good: there is not enough collaboration and cooperation among universities, firms, technological institutes, etc.
3. Public resources to support innovation are scarce.
4. The financial instruments, crucial for responding to the needs of highly innovative projects, are underdeveloped.

Each edition of the Cañada Blanch Forum aims to identify a problem and debate over it, considering possible solutions. In this third Forum, focused on innovation, the discussions uncovered the difficulties faced by the Valencian Community in this area, while the final conclusions gave some recommendations to confront them, such as:

1. To extend the innovative culture to firms
2. To ensure that firms invest more in RDI
3. To use regulation as a pro-innovation tool, not only for large firms, but also for small and medium sized firms
4. To obtain more diversified private and public financial support
5. To showcase successful examples in order to encourage others.