The effect of innovative SMEs' growth to the structural renewal of the EU economy - A projection to the year 2020 –

The Policy Brief addresses the following question: To what extent the high-growth of current innovative R&D-intensive SMEs can drive the envisaged structural change of the EU economy towards high R&D intensive sectors? It aims to contribute to the debate about how to set the right priorities and find the most appropriate policy interventions to allow Europe to reach the 3% R&D intensity target and hence its growth and employment objectives. It first summarises stylised findings from the literature on the relevance of innovative companies for economic growth, then presents results from a recent JRC-IPTS study which go some way towards answering the question posed above, and concludes by outlining some of the contributions that enrich the policy debate.