PROSPECTS FOR STRENGTHENING THE POSITIONS OF EUROPEAN COMPANIES ON THE DEEP TECH MARKET UNDER THE MODERNIZATION OF THE EU INNOVATION LANDSCAPE

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to highlight the prospects for strengthening the positions of European companies in the deep tech market in the context of the modernization of the EU innovation landscape by using the potential of regulatory policy and competition policy. The article is based on a research hypothesis, which stems from the fact that at the present stage there is a rethinking of the role of innovations as a source of socio-economic development of global economic entities. It has been established that even at the supranational level, powers in the field of implementing EU innovation policy are distributed between several departments and directorates; such distribution of powers has determined the specificity and diversity of budget mechanisms for financing innovations, which leads to subadditivity of innovation management. The role of innovation for European society is to transform research results into new, higher-quality goods and services in order to maintain and improve their competitiveness in the global market, as well as to improve the well-being of the population. The EU innovation policy is aimed at creating conditions recognized to facilitate the introduction of innovative ideas to the market, and is also a link between the policy of research and development in the field of technology and innovation and the industrial policy of states. Within the framework of the concept of open innovation, the following forms of international innovation cooperation can be distinguished: obtaining knowledge from the external environment (licensing, obtaining firms-sources of knowledge); knowledge transfer (for example, from a management company to foreign subsidiaries); partnership (equal cooperation between two companies, one of which is a non-resident of the other country); venture investments (infusion of foreign capital into innovative projects, start-ups). International innovation cooperation today is expressed mainly in the commercial activities of states: purchase and sale (export and import) of technologies in materialized form; provision of technological know-how (transfer of experience) on a contractual basis, as well as technical support within the framework of cooperation; sale of patents and licenses; personnel training (advanced training, retraining); creation of joint ventures. Coordination is the development by two states or a group of states of a common policy in the field of innovation and technology development. The methods for implementing this form of international innovation cooperation may be the implementation of various interstate programs in the field of joint scientific and technical activities.

DeepTech ("deep" technologies) are fundamentally new technological solutions of innovative companies, including start-ups, developed with the aim of finding answers to global challenges and requiring long-term scientific research and significant investment. The areas of deep-tech most often include: new materials, advanced manufacturing technologies, biotechnology, blockchain, robotics, photonics, microelectronics and quantum computing, life sciences, chemistry, space, green energy and agriculture. "Deep" technologies will be in demand beyond the EU and will generally increase the inflow of investment into the innovation sector of Europe. An even more significant budget (EUR 372 billion for 2021-2027) has been allocated through the InvestEU program. It plans to support successful projects of SMEs entering IPO and implement venture fund programs focused on the late stages of the innovation cycle (scale-up venture capital) and formed from the funds of pension funds and insurance companies. Another program, "European Scale-up Action for Risk Capital" (ESCALAR), with a budget of EUR 1.2 billion until 2027, also includes tools to support innovative businesses.

The general logic of the modernization of the EU innovation development program assumes a certain "smoothing" of the pan-European innovation landscape by supporting existing and launching new interregional initiatives. This will help to balance the innovative development of regions and EU countries, including those with low indicators in this area. One of the features of venture capital is its high-risk nature, i.e. the possibility of not receiving the expected profit, or losses as a result of the inefficiency of the financed project. This risk must be justified by the high profitability of commercial activity. But venture capital does not simply strive for risky entrepreneurial projects, it kind of frees the innovative entrepreneur from risk, shifting it to itself through venture funds, where this risk is shared between its numerous partners in proportion to the contribution of each. For this reason, venture capital controls the activities of the innovative entrepreneur, creating all the conditions for him to enter the market.