Addressing the Innovation Knowledge Gap

Long-term economic growth continues to generate high levels of freight traffic across the whole of Europe. The 117% growth experienced in freight traffic between 1970 and 1998 has far outstripped growth in industrial production and GDP. The long-term demand for mobility in the economy and society continues to rise, reflecting the high speed, high frequency nature of a knowledge-driven economy.

Developing Knowledge Driven Businesses

The Lisbon European Council of March 2000 was devoted to economic reform and marked a decisive change in European policy-making. Heads of State and government set out their strategic goal for the EU in 2010: “to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion”.

Small businesses are not benefiting from new technologies

According to a recent survey on technology adoption carried out by the TRANEE project, small businesses lack knowledge of what technology is available, find it difficult to justify the cost, and fail to recognise its wider commercial benefits. Though most small businesses use basic technologies, this only serves to maintain the most elementary levels of competitiveness for a sector that already finds it hard to compete with larger firms.