EU Commission public consultation published

Early in 2009 The European Commission launched a consultation on the role of design with regards to innovation and competitiveness.  Emphasising the importance of design, approximately 90% of the responses demonstrated clearly that businesses consider design very important for the future competitiveness of the European economy.

According to the Commission, “More than 95% believe initiatives supporting design should be an integral part of innovation policy in general and that initiatives supporting design should be taken at the European Community level as well as at the local level. From an intellectual property perspective, it is worth noting that only 5% of people associate design with the corresponding intellectual property right. Moreover, while the Commission working document suggested that there may be untapped potential for the use of design, specifically in SMEs and low-tech companies, a large majority of organisations responded that there is a need for a more targeted SME policy and that such a targeted policy should exist at the EU level”.

In section 4.1 The definition of design People associate design with different things. To the question “What is the first thing that comes to mind when hearing the word ‘design’?”, 39 percent of organisations responded “A designed object or the design of an object”, 26 percent repied “design as an activity in an organisation”, while only 5 percent said “An intellectual property right.” A further 28 percent stated “Other”.  Among the suggestions under “Other” were included  “The process of design, design as a methodology or way of thinking, strategy, business, beauty, meaning, communication, service design, the use of logic, creativity and intuition,  the interface between arts and technology and interpreting actuality.”

To view the whole report click here