Project - Jean Monnet Chair

Jean Monnet Chair in European Innovation Policy

Jean Monnet Chairs are teaching posts with a specialization in European Union studies for university professors. They are co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. The Chair is an integral part of the hosting higher education institution and are inscribed in the institution’s official academic activities.
The Jean Monnet Chair in European Innovation Policy is the first Chair ever awarded to the Università Europea di Roma (Italy).

The Chair holder is Prof. Valeria Falce, Full Professor of Economics Law at the Department of Human Sciences, Faculty of Economics.

The Chair aims to:

Foster the dialogue between the academic world and policy-makers, in particular to enhance governance of EU policies on Innovation;
Promote innovation in teaching and research through cross-sectorial and multi-disciplinary studies, open education, networking with other institutions.

The Chair focuses on European innovation policy with a particular attention to single innovation market and intellectual property rights strategy. The teaching course aims to build a solid knowledge-base on Innovation Policy, which is essential to the construction of a community of innovation for economic and social growth, sustainable development and competitiveness.

The Chair’s activities run from 1 September 2018 to 31 August 2021.

For further information, please visit the website of the European Commission’s Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) and consult the Erasmus+ Programme Guide.

Innovation as a key driver

Innovation is a key driver for economic and sustainable growth as well as for empowering communities and responding to societal challenges. As stated in the Communication on Innovation Union, innovation policy plays a fundamental role in order to inspire future visions and insights on EU policy-making and R&D;I funding in the knowledge-based economy. Innovation is the engine of economic growth, creating new markets, reaching new productivity levels and improving long-term well-being.

Europe has not an Internal Market for Innovation yet. Investing more in research, innovation and European Innovation Policy/EIP entrepreneurship is the sole answer within Europe 2020 to neutralize the weaknesses in public education and innovation systems, enhance Europe’s capacity to deliver smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, favor smart specialization and circular innovation and create a balanced IP system. Thus, as a result of the Innovation Union flagship initiative, a strategic and integrated approach to innovation that maximizes European, national and regional research and innovation potential is nowadays essential.

In such context, the objective of the Chair, awarded to Prof. Valeria Falce, is to stimulate teaching, research and debating activities in a crucial area of European integration studies in order to promote innovation and development through the creation of a pro-innovative and pre-competitive ecosystem responding to today’s societal challenges.

The teaching course

The target groups of the teaching compulsory course, resulting from the reformulation of a course already existing and dedicated to the Law of the market and of the economy, will be the undergraduate Economics students of the Università Europea di Roma (Innovation management Curriculum). Students from other Faculties (Law, Psychology, Tourism and Science of Primary Education), as well as LLM and PHd candidates, scholars, civil society, institutional representatives and policy makers at local, regional and national level will be invited and involved.

For each year a specific module will be proposed to ensure the widest coverage of all relevant topics on the core theme of the chair and to disseminate the results beyond the aforementioned stakeholders directly involved. In the first year (a.y. 2018-2019) the course in Market course and regulation – EU innovation policy will focus on EU Integration and a Single Innovation Market for Europe; in the second year (a.y. 2019-2020) the focus will be on Internal market and digital economy; in the last year (a.y. 2020-2021) of the Chair the topic of the focus will be about Intellectual Property Rights Strategy in Europe.

Participants will acquire skills on innovation policies, digital economy and technology transfer, which are currently requested by several industries (such as high-tech and services) and by public agencies devoted to the promotion of innovation and collaboration between university and industry. Against this background, the Chair’s main goal is to provide opportunities for students and workers to develop a wide range of skills and competencies transferable to a variety of professions. To this end, teaching activities will be structured according to the specific needs of the target learners and tailored in such a way as to meet the relevant educational objectives and the labour market needs. The Chair will also reach other categories of advanced learners, such as PhD students, students in Master courses, participants to specialization courses, as well as professionals, lawyers and civil servants who will be involved in specific training activities on Innovation Policy issues.

Materials from the teaching course

Seminars, lectures and call for papers

In line with the multi-disciplinary profile of the Chair, workshops, seminars and lectures will be organized each year on topics concerning economic, business and legal aspects of innovation policy, intellectual property, technology transfer and antitrust, providing a forum to learn and share about most recent and advanced studies on the topics of innovation, intellectual property and competition law.

A call for paper published on Università Europea di Roma, on Law, Market and Technology Periodical and on Italian Academy for Internet Code’s for workshop papers selection will greatly contribute to the diffusion of the initiative and the selection of papers to discuss.

The result of the project

The results of the proposed activities in the three-year course (teaching, debating and research activities), will be gathered in an original book, which will be presented and discussed at National and International Congresses.

A correlated outcome of the project consists in a dedicated website which will host an original on line open access database of all the relevant EU legislative and non-legislative materials (regulations, communications, reports) as well as case law.

All these activities and the resulting deliverables (website, ex novo database and original book) will be powerful tools for the dissemination and discussion of research results and will promote European Union studies at host institution and at regional, national and international level.