Analysis of Lithuanian innovation policy priorities in the context of European Union initiatives

Abstract

Innovation promotion as the one of the most important tools for the progressive development of welfare and the strong positions in the global competitiveness area requires purposeful initiatives and permanent actions from public policy side. This highlights the importance of clear setting of innovation policy priorities and the necessity of their implementation assessment. On the one hand Lithuania has many strategic initiatives regarding to innovation-oriented goals in public policy documents, but on the other hand the results of innovation activity in Lithuania fall short of government expectations till now in regard to both the national and international targets. Therefore the article proposes an analysis of innovation policy priorities and their implementation results on the ground of European and Lithuanian strategic documents in order to indicate the essential areas wherein is the requirement to strengthen the governmental actions in Lithuania. The paper suggests the following: a framework of key strategic priorities and initiatives in EU innovation policy field, a comparison of Lithuanian and EU innovation performance data, an estimation of Lithuanian innovativeness tendencies in respect of possibilities to reach the European targets and the review of current Lithuanian innovation development framework.