Financing innovation in the post-subsidy era - Public support mechanisms to mobilise finance for innovation

Access to external finance for innovation projects and new technology based firms, appears to be a major bottleneck for many entrepreneurs. Private and institutional investors are not eager to provide the necessary risk-capital fur technology related endeavours. To address this 'market failure' policy makers at European, national and regional level have come up with a mixture of new and traditional schemes and initiatives to mobilise private capital for innovation. Many of these, often experimental initiatives are designed separately in their national and regional settings. The paper argues that supporting the cross-border learning process between policy makers, Financial and innovation experts could enhance the spread of 'good practice' in these new types of policy initiatives.