Dr Klaus Sommer shares view on how to boost EU growth

Dr Klaus Sommer, President of A.SPIRE aisbl, has put his views on what is needed to exit the economic crisis and help Europe's economy to grow as part of a series of video testimonials on the Horizon 2020 website.

Dr. Sommer said: "I think in Europe we have one disadvantage, and that is actually beginning with an advantage. The advantage is that, in research, we produce great results: we're very competitive in basic research and in fundamental inventions. But the issue is that we are not as good in turning this into commercially successful results. And this has been referred to as the 'valley of death' a couple of times, which means that we cannot take these results to something commercially viable. So I think Horizon 2020, with its focus on demonstration and piloting, will give us a great opportunity to take some of these results to something that business people like and build businesses on and make money with".