Study on frugal innovation and reengineering of traditional techniques

This study explores the potential of frugal innovation for Europe. Frugal innovation relates to the process of reducing a solution to exactly those, often basic, functionalities that users will need, thus economising on resources and cost. While firms and entrepreneurs from emerging economies display unrivalled capacity to cut cost and leverage local knowledge, European firms may find opportunity in leveraging Europe's existing portfolio of technologies. For this, further actors in the field of technology exploitation need to be mobilised, their interface with existing technology developers strengthened, and their access to foreign markets improved. European firms should not attempt to win a race to the bottom on price. Instead, policy support should champion smart frugal solutions with a slightly better customer-orientation, quality and sustainability than commonly available cheap mass produce.