To compete in global tech markets, Europe needs to hurry up and invest more in training its next generation of science and tech innovators, said a group of policy leaders at a Science|Business conference on 6 February.
“If Europe is serious about staying competitive, it needs to stop talking and start doing,” said René Repasi, a German member of the European Parliament.
“We have this huge competitiveness debate in Europe, and the only way forward is innovation,” he said. “We don’t have the fiscal capacity to match China or the US in public investment. What we have is talent—and if we don’t invest in it properly, we’re finished.”
His view was seconded by a leading educator, Toril A. Nagelhus Hernes, pro-rector for innovation at NTNU-Norwegian University of Science and Technology, and chair of the European University Association’s expert group on innovation. “If Europe wants to compete, it must invest in the people who will make innovation happen,” she urged.
The discussion, at the Science|Business Network’s annual conference in Brussels, comes at a critical moment. Mounting tech competition, an emerging trade war, a defence build-up and tight member-state budgets are hitting the EU all at once. Urgent action is needed, said Repasi, who is “shadow rapporteur”, or coordinator, for the Socialists & Democrats party in drafting the next EU research and innovation policy in Framework Programme 10. “Innovation isn’t something you train—it’s something you ignite.”
ATTRACT Academy: deep-tech in action
The discussion, in a panel supported by the ATTRACT project, was about the real-world impact of policy – turning deep-tech research into market-ready solutions.
Since its start in 2018, the EU-funded ATTRACT consortium led by famed physics lab CERN has invested in more than 170 projects on detection, sensing and monitoring technologies. And in its ATTRACT Academy initiative, it has paired many of those tech projects with more than 1,000 young innovators from universities across the EU – moving the technologies closer to market, while training young talent. Designed to break down traditional silos, the Academy connects the ATTRACT technology grantees, students and deep-tech innovators, providing them with the tools, culture and mindset to think beyond the lab.
Read the full story on the Science|Business website.
To compete in global tech markets, Europe needs to hurry up and invest more in training its next generation of science and tech innovators, said a group of policy leaders at a Science|Business conference on 6 February. “If Europe is serious about staying competitive, it needs to stop talking and start doing,” said René Repasi, a German member […]
