Innovators Magazine, European Parliament, Ideas 2023

Europe’s guide to a better future

The road to net zero

Tell us your big ideas

“Great minds discuss ideas,” Eleanor Roosevelt said.

And in this Innovators Magazine special, produced in partnership with the Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) Forum in the European Parliament, we bring you some of the great ideas European innovators are discussing on an open access platform that has been created by the K4I Forum.

These big ideas should give us a real sense of optimism when we think about the future, reminding

us that it is ours to create, through our innovation and creativity.

And the online resource, aside from posting brilliant ideas, is asking everyone - from individuals to corporations, to put forward their own.

I hope you enjoy reading about a few of them on these pages –and that they inspire you to share some of yours.

IAIN ROBERTSON EDITOR

Maria da

Graça Carvalho, MEP

Chair of the Knowledge4Innovation Forum in the European Parliament

“The best way to have a good idea is to have lots of ideas,” the double Nobel prize winning scientist Linus Pauling once said.

Thankfully this is something Europe has always being good at: generating great ideas. They have shaped our amazing continent and transformed the wider world. And now, as we seek solutions to some of the biggest challenges this planet has ever faced, Europe is once again ready to lead, with our ideas, our vision, and our commitment to delivering the first climateneutral continent.

So, I am obviously delighted and truly inspired by the number of game changing, actionable ideas being added daily to the European Innovation Area portal, created

by our Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) Forum in the European Parliament to provide a home for transformative and sustainable ideassome of which you can read about in this magazine.

As Chair of the Forum, it gives me a huge amount of pride to see groundbreaking initiatives like this, brought to the fore by an organisation that has been at the forefront of Europe’s innovation landscape since 2008.

The influence of the K4I Forum is something Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, recognised in her speech at the Forum’s inaugural European Innovation Area Summit last summer, when she said: “The Knowledge4Innovation platform has served the objective of providing the European Parliament, the European Commission, and

the stakeholders group with the forum for discussing innovation.” These words, warmly welcomed by everyone involved with the K4I Forum, were delivered at what was an historic moment for the EU, when the Commission was unveiling its New European Innovation Agenda.

The Agenda, a dynamic action plan designed to realise the continent’s twin digital and green transitions, has got the potential to be the engine room of the European Green Deal.

It sets out how it will make it easier for startups to access funding, has a target to train one million deep tech pioneers - to help turn Europe into the deep tech capital of the world –and is prioritising support for women innovators.

A great contribution to this agenda, I am proud to say, comes from the European Innovation Area (EIA) Manifesto, which I had the pleasure of helping develop with the Forum, other K4I Forum political members, EIT KICs, European Partnerships, universities, and innovation support organisations. Commissioner Gabriel acknowledged this at the time of the Agenda’s launch, when she said the EIA Manifesto and its eight Focus areas “had a major impact on the creation of this new European Innovation Agenda - and all eight are covered by the new Agenda”.

One of the Manifesto Focus Areas the Agenda is taking forward is the deep tech opportunity, and I have been extremely excited by what leaders in this field have been sharing through the Forum’s new online portal of open access ideas.

Likewise, women innovators and female-led startups - another of the EIA Manifesto focus areas, and integral to the Agenda, are providing some of the most important solutions. This is a space that is very close to Commissioner Gabriel’s heart, who says women innovators are “responsible for some of the most groundbreaking innovations contributing to a more sustainable future”.

The Commissioner has made it very clear that she is on a mission to give women innovators more of the tools they need to succeed, so they can “close the gender gap” which sees “three quarters [of startups] still founded by men” – an outcome she says will be “good for growth and good for our planet” – and she’s right.

Again, the Forum’s new online ideas resource should be a source of inspiration - not just for the Commissioner, but for women across the continent, as it shows them spearheading a new era for innovation in Europe.

I would like to add that the Forum has long advocated for the establishment of a European Innovation Area that can better coordinate all these ambitions. This approach is working well now, as we see from the successes enjoyed by the European Research Area, and the European Education Area: two streamlined ecosystems generating real impact. We firmly believe a pan-European innovation ecosystem can do the same for innovation. Because as you can see, we have lots of good ideas that we must jointly implement now.

WE ARE YOUR LAUNCH PAD TO THE AEROSPACE ECOSYSTEM.

EuroSpaceHub is the first European digital platform to connect the Space Academic, Researchers, Industry experts and Startups to leverage Innovation.

If you are interested to be part of the space and aviation innovation ecosystem in Europe, please contact us for a call to discuss your contribution.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR PARTNERSHIPS!

Marceline du Prie President, Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) Director, European Affairs, TU Delft

I am honored to contribute to this special edition of Innovators Magazine and the many great ideas we have been collecting as part of the European Innovation Area Manifesto.

Innovation is a critical driver of economic growth and social progress. At TU Delft, we believe that innovation should be guided by a set of principles that ensure that it is inclusive, sustainable, and benefits society as a whole. That is why we support the K4I Manifesto, which lays out our vision for responsible and impactful innovation.

The K4I Manifesto is built on four pillars: innovation for society, innovation for sustainability, innovation for inclusivity, and innovation for collaboration. These pillars reflect our belief that innovation should be guided by the needs of society, and that it should be inclusive and sustainable in order to benefit all stakeholders.

We believe that innovation is not just about creating new technology,

but also about creating new ways of thinking and working. That is why we are committed to fostering collaboration between different sectors, disciplines, and stakeholders. We believe that by working together, we can achieve more impactful and responsible innovation.

In this special edition of Innovators magazine, we are excited to share some of the innovative projects and initiatives that are being developed at TU Delft in line with the K4I Manifesto. From synthetic cell research, sustainable transportation solutions to inclusive healthcare technologies, these projects demonstrate the potential of responsible and impactful innovation to make a positive difference in the world.

We hope that this magazine will inspire others to join us in our mission to create a more inclusive, sustainable, and collaborative innovation ecosystem. Together, we can create a future that is better for all.

Ideas Showcase

Gabriel, said last year had been fully integrated into the New European Innovation Agenda, includes pillars for capitalising on Europe’s deep tech opportunities, regulating the more questionable aspects of disruptive technologies, financing new technologies, moving from education to entrepreneurship, and promoting women innovators.

“In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity,” is a quote often attributed to Albert Einstein.

It could also quite easily be the slogan of our times. The climate crisis, pandemic, and political instability can sometimes appear like all-consuming, intractable problems that are pushing humanity to the brink. But in the midst of all this chaos lies opportunityand in Europe we are grasping it with both hands.

We can see this most vividly in the innovative ideas we are producing, a veritable conveyor belt of ingenuity that views the future as something, not to fear, but to be inspired by.

And I am very lucky to have a front row seat to a lot of this activity, through the impressive work being carried out by the Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) Forum in the European Parliament to catalyse some of these big ideas.

One great example of this can be seen in the amazing response we are getting to our open call for actionable ideas that can help give form to the eight focus areas, of the European Innovation Areas (EIA) Manifesto, developed by the Forum and its extensive network of policymakers, businesses, startups and academics. The Manifesto, which European Commissioner for Innovation, Mariya

It is a vision for the future of Europe that is now coming to life through the limitless ideas filtering through our open access online EIA resource – some of which you can learn more about in this magazine. But you can do more than read about these ideas, you can bring forward your ownand take an active role in leading Europe towards a climate-neutral future.

I trust the ideas on these pages - and the many more online – will inspire you in the same way they inspire me. Because what they show is a Europe which understands that “we can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”, as Einstein opined.

Roland Strauss Founder, Knowledge4Innovation (K4I)

01 Green Transition

Current climate policy efforts are insufficient to keep the earth’s average temperature rise below 2 Celsius, let alone 1.5. Resilient adaptation to global warming may well be insufficient and we need to consider cooling the earth by way of climate engineering. The technologies for this are not ready for deployment and deeper scientific insights are required. Moreover, a governance structure is needed taking into account ethical aspects of climate engineering. Deployment of climate engineering technologies will bring about impacts that go across national borders so an international approach is required. The United States has taken an initiative via DARPA. The European Union has not done so as yet. This may result in lagging behind in understanding, despite the high probability that climate engineering may be of geo-political strategic interest to the European Union.

02

Europe’s Deep Tech Opportunity

In synthetic cell research scientists seek to understand how cells, and more broadly life, work by trying to replicate the cell molecular mechanisms. Thanks to ERC funding and national initiatives, European scientists are world leaders in this field. Building synthetic cells also promises revolutionary new technologies that will boost the green economy and strengthen Europe’s sovereignty in Deep Tech. Technological applications will cover areas such as producing sustainable chemicals, making materials that are 100% reusable or capable of self-repair, and harnessing CO2 as plants do. Research is progressing rapidly worldwide; the United States and China, in particular, are investing heavily in this field. If Europe were to rely on synthetic biology technologies from beyond its borders, this could lead to both potential dependence and economic loss. European scientists working on synthetic cells need to join forces to upscale research, in collaboration with companies, in one coordinated European Innovation Ecosystem and boost technology development in Europe. Financial support from the European Commission is essential to realize this ecosystem, and to ensure Europe’s leadership in world-class, socially responsible and environmentally sustainable technologies.

03 Green Transition

More impact is needed from the EU research programs in the real economy. From “Invented in Europe” we must turn the excellent research results into “Made in Europe”. Commissioner Mariya Gabriel gives this boost to initiatives from networks of Universities, Knowledge institutions and entrepreneurs all over Europe. The regions and cities must take a stronger enabling position than ever before. Since 2008 K4I advocated for a better coordination among the EU instruments. From fragmentation to integration. We supported the Smart Specialization Strategies, an obligation for all member states to make combined EU investments a reality. Now we can create more impact from synergies between Horizon Europe and Cohesion Funds. We see a growing interest all over the world in our results. The Organisation of American States (OAS), where I am in function now, shows direct interest in our governance and Smart Specialization and we should strengthen cooperation with third countries. The green and digital transitions show the need for more transatlantic cooperation. Let’s join forces!

HERMAN RUSSCHENBERG / TU DELFT

UNIVERSITY

STEFANIA USAI /TU DELFT

LAMBERT NISTELROOIJ / FORMER MEP / K4I HONORARY PRESIDENT

INNOVATION (FUNDING) AGENCY

Green Transition

BERND SCHÄFER / EIT RAWMATERIALS

Minerals, metals and advanced materials are key enablers to achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal. Today, only a fraction of the most relevant raw materials is produced in Europe. This can be changed through a circular economy approach, through innovation in recycling, substitution, processing, mining, and exploration. Europe needs to secure a sustainable raw materials supply by driving innovation, education, and deep tech talents across European industrial ecosystems. Europe should develop a European raw materials skills and capacity-building initiative. Allocate substantial funding to scale up the European Raw Materials Academy to develop the modules necessary to attract the needed human capital for industry and to provide the ever-changing needs of this green industrial revolution. Europe needs to increase investment in the primary and secondary raw materials sector and ensure a robust R&D and innovation ecosystem. We must strengthen Europe’s global leadership in science and research to accelerate innovation output particularly via public-private open innovation ecosystems. In this context Europe should allocate additional funding in competitive grants to boost EU R&D and innovation capacity and establish IPCEIs for critical and strategic raw materials value chains constrained by market failures, setting up the ground for a future European Partnership in the raw and advanced materials field.

FEDERATION

Green Transition Tech

Sovereignty

JARA PASCUAL / COLLABWITH

Create a tax incentive/reduction of taxes to private organizations which are buying innovative solutions from the European area via the ‘innovation procurement’ process and ‘partnership of innovation procurement’ where the private organizations have public consultations about innovative solutions for their needs, and they modify and adapt their procurement processes to be able to purchase products, services and solutions from startups and SMEs in Europe.

EUNIKA MERCIER-LAURENT / INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION FOR INFORMATION PROCESSING (IFIP)

Take forward more actions for greening and smarting software. Produce more simulators for evaluating impact of actions/design before implementation. Combine the Knowledge-based AI with connectionist AI. Apply the software invented in Europe in constraint programming for optimizing, scheduling and planning actions. Pursue data sliming as an alternative to big data, and invest in an increase in Knowledge Scientists and circular energy. Stop programmed obsolescence and find alternatives to adds-based business models.

07 Regulating Emerging Technologies

There are many societal, economic and strategic challenges for Europe but there are very few technologies that will play a key role in each and every one of them. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most far-reaching technology that has this characteristic and is creating a transformation of society. It provides tremendous opportunities as well as some risks that need to be managed. Only by a proactive innovation approach and a strong European innovation policy, can we take the steering wheel and not only create welfare and well-being for European citizens, but also decide what norms and values we want to apply to innovation. Innovation means leading, not following. Innovation is not just technology, but also innovating in ethical and legal frameworks e.g. using regulatory sandboxes involving all key stakeholders in the design phase. This can facilitate a fast transition to higher TRL and societal acceptance based on jointly developed norms, which is stronger than just legislation. AI is not a goal in itself but can provide breakthrough solutions for the energy transition, climate challenges and the Green Deal. But also for traffic and transportation. For healthcare efficiency, cost and outcome. For food and agri. For security. And many other domains. A strong and proactive innovation policy of the EU will stimulate member states collaborating in these areas, creating critical mass to make global impact. NL AI Coalition supports such strong innovation policy.

08 Fostering Innovation Cohesion

ASSOCIATION

From Education to Entrepreneurship

MONICA MIGUEL LAGO / EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF REMOTE SENSING COMPANIES

Better align EU industrial strategy with regional development and/or national development at the level of the Member States. Create clusters of regional innovation that encompass similar critical mass in terms of market, market access, financial, industrial and human resources perspectives;achieve harmonisation among clusters regarding outcomes, comparability, competitive level.

The lack of specialized technical and scientific skills, knowledge and competences, hinders the uptake by stakeholders to use information that could support the Green Deal agenda. Map the skills needed for the Green transition using digital information obtained by satellite-derived data and services is essential. To build a discussion on skills, a Trends Observatory is needed to identify and keep the stakeholders informed about emerging trends and innovative approaches affecting the sector, its growth at the European but also international level and its uptake related to other sectors. This goal will be achieved through a Forum of exchange on skills for decision making on the Green transition supported by EO data and services. (i.e., EO4GEO Alliance)

MIKLÓS GYÖRFFI / EÖTVÖS LORÁND RESEARCH NETWORK

TRADE/SECTOR

From Education to Entrepreneurship

MOSTAFA MOONIR SHAWRAV

Each year, thousands of researchers finish their PhD project. Among them, there are some bright ideas which can be converted into business. By providing proper education on entrepreneurship, this challenge could be tackled. My proposal is to include entrepreneurship education as part of graduate level course in Europe.

Regulating Emerging Technologies

11

OLEKSANDR IURKIN / DYNAMIC DIVISION D.O.O.

Simplify and subsidize the CE certification of inventions and local technology products. Without outside help it is almost impossible to understand the directives, methodology and requirements. There are no step by step instructions. Third-party certification prices are many times higher than the entire project budget.

STARTUP/SCALEUP

From Education to Entrepreneurship

PABLO ZAFRILLA DIAZ / MARABUNTA ACCIÓN SOCIAL

Private educational institutions are taking the lead over public universities and training centres when it comes to training Europe’s future entrepreneurs. There is a need for a major innovative programme in itself, relying on professionals, mentors, creators, entrepreneurs and investors from the private sector, to incorporate them into the public educational fabric and generate a rapid and immediate change in the training, spirit and integration of students towards entrepreneurship, creation and the dissemination of innovation through the business fabric.

STARTUP/SCALEUP

13 Green Transition

CHRISTIANE GROSS / LACTAPP

Breastfeeding is not only the healthiest way to nourish a baby but also the one with the least environmental impact. By providing digital breastfeeding support at scale, the European Innovation area could significantly improve families’ carbon footprint of food consumption, as breastmilk is near to carbon neutral. Empowering mothers to breastfeed for as long as they wish does not only significantly improve children and mother’s health, it also makes ecological sense.

TRADE ASSOCIATION

Europe’s Deep Tech Opportunity

CLAIRE SKENTELBERY / EUROPABIO - THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR BIOINDUSTRIES

EuropaBio firmly believes that one of Europe’s key Deep Tech opportunities is in genome editing. As such, we propose the creation of a Forum on Genome Editing which would encompass all biotechnology sectors and serve as a platform for dialogue, information sharing and trust building. The Forum would be composed of Member State representatives, industry, researchers, academia, and civil society. Its mandate would include advising policymakers on updating legislation, facilitating innovation in biotechnology and unlocking Europe’s competitiveness, effectively supporting the development of this Deep Tech area and identifying strategic priorities within it. It would also help policymakers adopt a science-based approach to biotechnology products to raise awareness of their benefits. The Forum’s advice will help EU policymakers to engage with the public on the role and potential of advanced solutions and technologies to achieve better health and environmental outcomes.

NOT-FOR-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

Green Transition

ANDREAS LIEBL / APPLIEDAI INSTITUTE FOR EUROPE

Artificial intelligence is a disruptive technology that is a strategic asset of nations. Let us start a grand challenge identifying the best AI powered ideas to tackle climate change. This serves multiple purposes: 1. It creates a positive picture for AI when everyone seems to focus only on the risks. 2. It strengthens the European innovation ecosystem in a key technology 3. It creates much-needed ideas and solutions for the fight against climate change

ANDREAS G. STUETZ / IDEASCANNER

16 Green Transition

How can we organically sequester a gigaton of CO2? By capturing, collecting, and storing carbon, seagrass makes a massive contribution to combating climate change. According to the Helmholtz Climate Initiative, it stores carbon in the soil 30 to 50 times faster than forests on land. Seagrass meadows in the German Baltic Sea have stored about 8.14 million tons of CO2 emissions over an area of 285 square kilometers. Fungal diseases and coastal shipping have already severely depleted seagrass beds.IDEASCANNER uses AI to accelerate digital transformation and sustainable innovation by 10x. In our research, we found that seagrass reintroduction is currently being done painstakingly in small-scale projects by dive schools. Our goal is to work with partners to rapidly scale the recolonization of suitable shallow coastal seagrass beds using underwater robots. In this way, we aim to organically sequester at least one gigaton of CO2 from the atmosphere over the next 10 years.

17 Green Transition

CARMEN VELA OLMO / GOLD STANDARD DIAGNOSTICS - MADRID

Women-led VCs and Startups

Pay special attention in all call to the presence, qualitative and quantitative of women. This topic is extremelly relevant for the Green Transition objectives.

Establish committees to monitor funds to make sure they are fairly distributed. Develop opportunities for funds to go exclusively to women and monitor results through ad-hoc committees. Require better transparency and reporting on how resources are allocated according to gender.

19 Green Transition

20 Green Transition

Europe’s Deep Tech Opportunity

BOŠTJAN GOMILŠEK / RESULT D.O.O.

We promote changes to the Education Curriculum to foster sySTEMic thinking to better sensitise citizens to the challenges to the Human Eco-System and to better prepare citizens to come up with innovative solutions and to adapt their personal behaviour based on better insights into Reality 21st century curricula should deliver. Whilst Literacy & Numeracy remain basic skills, a future proof society must also equip its citizens with Energy, Climate & Resources literacy. In addition Media-Literacy is of paramount importance to protect individual citizens as well as Democracy as a whole. Strenghthening the Agency of sySTEMic thinking means more critical, logical and holistic thinking which is the only way to meet the challenges ahead of us in a civilised & peaceful way.

Foster the creation of Distributed Cooperative Organisations (DisCOs) - millions of them, to support the implementation of the green transition across the EU and beyond.Organisations of all kinds that prioritise their choice of green impact mission, shared by all its working members, who build care and trust among them, supported by the use of DLT (distributed ledger) and federated technologies to enable inter-nodular economic activities. Because these DisCOs would not be only or mainly profit oriented, but see production as oriented to environmental ends, while taking care of its members and wider networks.Work is a function and a balance between 3 main value flows:LIVELIHOOD work,LOVE work and CARE work.The Green Transition mission would be embedded in the LOVE work performed by the organisation and agreed by its members.We need a pan european business fabric that wants to implement the green transition in its multiple facets, lead by people that believe in it and make a living out of it.

Smart phones, smart watches, smart scales, smart pressure gauges, etc. There are more and more affordable and even cheap smart devices with various sensors that measure the user’s biometric data. A global European platform gathering this data, analysing it by using AI and assessing the probability of different diseases would help with early detection of diseases, and either prevention of their full development or more successful early treatments. Connecting such platform with health records would represent a global system for early detection and prevention of common diseases and thus healthier EU population.

HANS VAN DER LOO / EU STEM COALITION

EUROPEAN PARTNERSHIP UNDER HORIZON EUROPE

IRENE LOPEZ DE VALLEJO / DISCO.COOP

22 Women-led VCs and Startups

Young women in high school should be matched with entrepreneurs and accomplished professionals (men and women) in different fields so that they can see what possibilities are available to them.

23 Women-led VCs and Startups

STUDENT

KIMBERLY HOUSER / UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS

To quickly and drastically increase investment in women-led startups, the following proposal leverages insights from behavioral decision theory to overcome the cognitive biases infecting the VC landscape, and suggests legal and policy initiatives in combination with advances in technology:

1. promote aggressive tax incentives for investment in women-led startups, 2. extend nondiscrimination law to the founder-investor relationships, and 3. incorporation AI into investment decision-making to counter unconscious biases and improve the quality of startup investments.

Regulating Emerging Technologies

24

JORDAN BURNETT / UNIVERSITY OF STRASBOURG

Improve the frequency and timing of reviewing existing regulations. The timeline for reviewing and evaluating existing regulation must be streamlined. In the interest of economic efficiency and innovation, regulatory evaluation and the monitoring of impact should seek to remove redundant, onerous and inefficient regulation. This will particularly benefit small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who are often the ones hurt the most by ineffective regulation.

JENNIFER PALUMBO / GO FOR IT SPRL

SME

26 Women-led VCs and Startups

Create specific lines in funding programmes that are reserved for women. Provide expert advice and support to women and collaborate with women’s associations that are related to research, development and innovation.

27 From Education to Entrepreneurship

From Education to Entrepreneurship

25

Create twinning programs between EU and South Asian universities to collaborate on University Tech commercialization, university incubator and start-up collaborations.

As a senior advisor to JEUNE aisbl, the Young Entrepreneurs Organization of the European Union, I am leading a task force to establish a mentoring program for youth interested in entrepreneurship or who have just started their business. Experienced entrepreneurs and businesspeople should be encouraged to become mentors, dedicating some of their time to advising and assisting young entrepreneurs, sharing their knowledge, experience and networks of business contacts. By adopting the practice of “paying it forward”, once those young entrepreneurs have themselves gained experience and maturity, they in turn will become mentors, thereby ensuring continuity and growth of mentoring as a core element of European business culture (as it is in Silicon Valley for example).

LEENA PISHE THOMAS / GLOBAL BUSINESS INROADS BULGARIA LTD.

CECILIA HERNÁNDEZ / AMIT-MIT- NETWORK OF WOMEN FOR INNOVATION & TECHNOLOGY - SPANISH ASSOCIATION

LARRY MOFFETT / E-STRATEGY SRL

INNOVATIVE SME

28 Financing Innovation and New Technologies

LUIGI LENGUITO / BFORE.AI

29 From Education to Entrepreneurship

MARCO MASIA / MARMAS GMBH

While it’s good to look at the Silicon Valley as a leading example of education and knowledge driven innovation, we should consider that it’s not the only template for innovation and that it may not work as it is in Europe. Other countries or regions provide good examples of knowledge driven innovation like the Greater Boston Area, Israel, and Sweden - all have different realisations of innovation ecosystems and constitute excellent examples Europe might want to learn from. One important peculiarity of Europe is its long time cultural tradition and strong creative and art sector. These, and more in general the social sciences and humanities, would foster innovation more in line with European values and tradition. Therefore, it is highly important to incentivise knowledge driven innovation also from that knowledge area together with (and not in opposition to) technological innovation. This will also allow to prevent unwanted societal consequences of new technologies.

30 Tech Sovereignty

MAUD EVRARD / EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF INNOVATION CONSULTANTS

Support to start-ups during valley of death gaps is essential and should be managed at EU level by an agile organisation, able to mitigate the risks from Venture Capitalist firstly at pre-commercialisation stage and at a later stage when going for IPO when aiming to commercialise and roll-out their products. We encourage the European Commission to consider the set up of a European sovereign investment mechanism, as initially foreseen when the EIC Accelerator was designed. The European Commission should remain the single decisionmaker with regards to equity funding. The EIC Fund should only be responsible for the investment implementation modalities and exit strategy. We consider that the governance of the current EIC Fund should be opened to stakeholders such as impact investment funds, corporate funds, entrepreneur funds and business angels, in addition to venture capital funds.

Have an ‘EU Company’ type , that new ventures could adopt instead of national variations (Gmbh, SAS, Spa, Srl, etc.)

TRADE/SECTOR ASSOCIATION

31 Fostering Innovation Cohesion

We propose a shared methodology based on ‘backcasting’, a specific form of foresight, to facilitate policy learning (and thus policy-making) within all EU’s territories, independently of their wealth, geographical characteristics and internal political organisation. Incorporating a systemic innovation perspective, this cohesive approach highlights novel options and opportunities for defining adequate policies to positively impact sustainable development and long-term transformative change across the entire EU.

32 Green Transition

RENE VON SCHOMBERG / RWTH AACHEN UNIVERSITY

Research and Innovation Missions underpinning the Green Deal will have to follow the rationale of responsible research and innovation (RRI) by a codesign and co-creation of research and innovation agendas with all stakeholders, including citizens in order to provide direction to innovation. Consolidated evidence of RRI projects funded under the previous Framework Programme demonstrates that RRI will make research more credible, reliable and inclusive as well as more responsive to societal demands. At the same time, RRI increases the quality of science and strengthens the uptake of innovation in society. However, most research and innovation actors lack capacity, incentives and knowledge to conduct mission oriented consistent with the RRI paradigm as required by the Green Deal. Therefore, a centre of expertise is needed in conjunction with a digital interactive platform that can provide capacity and make RRI knowledge fit for application in mission-oriented research.

33 Tech Sovereignty

SASCHA RUHLAND / AUSTRIAN COUNCIL FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

In order to be able to insert national discussions and interests into a European debate, it would be important to establish national forums of continued exchange between policymakers, stakeholders, and foresight specialists. Such forums should be organised as an inter-service working group, hosted, for example, by the National Councils for Research and Innovation. Importantly, these working groups should not only facilitate the exchange among experts but they should also have the capacity to conduct foresight studies to inform the discussions and to build consensus based on sound evidence.

RENATO TOFFANIN / ARCHES

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

34 From Education to Entrepreneurship

35 Europe’s Deep Tech Opportunity

STEFAN MORCOV / ALSTORIA

Organizing more hackathons for students on the problems faced by their communities and encouraging local authorities to foresee funds for living labs where best solutions could be tested. Also, more internships for students within tech companies and more industrial PHD schemes in Europe are needed.

We propose that the EU should support the creation of a deep tech solutions hub, because deep has tech become ubiquitous and must be treated as such. A huge amount of the market and society is still far from integrating such technologies. The society can benefit from the creation of an ecosystem of tools, applications and suppliers of deep tech solutions, that aim at solving both critical societal challenges, as well as improving normal everyday tasks, or supporting the modernization of Europe’s economy, increasing the efficiency of the market suppliers, as well as its government and public administration. Also provide support for the creation of a functional Business-toGovernment market - which doesn’t exist yet. Provide support for public administration efficiency and transparency.

INNOVATIVE SME

36 Green Transition

We urgently need suitable tools for determining and optimizing energy consumption and the associated significant reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in the ongoing production process. We are already in a position to support European manufacturing companies with minimal financial resources and digital know-how in achieving the legal requirements of the Paris Climate Change Agreement with regard to achieving and declaring a product-related Carbon Foot Print or Net Zero significantly earlier than 2030. To this end, we are using the latest, most energy-efficient digitalization technologies, which we are continuously optimizing and developing to meet the globally required “Global Supply Chain Act” using state-of-the-art blockchain and cloud technology as a future goal.

SERGIU PORCESCU / MOLDOVAN OFFICE FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

STEFAN HACKLÄNDER / WKW.GROUP

Green Transition

Fostering of EU-wide exchange of best practices how to convince the neighbourhood of accepting wind turbines, biogas facilities, smart new photovoltaic concepts like co-habitation of PV with agriculture. Use of experience gained in Social Licence to Operate, e.g. in EU projects on sustainable mining etc.

38 Green Transition

Valorizing grass clippings unfit for feed into different materials like insulation material, paper or growth substrates.

INNOVATION (FUNDING) AGENCY

39 Fostering Innovation Cohesion

IOAN CARPUS / SIX PATHS CONSULTING

Foster innovation in public sector: Create a training programme in innovation management for local public authorities (maybe mandatory in some cases - as a condition to access different development grants). For example, training these local authorities in an innovation process such as Design Thinking would help them work in a structured way with teams having key roles and expertise to analyze problems, create and test various solutions, with much higher chances of successful execution and impact.

40 Fostering Innovation Cohesion

41 Women-led VCs and Startups

TERESA FERNANDEZ / GRADIENTECH AB

According to the EIS 2021 report, most of EU-13 countries, representing over 80% of the total EU-13 population, are “Emerging Innovators” placed at the bottom of the EIS ranking. In EU-13 there are people with great education and potential, which is often wasted and “not working” for these countries, but also for the entire EU. Only because of the existing barriers they often cannot break through with ideas and successfully finalize the process of implementing innovations. We propose a joint discussion and development of specific dedicated mechanisms, such as:

1) mechanisms that could effectively overcome the existing barriers in the EU-13 and unlock their innovative potential, based on the experience of the EU “Innovation Leaders”, 2) mechanisms ensuring greater participation of innovative companies from EU-13, in projects financed under the EIC Accelerator HEU calls (e.g. an additional selection criterion for “ex aequo proposals” for wider inclusion of great companies from EU-13).

Provide a platform for interaction of women-led VCs and start ups. In addition, guidance and advice could be provided by the EIA to improve the chances of getting funded.

42 Fostering Innovation Cohesion

Develop and share repeatable innovation solutions EU-wide so that everyone can benefit and build on innovation breakthroughs.

ZYGMUNT KRASIŃSKI / POLISH CHAMBER OF COMMERCE FOR HIGH TECHNOLOGY

ATTILA TOTH / NOVITECH A.S.

43 From Education to Entrepreneurship

DUSAN SOLTES / FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT, COMENIUS UNIVERSITY

It is important and very acute that the current higher education system wil be closer or even very and most closely related to the real business in that sense that e.g. invited experts or entrepreneuers will be invited not only to give their lectures on the selected topics and themes but also directly leading students during their practicals but on in the schools lecture rooms or laboratories but directly in their offices. It should be widely used system existing already in medicine that medical students have their practicals directly in the best hospitals where their teachers are overseeing their practical assignments. the same system has to be introduced for all tyes of the higher education.

44 From Education to Entrepreneurship

At the beginning of being an entrepreneur, you are often alone. For this reason, it’s essential to create an environment where the entrepreneurs feel supported. Is it through easy access to credit, mentorship or an ecosystem, to name a few. Additionally, there are many regulations to comply with within Europe (or European countries such as Belgium) before starting a business. This is why regions outside of Europe (N.America, Asia) are doing better than Europe/us. In the Economist US and China have venture-backed companies valued at over $1bn at 1.25 and 0.75 respectively and in Europe, less than 0.25 (Google search “harder better faster stronger Pitchbook Economist”) One actionable idea is to create an organisation, ala Futurpreneur in Canada, where an entrepreneur can easily access credit. When this happens, a pro-bono mentor is teamed up with this entrepreneur. This organisation could also look at other ideas to reduce existing European hurdles that encourage entrepreneurship.

HUGH VAN PRAET / GUIDING PROGRESS

ALEX AMO / SCIENCE FOR CHANGE

45 Tech Sovereignty

Estonia has proposed a NATO-like expenditure rule for cybersecurity in Europe. While there are a number of initiatives on the EU level, these measures will not have a tangible effect unless the investment is stepped up considerably. Cybersecurity is chronically underfunded and it needs to be put at the top of the priority list of the Union if the digitalisation of the private and public sectors is supposed to be successful. Estonia proposes to agree on a global framework on cybersecurity, the same way NATO has the 2% target of GDP on defence. Cybersecurity should have a NATO comparable target, methodology and benchmark to measure level of investment and preparedness.

46 Fostering Innovation Cohesion

RESEARCH ORGANIZATION

47 Financing Innovation and New Technologies

ANTON USSI / EATRIS ERIC - EUROPEAN INFRASTRUCTURE FOR TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE

Most regions don’t have critical mass to foster innovation, creating knowledge asymmetries and holding back entrepreneurial mindsets. By creating virtual eco-systems that bring together the full range of disciplines and sectors to mentor, support and collaborate on excellent science, talented investigators and innovative SME will have full support at their fingertips to translate excellence into innovation. Innovation starts at the basic science, and conversely new ideas form in the market - we need to tie these worlds together so that the knowledge journey has no gaps, particularly in complex markets such as healthcare and medicine, technology, energy. By doing this, we reduce both perceived risk - thereby creating more entrepreneurs - and real risk, by helping talented researchers access users, gatekeepers, funders, regulators and more.

To accelerate the development of deep tech at scale, a global democratic and transparent financing system for science based innovation is urgently needed. By providing a global stock exchange for deep tech startups, retail and institutional investors alike can invest in the private equity class at scale. This will increase the availability of assets for investment in the private equity class worldwide, effectively financing more deep tech innovation.A distinguishing and truly disruptive feature is the provision of liquidity, allowing investors to engage in short term private equity trading.

AXEL P. MUSTAD / ATOMIQ AS

STARTUP/SCALEUP

48 Tech Sovereignty

Make European technology a requirement for public procurements. Everybody from around the world can offer a proposal but has to include technology developed in R&D calls supported by the EU and EuroHPC JU.

Financing Innovation and New Technologies

50 Women-led VCs and Startups

Set up a panEuropean framework for providing a common baseline for tax incentives to promote cross-border investments in innovation and novel tech to build a standard and coherent framework for innovation.

Establish, disseminate, and support regional single contact points gathering all the required information needed to launch a start-up and access to funds and support.

This is just a small selection of some of the diverse ideas that have been shared. Go online for more:

HUGO FALTER / PARTEC AG

ANA ISABEL GALVEZ PEREZ / RENEWACT

MIGUEL GARCÍA GONZÁLEZ / SPLORO

BRING RESEARCH TO LIFE, COLLABORATE WITH ACADEMICS.

WE ARE LOOKING FOR CURIOUS UNIVERSITIES AND ECOSYSTEMS WHO WANT TO CREATE A FRIENDLY AND EFFICIENT DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT TO SUPPORT ACADEMICS TO WORK WITH COMPANIES AND STARTUPS.

If you are in this phase and mindset, then, schedule a call with us

If you are still in the process of making a strategy for your ecosystem and university, please find here a free guide

European Synthetic Cell Initiative

Natureisournexttechnology

We are a network of excellent European research laboratories, institutions and companies, co-ordinated by Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands, that have joined forces to collaborate on synthetic cell research and accelerate its transition into technology.

We believe that synthetic cell technology can contribute to a healthier and greener future by providing sustainable innovations inspired by nature.

syntheticcell.eu