Objectives and main outcome
On 27 March 2023, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) organised the workshop ‘Leveraging the deep-tech green transition and digital solutions to transform EU industrial ecosystems’. The workshop was held in a hybrid format, co-organised with DEEP Ecosystems and hosted by the Technical University of Munich. The event gathered 35 in-person and 412 online participants.
Workshop participants, including policy-makers, industry representatives, entrepreneurs, universities and technology transfer professionals, discussed the importance of deep-tech for the green and digital transitions. They focussed on mobilising innovation strategies and cooperation between larger and smaller firms, the breakthrough potential of green deep-tech, stakeholder collaboration and technology transfer in innovation ecosystems, and policy instruments to facilitate esp. transfer of low TRL research.
The main results across the roundtable and four working groups were the importance of finance/investment for deep-tech, infrastructure, exit opportunities, and the role of the ecosystem in bringing together the stakeholders.
Additional elements raised were the persistence of founders, the need for European Business Angels and family offices, and the role of public actors in building trust. Also, speed regarding innovation investment decisions was emphasised, as simplified access to public funding with existing policy instruments, and efficient design of new ones. Finally, the preparedness to take risks and fail, VC-related training, skills development and Increasing the pool of professionals need to go hand-in-hand.
The Commission team will take into account the insights and opinions shared during the event both for developing our tools, such as the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, and in follow-up policy forums, such as ERA Action 12.
The summary report and keynote presentations can be downloaded below.