The internal market turned 30 in the beginning of 2023. It is one of the greatest successes of the union, but the EU cannot rest on its laurels. There are several challenges to the internal market, including inflation, high energy costs, competition from global rivals, component supply shortages and the disruptions from the war in Ukraine. There is also an urgent need to push forward with the green and digital transitions. The deep tech sector, which is characterised by science-based revolutionary innovation, holds the key to make Europe globally competitive while at the same time bringing the next generation of clean technology to the market and reducing dependence on hostile counties. The European Commission has proposed several important initiatives to boost innovation, deep tech and EU’s competitiveness. Two of the key initiatives are the European Innovation Agenda and the Action Plan on Intellectual Property.
The objective of the conference on deep tech entrepreneurship was to provide a forum for knowledge exchange and co-implementation within the framework of the European Innovation Agenda and the Action Plan on Intellectual Property. The conference brought together private sector (deep tech start-ups, corporates, venture capital), national and regional governments, EU organisations (EIC, EIB, EIT, EIF, JRC, …) and other stakeholders to stimulate the actors to discuss the challenges and join forces to help push for common solutions.
To allow time for in depth discussions around the challenges for deep tech growth, the conference selected to only focus on three of the key challenges that deep tech companies face:
- Improved collaboration between small research-intensive companies and large companies
- Strategic use of intellectual assets
- Financing for growth in Europe
The conference was structured around three main blocks:
- Setting the overall strategic scene of why deep tech is crucial for EU’s competitiveness
- Deep dive into the three challenges in focus, with keynotes and panels
- Workshop with all participants around the three challenges
The expected impact was to
- Create awareness of the importance of deep tech for EU’s competitiveness
- Bring people together from different stakeholders, countries, and EU organisations
- Contribute with new insights around the challenges of scaling and keeping deep tech companies in EU. Insights that could add to future strategic work in member states as well as in EU.
