By Mark Riis, Head of Innovation at DTU Compute and Entrepreneurship Workstream Manager at DIREC. The editorial was published in the magazine “From University to Unicorn” made by Techsavvy, October 2024 as part of the event Digital Tech Summit, one of the most significant deep tech events in the Nordic region, organised by the universities in collaboration with Ingeniøren.
We have become poorer, we invest too little in tech and talent, and the EU needs to get back on the tech track.
These are the three clear key messages in the highly anticipated Mario Draghi* report “The Future European Competitiveness”, which makes a grim reading for all of us Europeans.
In short, the report concludes: We have become poorer: “On a per capita basis, real disposable income has grown almost twice as much in the US as in the EU since 2000”.
We invest too little in tech and talent: “The productivity gap between the EU and the US is largely explained by the tech sector, lack of innovation and tech startups. The EU is weak in the emerging technologies that will drive future growth. Only four of the world’s top 50 tech companies are European”.
EU must get back on the tech track: “Europe must profoundly refocus its collective Universities have the potential to bring innovation back to Europe collective efforts on closing the innovation-gap with the US and China, especially in advanced technologies. We must bring innovation back to Europe and unlock our innovative potential.”
We must take the messages in Draghi’s report seriously. But we should also remember that not everything looks bleak. We have a good starting point to build on. In Draghi’s words: “Europe is full of talented researchers and entrepreneurs. The problem is not that Europe lacks ideas or ambition”.
Fortunately, several new initiatives have been launched to try to unlock the potential better:
A new EU Commissioner dedicated to promote startups, research and innovation has been appointed, Ekaterina Zaharieva. Internationally leading start-up ecosystem builders from 13 European countries, such as Denmark, Sweden, France, the Netherlands and Germany, have just united in the “Rise Europe” initiative to lift Europe globally. And in the Danish context, this summer, the government presented an ambitious entrepreneurial strategy with 41 concrete initiative proposals worth a couple of billion kroner, including the continuation of the Open Entrepreneurship project, which is a collaboration across all Danish universities to support startups. And just around the corner, the government is launching a new national AI strategy that can push further in the right direction.
The political initiatives are supported by the universities’ own initiatives. Over the past ten years, all Danish universities have invested heavily in building world-class environments for knowledge-based entrepreneurship and bringing research faster into society. Skylab at DTU, Lighthouse at the University of Copenhagen, The Kitchen at Aarhus University and AAU Innovation at Aalborg University are good examples. And the young startups - Brainglyph, Clearly, Droplet IV, PsychSun and EthNote - featured in this magazine are all great results of university efforts.
An important arena for university innovation efforts is the annual Digital Tech Summit. With over 5,000 visitors - researchers, students, startups and companies - the event is one of the most significant deep tech events in the Nordic region, organised by the universities in collaboration with Ingeniøren. The startup area is a central activity at the Digital Tech Summit; over 400 university-based startups participate.
We are pleased that the Minister of Digitalization, Caroline Stage Olsen, will open the startup scene. The startup area is a hub for universities’ startup ecosystems. It is a unified showcase for university-based startups - both from students and researchers - to support collaborations between startups, investors, students, researchers and deep tech companies. The startup activities are held in collaboration with Venture Cup, Open Entrepreneurship, The Pioneer Center for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Research Centre Denmark (DIREC) and TechSavvy Media. The Otto Mønsted Foundation is the main sponsor of the Digital Tech Summit startup area.
We can only hope that in this corner of the EU, with government initiatives, university efforts and over 5,000 dedicated tech people at the Digital Tech Summit, we can help boost innovation in a challenged region.
In Draghi’s words: “We must bring innovation back to Europe”.
Read more: With the magazine ‘From University to Unicorn,’ TechSavvy.media and Spin-outs Denmark dive together into the unique innovation ecosystem.
*Mario Draghi is former European Central Bank President and one of Europe's great economic minds. The European Commission asked him to prepare a report on his personal vision on the future of European competitiveness. The report - EU competitiveness: Looking ahead - was published in September 2024.
