In a recent interview, the European Commissioner responsible for Innovation and Research, Mrs Mariya Gabriel, underlined that deep-tech innovation will be one of Europe’s primary focus areas. The EU is in fact focusing on deep-tech startups that are trying to solve the most pressing problems in areas such as energy, food security, and the circular economy.

In that context, the Commission will work to improve cross-border access to finance for innovative businesses; connect local innovation hubs across national borders, and promote talent mobility across the continent. It will also focus on the Listing Act, which aims to simplify both initial and ongoing listing requirements for companies. This action should facilitate cross-border capital flows, give companies more options for their IPOs, and reduce investor home bias.

The Commission will also propose actions to increase the inclusion and interconnection of less well represented regions and actors into a more tightly knit European ecosystem, capitalising on the experience, needs, vision, and perceptions of an increasingly diverse range of people, businesses, and places.

Mrs Gabriel believes that there  are innovation divides between and within EU Member States that do not favour a balanced and inclusive social and economic recovery in Europe. This is the first major challenge. The second one is that European innovation requires the accelerated transfer of new technologies from research to market. And the third that there is a lack of risk finance for companies to scale quickly. Finally, internal-market fragmentation and the regulatory burden are another challenge.

To deal these challenges the Commissioner proposes the following measures:

  • improve access to finance for European startups and scale-ups, for example, by mobilizing untapped sources of private capital and simplifying listing rules;
  • improve the rules to allow innovators to experiment with new ideas; for example, we are considering the creation of regulatory sandboxes to aid us in our green and digital transitions in areas such as wind, hydrogen, and geothermal energy;
  • help create “regional innovation valleys” that will strengthen and better connect our innovation players through Europe, including in regions that need to improve their innovation potential;
  • attract and retain talent in Europe, for example by training 1 million deep tech talents, increasing support for women innovators and innovating with start-up employees’ stock options;
  • improve innovation policy-making through clearer terminology, indicators and data sets, as well as policy support to Member States.

The Secretariat of EurEta is at your disposal for information on the concrete steps the Commission is going to take to achieve these goals.