ATTRACT online conference report: Igniting the deep tech revolution

On 22-23 September 2020, the EU’s ATTRACT project brought its innovation ecosystem together for an online conference. The goal: To help ideas in deep tech get out of the lab and into the marketplace.

This report summarises the ATTRACT project flagship event held online on 22-23 September 2020. It provides highlights of the conference’s keynote speakers and how the ATTRACT deep tech ecosystem is reshaping open innovation in Europe.

About ATTRACT

Big research organisations and experts in business management have been working together in the EU-funded ATTRACT initiative to co-create a European deep tech ecosystem for detection and imaging technologies. This is a new European model of open innovation that can become an engine for jobs and prosperity. For two years, 170 projects were each awarded €100,000 of funding and mentorship by ATTRACT to develop disruptive ideas and turn them into viable commercial applications. Interdisciplinary teams of students from across Europe (led by Aalto and Esade Business School) applied design-thinking methodologies to turn some of ATTRACT’s breakthrough projects into valuable products and services.

Participants in the ATTRACT conference explored how these technologies could revolutionise global markets and society in diverse disciplines (such as healthcare, biotech, robotics, and self-driving cars) in the upcoming decade. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 programme, ATTRACT aims to help revamp Europe’s economy and improve people’s lives by creating products, services, companies, and jobs. The ATTRACT project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 777222.

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