How can the European Union build up its innovation ecosystem to reach net zero?

What are the key priorities for climate-related research in the short and medium terms? How can EU funding support and leverage the success of green tech incubators, entrepreneurs and international cooperation? These are some of the questions that were discussed at the Science|Business Green Deal & Climate days event, which was held in Brussels on September 18-19 and supported by ATTRACT.

The purpose of this 2-day event was to define how Europe can harness its Research and Innovation networks to meet the 2050 goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. Within the first day, a roundtable brought together leading industry, research and policy experts to discuss how to accelerate innovation, education, and networking for sustainable ideas, which is the role of infrastructures, among others.

The ATTRACT initiative is an example of a successful innovation system in Europe because it has incubated 170 deep-tech projects in a network of research infrastructures, universities, investors and other partners across Europe.

Here you can see the key recommendations for net-zero innovation ecosystems:

• They should be diverse – public and private actors, regional and global – but have clear objectives.
• Build on the experience of existing EU ecosystems, of which there are many successes already.
• Sort out how Europe will manage the rising demand for industry-driven infrastructure (the so-called technology infrastructures) while continuing to benefit from research infrastructures.
• Listen to what citizens and cities want in climate innovations, rather than focusing solely on what technology can offer and what companies can sell.
• Develop a purpose and solution-focused innovation culture. Start from the “problem-to-solve” and reverse engineer it to efficiently create the technology that is needed.
• Think globally: climate is an international problem, and even local systems can benefit from a global perspective and broad collaborations.
• Solve the funding tangles in Europe: Not enough synergies between programmes, too high a barrier to funding for new ecosystems, and risk-aversion among funders.

Here you can watch the full roundtable discussion at the Science|Business Green Deal & Climate days event.