EU’s regional innovation balance risks widening with AI

By Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab Est. 5min 20-12-2023 Content-Type: Underwritten Underwritten Produced with financial support from an organization or individual, yet not approved by the underwriter before or after publication. [MangKangMangMee/Shutterstock] Euractiv is part of the Trust Project >>> Print Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram While December’s political agreement on the AI Act could deliver a competitive edge for Europe, commercial AI consolidation risks widening the EU’s substantial regional innovation divide. “If Europe is going to close the gap with the United States, it must nurture its own start-up ecosystem,” writes a November report by consultancy firm McKinsey. In the space of a decade, US GDP has grown from around $16 trillion to $26 trillion, taking over that of Europe, the report notes. “Accelerating innovation across Europe is a lot like how the brain sends messages through synapses – the more messages, the stronger the connections become. This is how EIT Health and the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) function,” Marta Kaczmarek, who leads the EIT Community Strategic Regional Innovations and the EIT Jumpstarter, told EURACTIV: “Western Europe, for example, cannot innovate alone,” she said, “and East or South cannot innovate alone – we need to make the connections, support each other across Europe’s regions if we want to be competitive on the global market.” Countering global competition led the EU to nurture ‘knowledge and innovation communities’ (KICs) – including EIT Health – under the umbrella of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and guided by a ‘knowledge triangle’ of experts from business, research, and education. The aim of EIT Health is to strengthen European healthcare systems by, “overcoming obstacles to innovation, improving healthcare delivery, and creating a more resilient and dynamic European healthcare system,” said Kaczmarek. “To close the gap between regions that are leaders in innovation and those ones which are still progressing. For this we use EIT RIS – it promotes healthcare innovation in countries with a modest and moderate innovation capacity.” Attracting investors, getting to market To showcase entrepreneurs, EIT layers in InnoStars cross-border business creation, programmes providing opportunities for young innovators to showcase product development, while attracting investors and shortening the time it takes to get their ideas to market. “It’s all about widening the ecosystem, making the resource connections,” Kaczmarek said. As AI draws in strands of data and cross-sectoral talent, Europe’s innovation ecosystems are becoming more critical. Mapping synergies To stay competitive in this new and turbulent innovation race, Kaczmarek says the EIT Community “… maps synergies, so we can better work on the ground together, no matter which industry is represented”. “We are focusing on upskilling, but EIT RIS also works on preventing the brain drain in less developed regions. Its about preserving talent and innovators in Ukraine, and the Western Balkans, educating and providing the acceleration support, while offering specific support for female entrepreneurs.” In an era when healthcare crises are experienced globally, Kaczmarek noted that Europe has accelerated the digital transformation of healthcare, but she said: “We must seize this opportunity. We need to act strategically and create the conditions for start-up in industry, so health care systems and patients can benefit fully from the potential of digital health in Europe.” Commissioner for Internal Markets Thierry Breton has been clear that Europe must “mobilise private funds for health innovation in Europe”. In addition to Horizon Europe’s €95.5 billion funding programme for research and innovation, Breton has been instrumental in the Venture Centre of Excellence (VCoE) programme with venture capital funds exceeding €1.7 billion for life science investment. VCoE is operated by EIT Health and the European Investment Fund. “High-level, high-quality” Kaczmarek said that to maximise these investments, “we want to see greater balance in innovation across Europe’s regions when it comes to high-level, high-quality innovation projects in central, eastern, and southern Europe.” “What helps is a cross-regional and cross-thematic collaboration. Besides focusing on industry-specific challenges, we meet at the intersection of other disciplines, to share resources and experiences in the EIT Community. This is unique.” Scaled-up spinoffs In some cases, Kaczmarek said they witness accidental entrepreneurs. During the innovation training, for example, a researcher will try one of our early-stage accelerator programs, and though they never intended to, they begin building their own company. An example for this approach is iLof, a digital health startup team from Portugal – a pioneering AI platform to accelerate the future of personalised drug discovery and development. In July, they secured €4.89 million to accelerate personalised drug discovery. She explained: “The iLof team built the company from scratch. It became a scaled-up spinoff from the University of Porto, which emerged from its academic background after joining two EIT programs – Jumpstarter, and Wild Card – and receiving a €2 million award as an investment, before securing an additional $5 million from global investors.” iLof isn’t alone. Kaczmarek cites Polish start-up Iyoni which uses AI and a machine learning model to support fertility prediction; and Ligence from Lithuania, an AI-driven application which automatically evaluates heart ultrasound images. Print Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Topics AI digital transformation Health healthcare systems regional innovation