
1st European Innovation Area Summit
Impact Innovations for a Sustainable Future
Impact Innovations for a Sustainable Future
The historic Paris Agreement provides an opportunity for countries to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Goal 13, Climate Action, calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. It is linked to all 16 of the other Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Negotiations on legislation related to the European Green Deal between the European Parliament, the Member States and the European Commission are ongoing and it is important to maintain ambitious targets if we want to avoid the breaking of planetary boundaries.
The discussions will also look into the new insights on climate impacts, vulnerability and adaptation from the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations body for assessing the science related to climate change.
The EU Chips Act is a major push to reduce the EU’s strategic dependencies in the fields of micro-chip manufacturing and semiconductor supply-chain. Reflecting geopolitical interests and the drive for digital transformation, the Chips Act is structured around three pillars, (1) Technological Capacity Building: Development and deployment of cutting edge, next generation semiconductor and quantum technologies, (2) Investor friendly framework to establish production capacities in Europe, and (3) Coordination mechanism between member states to anticipate and respond to supply chain crisis.
Another recent strategic development has been recognition of economic and geopolitical potential of quantum technologies – ranging from computing, sensing and communication – which have led to the EU Commission’s ambitious agenda to strengthen Europe’s sovereignty and leading role in quantum.
Now it is the right time to discuss these critically interdependent wheels of digital transformation – which shares many similarities, e.g. there are processing overlaps in manufacturing of a quantum-chip
and a semiconductor-chip. Quantum will not only benefit from but as well strengthen the CMOS capabilities, thereby opening up new era of innovation e.g. via Cryogenic CMOS-electronics.
In this debate, we will zoom in on the close relationship between semiconductor and quantum, we want to bring together relevant experts from policy, industry and science to look ahead in view of quantum as an important innovation driver within the Chips Act. We would like to raise and address questions such as, how can quantum technologies lean on strengths of semiconductor industry? Can a shared foundry-infrastructure be established to foster and accelerate commercialization of quantum chips? What could be the role of national quantum initiatives and EU flagship for facilitating development and execution of the quantum chapter in Chip Act – focussing at a first-off fabrication facility?
The discussions will dive into the particular role and impact of women for a sustainable future and analyse how women-led startups, researchers, VCs and businesses are shaping a sustainable society and economy in different industries, achieving carbon neutrality, circularity, resource efficiency, preservation of natural resources and biodiversity as well as sustainable food and clean energy production.
At K4I we are continuously following the achievements of female innovators since our first debate hosted at the European Parliament in February 2020 and we will continue supporting women innovators and the important goal of women equality in general in collaboration with the EU institutions and like-minded organisations.
Synthetic Cell Science and Technology, also called bottom-up synthetic biology, is about understanding how cell works by trying to reproduce their molecular mechanisms.
It is a grand scientific challenge about understanding of how life works. At the same time it will allow us to develop a new, green technology based on mimicking the natural processes. It will allow us to produce all kind of chemical compounds in an environmental friendly way; to build materials that are 100% reusable, or that can heal themself when damaged; to harness CO2 like plants do and convert it in energy and zero-impact products for industry.
Thanks also to ERC funding, European scientists are leading in the field of bottom-up synthetic biology, but the field is advancing rapidly and the worldwide race towards the development of technology has started. The objective of this event is to discuss with leading European politicians, European Commission policy makers, industry experts and researchers about how to convert this excellent knowledge in technology applications in Europe, and so maintain European leadership in this upcoming technological revolution.
The 1st European Innovation Area Summit is building on a series of EIA events from the past 18 months during which Commissioner Gabriel and many political members of the K4I Forum were actively engaged. Meanwhile many organisations and individuals have signed the EIA Manifesto and submitted ideas for actions.
Coinciding with the unveiling of the European Commission’s New European Innovation Agenda, the Summit will help launch a new and dynamic era of innovation in Europe – one dedicated to delivering the world’s first climate-neutral continent.
The European Union’s ambition to become the world’s first climate-neutral continent by 2050 will hinge on its ability to scale innovations that can accelerate the journey to net-zero. It will rely on the strength and freedom of its Innovation.
The EIA initiative is about strengthening innovation ecosystems at the local, regional and national levels and better connecting them across Europe. What we need in essence is a single market for innovation that can accelerate the types of solutions we need to become a climate-neutral continent by 2050.
The EIA initiative and events bring together the MEPs, innovators, academics, corporations, organisations and startups with the biggest stake in ensuring the European Innovation Area is a success.
By taking a decentralised co-creation approach we can develop a European Innovation Area which offers equal access to funding and where startups in one country can easily bid for public contracts in another, where startups and corporates work more closely together and where we have strong European associations bringing together all the actors of the European innovation ecosystems.
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