Despite crisis, Europe investing in future technologies

Europe is looking to the future and specifically to emerging technology flagships according to vice president of the European Commission responsible for the digital agenda, Neelie Kroes.

Speaking at the FET Emerging Technology Flagships pilots final conference in Brussels, Kroes stressed the need for investment in future growth, looking ahead and having the courage to invest in the “new ideas that could power our world tomorrow.”

Kroes said today, much technology was in fact taken for granted.

“Think of where we'd be without the car, or the microchip. Without the technologies themselves, without the transformation they brought to every aspect of our lives, without the amazing new possibilities they enabled. Life would be very different!” she said.

Progress, said Kroes, had taken “many people” with “the vision to think differently and the patience to work tirelessly” to turn ideas into reality.

“We don't always know where that research will lead, and we don't always know what change it might bring,” said Kroes, though she added it could well hold the key to humanity’s future.

Hence the reason Europe is putting so much into its FET Flagships program, an ambitious large-scale, science-driven, research initiative to push technology to the next level.

Since May 2011, six preparatory actions (Pilots) have been funded and fostered. Their proponents have had to create a design, description and assess the project’s scientific feasibility, as well as its potential for success in both technical and financial terms.

This week, the pilots will be presented and at least two of the six will be selected and launched as full FET Flagship Initiatives in 2013 with €110 million behind them.

The initiatives span everything from personalized medicine, therapy and disease prevention, management of globally interactive systems, electronics built on entirely new foundations; autonomous smart devices and machines capable of genuine human interaction.

Kroes praised Europe’s “unwavering focus” on scientific and social challenges and its courage in looking at areas that were “high-risk, but high pay-off.”

Despite the optimism, Kroes admitted that Europe was currently in “a difficult situation” with a scarcity of public money, but that this meant ensuring long-term growth was “more important than ever.”

“Cooperation; risk-taking; and looking at the big questions. These are all things we need in Europe today. These are what you, scientists and national governments, are showing us,” she said.

“I want us to make a link between basic research, innovation and exploitation: because by bringing the best brains together we can build a critical mass, achieve vastly bigger impact, and a much better return on research investment. A return that pays off even in the short-term,” she said.

Kroes said Europe was facing “very real choices” about how to invest in its future; about how to ensure European research stayed globally competitive, while ensuring that new developments support and boost every sector of its economy.

The commissioner said it was imperative to maintain “an ambitious level of research funding through Horizon 2020,” and to combine Europe’s resources “in the smartest way.”

Brave and visionary, or fiscally risky? And should the US be following Europe’s model? Weigh in and let us know what you think.