A new report argues that Europe risks losing ground in key technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum, Biotech, and dual-use technologies unless it acts quickly to remove the barriers that prevent promising ventures from scaling.
"Europe is at a historic turning point, and unless we mobilise our public tools with far greater coherence and speed, we risk becoming users of technologies shaped elsewhere rather than leaders in their creation," says DTU president Anders Bjarklev.
"Universities are central to reversing that trajectory. Securing Europe's technological resilience requires taking risks. At the same time, it depends on organising our innovation system to fit the scale that deep-tech development demands."
Why scientific breakthroughs stall before reaching the market
The report - 'From Strategy to Action: Closing the European Innovation and Technology Gap' - draws on the ASCEND Innovation Conference, held in November 2025 and hosted by DTU in collaboration with the Danish Ministry for Higher Education and Science under the Danish EU Presidency. It consolidates insights from researchers, investors, industry leaders, and policymakers.
According to the report, Europe continues to produce strong scientific breakthroughs. At the same time, however, it highlights a pattern seen across Europe: science does not automatically turn into strong companies. Startups often struggle to get their first customers, face long waits to access testing facilities, or find themselves slowed by differing national regulations. According to the report, three types of bottlenecks appear repeatedly:
- Universities can't support young deep-tech companies for long enough due to unclear rules for state aid
- Early customers are missing, whether public institutions or businesses. The demand for new technologies remains fragmented, since technologies aren't tested, validated, or bought early in their development
- Industrial capacity is weakened by its uneven distribution and by outsourcing. This is pushing companies to prototype or scale their technologies outside Europe.
Taken together, these obstacles slow down the scaling from research to market and make it harder for European founders to build globally competitive companies. Europe is then left vulnerable, especially in sectors where speed and scale determine competitiveness.
A constructive contribution to Europe's scale-up strategy
The report sets out a series of recommendations to give deep-tech companies clearer routes from research to market. And rather than proposing abstract visions and aspirations, the report focuses on practical steps that can be implemented within the existing frameworks of the EU and its member states:
- Give universities clearer rules so they can provide early-stage startups with lab access, facilities, and incubation without legal uncertainty
- Establish a "Venture Customer Journey", allowing public actors to act as early buyers by procuring prototypes and testing solutions
- Deploy the Scaleup Europe Fund, capable of making €100 million scale investments to help high-growth companies stay and scale in Europe
- Introduce a common EU framework for regulatory sandboxes to reduce fragmentation and support faster testing of emerging technologies
- Improve the Charter of Access to make Europe's research and technology infrastructures easier to use for startups, including clearer rules for IP, pricing, and data protection
By presenting this evidence-driven and actionable policy package, DTU aims to support European institutions as they seek to strengthen Europe's technological sovereignty and long-term competitiveness.
Marianne Thellersen, DTU's Senior Vice President for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, hosts the launch of the report in Brussels on 5 March. She stresses the importance of unlocking demand:
"Deep tech companies cannot scale on ingenuity alone since innovation only becomes impactful when someone is willing to put it to work. That is why Europe needs early customers who are prepared to test, validate, and adopt new technologies before the markets around them are fully formed. Without a more deliberate effort to create those first opportunities, we will continue to see our most promising ventures migrate to ecosystems that turn innovation into deployment far faster than we do."
