Underpinning the ongoing and escalating US China trade war is the idea that new technologies, from AI and wireless technology to biotech, will be the definitive factor in future superpower competition. This notion was at the heart of the US regulators decision to block the proposed takeover of Qualcomm over fears that it could potentially cause the United States to fall behind China in the development of critical 5G technology.
The narrative in the battle for tech domination has to date been cast as a battle between the US and China with Europe falling irrecoverably further behind in creating, implementing and scaling disruptive technology. In response, last September, President Macron urged Europe to “move fast” and proposed the creation of a European innovation body modeled on DARPA, the US project originally started in response to the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik.
The resulting Franco-German Joint European Disruptive Initiative (JEDI) aims to identify and support technological challenges that will disrupt existing industries. With an emphasis on fast prototyping, these challenges aim to change Europe’s ground research-heavy private and public R&D methodologies towards fast prototyping, bold risk taking, extreme agility. The initiative’s budget is estimated at €235 million for 2018 with the aim of increasing to €1 billion a year once the initiative gets going.
The European Chamber is delighted to welcome the one of the men at the forefront of the JEDI project, André Loesekrug-Pietri to discuss the state of the disruptive technology sector in Europe and to explain why he is optimistic the JEDI project can serve as a catalyst to pull Europe back into the global tech race.
Agenda
16:00 - 16:30 Registration
16:30 - 18:00 Open discussion with André Loesekrug-Pietri, Speaker of JEDI, former Special Advisor to the French Minister of Defence
About the Joint European Disruptive Initiative
'The European Moonshot Factory', JEDI initiated the launch of an agency for disruptive innovation to bring back Europe on par with the USA and China in breakthrough technologies – with a radical new method based on agility, high risk/high impact, through a public agency driven by the technology ecosystem. This led to President Macron’s proposal to set up a European DARPA, backed by Chancellor Merkel. JEDI is highly representative of the European deeptech ecosystem and brings together 120 key leaders of large research centers, technology corporations, venture capitalists, and deeptech startups. JEDI has developed 30 Technology Challenges and identified 15 Program Managers. JEDI is a concrete and ambitious German-French initiative with a clear European perspective.
Terms & Conditions
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The event is held in English.
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