EIC Tech Report 2024

🇪🇺 The European Innovation Council (EIC) has released its 2024 Tech Report, highlighting 34 emerging technologies and breakthrough innovations that could shape the industries of tomorrow. Drawing on EIC’s internal data and the views of experts in the field, 📝®️ the report identifies early stage trends of novel technologies with the potential to make major impacts on economic growth, Europe’s technological independence, and secure its place on the global stage as a leader in the next generation of breakthrough innovation.

Pioneering future technologies for a competitive Europe 🇪🇺

The report delves into emerging technologies that are critical for Europe’s future—green technologies, healthcare, digital transformation, industrial advancements, and space exploration. Areas include plant-based biomanufacturing, cutting-edge drug development techniques like targeted protein degradation, miniaturised quantum systems, and technology for very low Earth orbit satellites. 

The report provides valuable insights for decision-makers, investors and innovators on what could be coming down the tracks in the coming years. It aligns closely with major recent reports including The Future of European Competitiveness by Mario Draghi and Align, Act, Accelerate by Manuel Heitor which all argue that Europe needs to get ahead of the curve in developing strengths in future technologies.

The EIC Tech Report provides a data driven analysis of emerging technologies which aims to encourage dialogue and to share insights to inspire researchers, innovators, investors, and policymakers to look towards future opportunities to accelerate innovation and create impactful solutions. 

Data-driven insights for a future-oriented European innovation ecosystem ♻️

The 34 innovations presented in the report were carefully selected through a combination of quantitative data analytics and expert-led qualitative reviews led by EIC Programme Managers. The analysis included both funded and non-funded proposals at low Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 1–4 (fundamental research up to proof of concept). The report highlights the scientific and technological novelty of these signals and explores potential areas of impact over short- to mid-term horizons.

The 2024 EIC Tech Report is part of broader initiatives by the EIC and the European Commission to build a stronger, more connected European innovation ecosystem and foster the start-up and scale-up of future champions in Europe.  The objective of the EIC Tech Report 2024 is to emphasise the added value of

identifying and monitoring early-stage ideas within EIC internal data, based on

quantitative and qualitative observations across funded projects and proposals, and

supported by external expert assessments. 📊

These signals are worthy of future-oriented monitoring under the EIC proactive management framework due to early indications of their technological and innovation

potential, as well as their relevance to the EU’s policy priorities. They also representan opportunity to extend our internal horizon scanning and place these ideas on

the public radar, enabling a collective tracking of their potential development intoimpactful innovations that could inform discussions on future opportunities and form

the foundation for critical breakthroughs shaping Europe’s futureThe novelty of plant-based biomanufacturing and metabolic reprogramming lies in their innovative approaches

in understanding and manipulating cellular functions and producing valuable substances using plant cells. Plantbased biomanufacturing is cost-effective, scalable, and biosafe, by using plants for the sustainable production offood ingredients, biopharmaceuticals and enzymes. Metabolic reprogramming offers deep insights into cellularmetabolism, revealing the interconnections between metabolism, immunity, and cell function(s). In agriculture, itenhances the understanding of plant responses to multiple stresses, opening new avenues for cultivating stressresilient crops. Together, these technologies reduce operational costs, minimise contamination risks, and promotesustainable production, marking significant advancements in biotechnology and agriculture.

How may it impact the next five to ten years?