European leaders, from Emmanuel Macron to Mario Draghi, have called for the European Union to create its own version of the United States government’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. But this is not a new idea, and attempted clones on the continent have failed to achieve their full potential.
COPENHAGEN/BOSTON – Europe’s waning competitiveness is once again in the spotlight. Addressing this long-standing problem will require, among other things, increased investment in the European economy’s capacity for innovation. To achieve that, recentreports by former Italian prime ministers Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, and an April speech by French President Emmanuel Macron, have called for a European version of the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Most recently, an independent expert group, led by Manuel Heitor, echoed this appeal in the interim evaluation of the European Union’s “Horizon Europe” initiative.
COPENHAGEN/BOSTON – Europe’s waning competitiveness is once again in the spotlight. Addressing this long-standing problem will require, among other things, increased investment in the European economy’s capacity for innovation. To achieve that, recentreports by former Italian prime ministers Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, and an April speech by French President Emmanuel Macron, have called for a European version of the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Most recently, an independent expert group, led by Manuel Heitor, echoed this appeal in the interim evaluation of the European Union’s “Horizon Europe” initiative.