ASCEND · Advancing Strategic Competitiveness & European iNnovation in Deep tech Innovation Conference

The overarching goal of the conference is to identify actionable pathways to transcend the current barriers to scaling up deep-tech startups and firms in the EU. The conference aligns with the EU’s strategic objective of closing the existing and increasing innovation gap between the EU, the US and China. The conference will bring together key stakeholders from various sectors like policy, industry, startups, investors, and academia to discuss three important sub-themes – drivers, resources, and ecosystems – and other relevant topics. Beyond the conference itself, both a pre-conference and a post-conference report will play a crucial role in identifying concrete solutions and ensuring meaningful impact. The pre-conference report will provide valuable insights, particularly on the three sub-themes and other pertinent issues, to support and guide discussions at the event. This will be achieved by mobilising stakeholders from the European deep-tech startup community to pinpoint their specific needs and challenges – especially those prompting them to seek funding opportunities outside the EU, such as in the US. The report will be distributed to all participants before the conference, containing concrete questions and recommendations to be addressed and discussed during the sessions. Further, the conference will also take its departure on the remarks of the upcoming EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy. All too often, key discussions and conclusions from conferences fail to translate into tangible outcomes. To maximize impact, the post-conference report will systematically compile and communicate the most critical discussions and findings into concrete policy recommendations that can be acted upon immediately.