Today, Europe seems to be left behind its American and Chinese rivals in the race for innovation. The continent nevertheless benefits from dynamic, innovative and better funded academic research (0.48% of GDP) than in the United States (0.36%) or China (0.20%). Nor does it have to be ashamed of the number of researchers it employs, their number of publications or patents filed. Where the problem lies is in private research. European companies only devote 1.5% of GDP to research and development (R&D), compared to 2% in China and 2.8% in the United States – almost double.
A deficit reinforced by the weak links between the academic and economic worlds, to which is added the risk aversion of European companies and savers. A reluctance which leads them to invest less in start-ups, but also in disruptive technologies: 54% of American R&D is currently devoted to information and communication technologies, compared to 36% in China and only 15 % in Europe, which prefers to overfund research in the automotive sector.
More broadly, the continent faces a capital problem. According to the Draghi report, it would need 800 billion euros per year to finance investment: the European Union must develop risk savings, by increasing public guarantees for research and investment, or by authorizing the European Investment Bank to be more bold. The absence of a European capital market limits the size of investment funds. Result: a third of European unicorns have gone to seek funding across the Atlantic.
The problem is also institutional: the Union does not have agencies as effective as the American DARPA, which targets needs and lets companies propose solutions. The comparison between the success of the American Inflation Reduction Act and Next Gen EU, the European post-Covid recovery plan, is scathing: of the 800 billion euros planned in Europe, only 220 billion were loaned and 120 billion invested – the fault of excessive bureaucracy and the effects of competition between countries.
Europe has missed the shift in artificial intelligence, as it had missed previous technological shifts. If it does not want to miss out on future technologies, such as the quantum computer, it will need to strengthen the links between academic research and business research, and develop industrial and financial policies on a continent-wide scale.
