Security in the digital age: how can the public and private sectors combine to drive innovation?

DIGITALEUROPE invites you to discuss the challenges of security in a digital age: how can governments and international institutions like the EU and NATO support innovation in the private sector? And vice versa? Furthermore, how can we ensure that NATO and EU efforts mutually reinforce each other? Join our esteemed speakers on 13 April as we discuss these questions and more.

”Strategic autonomy” has been the talk of the town for a while in Brussels, and it was the centrepiece of President of the European Council Charles Michel’s speech as he addressed our flagship Masters of Digital event. One aspect of this is to ensure that Europe stays at the cutting edge of technological advances and we support our industrial base. These were the two objectives presented by the Commission in its recent action plan to build links between civil, defence and space industries.

Innovation in the defence and space sectors has often been driven by private companies, but as the recent report by the NATO Advisory Group on Emerging Technologies states: ‘policy and diplomacy are key to trigger and sustain innovation initiatives and processes’. Collaboration between all actors is vital.

The timing has never been better. On the top of the European Defence Fund, the new EU budget and unprecedented post COVID recovery funds put technology front and centre. There is huge potential to bring us into a new golden era of technological innovation, with both military and civilian uses.

To read the full event report, click here.