EU Project Chronicles - InnovEU, research and innovation

What if your EU proposal is not weak because of the idea? What if it is weak because the scoring logic is hidden? In this episode of InnovEU - The EU Project Chronicles, I share excerpts from my webinar: How to Pre-Mortem Your EU Proposal Before the Evaluator Does And the lesson is uncomfortable: * A proposal can be technically strong. * It can have a good consortium. * It can match the call. * It...

What if the crisis is already telling your firm where to move next? What if AI disruption, energy volatility, trade wars, security pressure and housing shortages are not only threats? In this episode of InnovEU - The EU Project Chronicles, I share selected excerpts from my Profit Signals webinar, the first step of the First-Mover Advantage approach. And the lesson is uncomfortable: * Waiting feels...

What if your EU funded project is not weak because the idea is bad? What if it is weak because nobody will remember it after the funding ends? In this episode of InnovEU - The EU Project Chronicles, I speak with Christine Lester, founder and director of Minster Development Centre Ltd, in the UK. Christine has worked for decades across learning, leadership, organisational development, funding, prog...

What if your Horizon Europe proposal is not weak because of the technology? What if it is weak because it has no real territorial logic? In this episode of InnovEU - The EU Project Chronicles , I speak with Francesco Molica , Director of EURADA , the European Association of Development Agencies. And the lesson is uncomfortable: * A project can be compliant. * It can match the call. * It can use al...

What if the strongest innovation ecosystems are not the ones with the most money? What if the real difference is continuity? In this episode of InnovEU - The EU Project Chronicles , I speak with AnnaMaria Annicchiarico , from Technopolis Tech Park, Italy , about what 40 years of regional innovation can teach Europe today. Technopolis has worked across digital transformation, incubation, entreprene...

What if the next European energy powerhouse is not in Berlin, Paris, Brussels, or Silicon Valley? That is the question behind this new episode of InnovEU: The EU Project Chronicles . This week, I spoke with Tauno Kekäle , Senior Advisor at Merinova , in Vaasa, Finland. Vaasa is not a huge capital city. It is not a global financial centre. It is not a giant metropolitan region. And yet, the Vaasa r...

So - what if the biggest threat to your deep-tech project is not the technology itself… but the institutional culture surrounding it? For decades, many European regions generated brilliant academic research that never escaped the lab. Papers were published. Projects were funded. But startups failed to scale, local ecosystems remained fragile, and the economic value leaked elsewhere. Meanwhile, reg...

And what does that mean for researchers, innovators and EU-funded projects? So… what if the reason people feel poorer while GDP keeps growing is not just politics, inflation or bad communication? I speak with Steve MacFeely, Chief Statistician at the OECD , about GDP, productivity, AI governance, data quality and why impact measurement is becoming one of the biggest strategic questions for Europe....

What if the most dangerous mistake you could make right now was writing a brilliant Horizon Europe proposal for a future that is already obsolete? A hundred episodes ago, InnovEU started with a simple question: Who actually does European projects? We explored capacity building, partnerships, evaluators, open calls, and the practical mechanics of getting funded. Then the world shifted. Artificial i...

You don’t lose control of knowledge overnight. You lose it quietly. First, your content gets scraped. Then it gets structured. Then it gets monetized… by someone else. And by the time you realize it,you’re no longer building value. You’re feeding someone else’s model. 🎙️ This episode is not about Wikipedia. It’s about you . And a decision most teams are making wrong right now: 👉 Are you building...

So, what if the biggest risk in your AI project wasn’t the technology, but the fact that it might be illegal without you even knowing it? We often treat artificial intelligence as magic, but when these systems hit the complexity of actual reality, unchecked AI can quickly become a massive, expensive liability. Today on InnovEU , we sit down with Dr. Gemma Galdon-Clavell, founder and CEO of Ethicas...

So, what if the cost of creating a human was treated just like an electricity bill? Recently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman justified the massive energy consumption of Artificial Intelligence with a chilling comparison: “creating a human also takes a lot of energy.” This is no longer just a philosophical debate. It marks a brutal paradigm shift in Platform Capitalism. For the tech monopolies, intelligence...

Are you building the architecture of your own future, or just feeding an algorithm designed to extract value from your work? In this episode of InnovEU - The EU Project Chronicles , we break down the reality of Platform Capitalism and the AI bubble. Featuring insights from Nick Srnicek, Cory Doctorow, Luc Julia, and Ethan Zuckerman, we reveal why the current digital infrastructure is a trap for re...

What if the biggest risk for EU-funded projects isn’t bad writing…but building on the wrong digital infrastructure? What if platform capitalism has quietly shifted from creating value to extracting rent - and most innovation leaders are reinforcing it without noticing? That’s the decision we tackle in today’s episode of InnovEU – The EU Project Chronicles . Because this is no longer a tech ethics...

What if the biggest risk in AI funding isn’t falling behind… …but copying the wrong strategy? Europe is investing billions in artificial intelligence.“Sovereignty” is the keyword. The US and China dominate scale, capital and platforms. But are we competing on the right battlefield? That’s the decision we tackle in this episode of InnovEU – The EU Project Chronicles . And to explore it, I speak wit...

And more importantly: Why do democracies keep reinforcing them even after value creation flips into value extraction? That’s the uncomfortable question we tackle in this new episode of InnovEU – The EU Project Chronicles . Because this is not a tech debate. It is a structural economic transition. In this episode with CORY DOCTOROW, you’ll discover: * Why platform capitalism follows a predictable l...

Prepare for the impacts of global transitions on your funding strategy, your projects, and your long-term positioning - and avoid betting on the wrong system. Watch now. So - autocracies look faster. They build infrastructure faster. They mobilize industry faster. They coordinate faster. But does that mean they perform better across transitions? The AWTY data says something very different. In this...

Is Europe really falling behind in AI because it regulates too much? That is the story you hear again and again. From investors. From tech platforms. From parts of the US debate. But what if that diagnosis is wrong? In this episode of InnovEU – The EU Project Chronicles , I sit down with Brando Benifei , one of the key architects of the EU AI Act and Chair of the European Parliament’s delegation f...

Prepare for the transitions that will decide which projects get funded, which innovations scale, and which countries stay relevant. And then ask yourself one uncomfortable question. Is Europe trying to build a digital economy, a green economy, a war-ready economy, and a resilient global supply chain system…without solving the energy problem first? In this new episode of InnovEU – The EU Project Ch...

In this episode, I’m joined by Nick Srnicek , one of the most influential thinkers on platform capitalism, AI, and power. His work has shaped how policymakers, researchers, and entrepreneurs understand platforms, data, and technological control. And his insights could not be more timely. Across Europe, the US, and beyond, defense spending is rising fast .Military Keynesianism is no longer a theore...

So what if the biggest problem in research and innovation today isn’t a lack of ideasbut the economic framework we’re still using to evaluate them ? What if AI and platform capitalism didn’t just change toolsbut quietly changed how innovation works, how funding decisions are made, and who actually wins ? That’s the question I tackle in Season 5, Episode 1 of InnovEU – The EU Project Chronicles . T...

So… did Europe really win the energy war? We cut ties with bloody Russian gas .We accelerated renewables. We talked about strategic autonomy. But here’s the uncomfortable question: 👉 Why are some “peripheral” countries now leading European growth… while the industrial core is falling behind? And even more importantly: 👉 Is Europe replacing one energy dependency with another - this time on expens...

So… what if the housing crisis we keep talking about isn’t a housing problem at all? What if it’s an economic transition problem — one that affects research, innovation, partnerships and the middle class across Europe? That’s the question we tackle in today’s episode of InnovEU – The EU Project Chronicles . Because once you understand why the housing crisis became a structural, economy-wide constr...

So… what if the real risk in your career isn’t “not enough funding”……but betting your proposals on the wrong transition ? In this new episode of InnovEU – The EU Project Chronicles , I unpack the final chapter of my new book Transition Science In The Economy and ask a simple but uncomfortable question: Are you designing projects for the economy we had …or for the one that’s actually emerging now?...

So… can a new economic compass really tell you where your next EU project is most likely to win – and where you’re just wasting effort? That’s the question behind my new book, Transition Science In The Economy: How Green, Digital, New Globalization, War Economy and Housing decide prosperity and risk , and behind this special episode of InnovEU – The EU Project Chronicles . In this episode, I share...