Europe needs to adopt a more “systemic” approach to innovation that provides support at every technology readiness level (TRL), says Peter Wennink, former chief executive of ASML. While more capital must be directed towards innovation, there are also things Europe can do to encourage more risk taking and more collaboration between research and industry.

“I strongly believe that subsidies and support in the early phase, TRL 1-3, is very important, because it’s embryonic. That’s where ideas are being generated,” he told Science|Business. “But you also need a solution for TRL 4-7 and 8-10.”

In the TRL scale used by the European Commission, TRL 4 is technology validated in a lab and TRL 7 is a system prototype demonstrated in an operational environment. TRL 8 is a complete, qualified system and TRL 9 sees an actual system proven in an operational environment. TRL 10 does not exist on the EU scale, but is informally understood to cover multiple proven deployments.

“I…

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