Strategic technologies and industrial polices for competitiveness and sustainability

This policy brief provides a digest of the scientific evidence and policy implications of the European Commission’s Conference on Corporate R&D and Innovation (CONCORDi 2025), which took place in Seville on 24-26 September 2025. The conference focused on strategic technologies, industrial policies, economic competitiveness, and sustainability, and it featured 63 academic presentations, 2 keynote talks, 2 policy round tables, 4 policy special sessions, and a science-for-policy debate. The conference highlighted the role of strategic technologies, such as AI, in helping Europe overcome the mid-tech trap, while also addressing their heterogeneous effects on labor markets. It emphasised the necessity for Europe to avoid low-productivity R&D and the importance of large R&D investors in driving higher returns through riskier and higher quality projects. This policy brief underscores the significance of supporting universities and public research centers in long-term research and fostering collaboration with firms. It addresses the incompleteness of the EU single market and calls for more capital market policies and integration efforts to remove barriers preventing firm growth. The integration of green and digital strategies is identified as essential for sustainable innovation, requiring complementary investments and institutional support. The brief discusses the importance of tailored industrial policies with directionality to accelerate transitions and strengthen technological sovereignty while minimizing negative side effects. The brief concludes by remarking that further research is needed to understand the enabling conditions for strategic technologies and to improve the measurement of policy impacts, ensuring adaptive and evidence-based policymaking.