Investing in Europe’s Competitiveness: The Path to Competitive Advantage

In its role as a global, nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank, the Milken Institute has launched an initiative called Investing in Europe’s Competitiveness. Its aim is to develop actionable steps to catalyze the investment needed in the European Union and the United Kingdom to meet productivity challenges and generate growth. The initiative is centered on three pillars: attracting new investment into infrastructure and decarbonization, closing the innovation technology gap, and investing in Europe’s defense and security priorities.

On October 25, 2025, the Milken Institute convened leading figures from technology, finance, policy, and academia at the Berlin Global Dialogue to examine Europe’s competitiveness challenges in the global technology innovation landscape. While an earlier workshop in June 2025 identified broad thematic challenges based largely on feedback from a UK-based audience, the October roundtable provided continent-wide insights across a wide range of issues—from university intellectual property and entrepreneurship barriers to debates on artificial intelligence sovereignty and defense, as well as opportunities for regulatory and procurement reform.

This document summarizes the roundtable session on closing the innovation technology gap, undertaken at the Berlin Global Dialogue.