RTOs’ Pivotal Role in Advancing EU Tech Development & Fostering Industry, Start-ups and Scale-ups Ecosystems
Success Story
Research and Technology Organisations’ (RTOs) capabilities, covering their technology infrastructures, partnerships with industry, experience, skills, etc. serve as invaluable assets supporting the growth of existing industries and fostering the creation of new ones. Furthermore, RTOs serve as key drivers in the European start-up and scale-up ecosystem by supporting companies’ technology development and maturation while also launching their own spin-offs as a direct result of their RD&I activities. As an example, the 15 RTOs which took part in the recent EARTO Economic Footprint Study 2024, have launched around 400 deep-tech spin-offs in two years generating a turnover of more than € 5 billion. These spin-offs have a greater life expectancy (9.7 years) and low rate of failure.
EARTO therefore gathered some success stories showcasing RTOs’ pivotal role in advancing EU tech development and fostering industry, as well as start-ups and scale-ups creation and ecosystems. These RTOs’ success stories stem from RD&I collaborations that can fall into three categories:
- RD&I collaboration between research player(s) and an established company
- RD&I collaboration among research player(s) to nurture a technology, which is then scaled up by an established company or a start-up
- RD&I collaboration between research player(s) and a start-up or a scale-up
The technologies developed and commercialised through these collaborations enhance European competitiveness and, to a large extent, provide the EU with a competitive advantage in technologies identified by the European Commission (EC) as critical in the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), the EC Communication on Economic Security, or within the Strategic Technologies for Europe Platform (STEP).
Discover all our Success Stories – the complete deck and individually – below:
