In the autumn of 2024, Mario Draghi released his landmark report on European competitiveness. In it, among many other issues, he criticizes the relative weakness in Europe, compared to global competition with the US and China, when it comes to investing in disruptive innovation and making sure that knowledge and innovation are being successfully transformed in replicable and constructive business models – what we basically frame as technology transfer. Lighthouse projects/initiatives/best practices are based on both of these issues. On the one hand, they make use of the uptake of (be it incremental or far-reaching) innovation and – at the same time – apply it in a way that makes it very practical for people, for businesses, for innovation ecosystems in the lighthouse project regions and beyond.
Identifying Lighthouse projects/initiatives/best practices is a promising strategy in order to allow for other actors to find reference points and benchmarks for developing new models of business cases and innovative projects.
Therefore, in the frame of a study on behalf of EUSDR Priority Area 8, Steinbeis Europa Zentrum, Pannon Business Network and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia have identified a total of 30 PA 8 Lighthouses in three different thematic areas:
1. Green Tech, Circular Economy & Circular Bioeconomy
2. Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence, Metaverse & Virtual Worlds
3. Supply Chains & Finance
These projects/initiatives/best practices serve as models for innovation and winning approaches in the Danube Region. All of them are either running or were not terminated before 2024, which is why they deal all deal with current challenges. They represent a mix in project types, with some being regional, some national and some transnational – the same applies for initiating institutions, with some being private and some public.
Past experience has shown that especially with regard to fast-transforming sectors like the ones of this study, there is ample need for not only visibility, but also user-friendly description of the core added value and applicability of the development at hand so that others can identify the relevant parts for own future projects.
Therefore, short descriptions and presentations on all 30 PA 8 Lighthouses can be found in the respective submenus.
A full-text study document with more details on the Lighthouses will follow in November 2025.
