Europe’s waning competitiveness is once again in the spotlight. Addressing this long-standing problem will require, among other things, increased investment in the European economy’s capacity for innovation. To achieve that, recent reports by former Italian prime ministers Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, and an April speech by French President Emmanuel Macron, have called for a European version of the United States’ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Most recently, an independent expert group, led by Manuel Heitor, echoed this appeal in the interim evaluation of the European Union’s “Horizon Europe” initiative.

The idea is hardly new. Macron first raised the issue in 2017, and economists have proposed DARPA clones to spur an industrial revival in Germany and accelerate the green transition. In fact, several such institutions already exist in the region, including the European Innovation Council (EIC), Germany’s Federal Agency for Disruptive Innovation (SPRIN-D), and the United Kingdom’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA). But all have so far failed to realize the full potential of a European DARPA.

The EU’s innovation agenda is even more urgent now: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has underscored the need to strengthen the bloc’s defense industrial base, and the global artificial-intelligence race has highlighted the importance of dominating in advanced civilian technology. Moreover, these two areas are increasingly interconnected, as was the case for many of DARPA’s biggest achievements, from GPS to Siri (Apple’s digital personal assistant) and drones.

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