European Network for Technological Resilience and Sovereignty (ETRS) - Expression of Interest Form

Europe faces critical digital dependencies with limited freedom of choice in essential technologies. At least 80% of Europe's digital technologies are imported, predominantly from non-European big tech firms. These dependencies create cascading vulnerabilities across critical infrastructure, from AI over cloud services to semiconductor supply chains, limiting Europe's strategic autonomy and innovative capacity. European decision makers have heard the wake up call to reduce strategic dependencies, but more interdisciplinary research, knowledge sharing and coordination is still needed to enhance Europe's global competitiveness and serve the public interest.

The establishment of an independent European network of leading think tanks, thought leaders, and experts to advance European technological resilience and sovereignty. The ETRS provides the connective tissue to bridge research communities, policy institutions, and technical expertise to share knowledge and find synergies.

Our mission is to provide rigorous research and critical evidence to inform public policies and support the development of technology that serves society and increases European competitiveness – through sustainable, open, and interoperable digital infrastructures; digital commons rooted in democratic values; and equitable value chains. We foster strategic partnerships with like-minded institutions in Europe and around the world to strengthen technological resilience, sovereignty, and global cooperation.

• Provide a neutral platform for regular dialogue and knowledge exchange among research communities, policy institutions, and independent experts through events, workshops and joint initiatives
• Showcase relevant activities of network members and facilitate paths towards collaboration and coordinated knowledge dissemination

• Identify and prioritize key action areas for European technological resilience & sovereignty through rigorous research
• Help develop reliable measurement metrics allowing to analyse dependencies and measure progress in overcoming them

• Help develop clear, stable political and regulatory frameworks
• Support implementation of the recommendations developed by the network and like-minded initiatives

• Governance Structure Establishment: Setting up of a preparatory Secretariat
• Creation of an international Expert Pool to advise the Network and share knowledge
• Lean Secretariat Setup: Agile team for efficient coordination, leveraging voluntary and existing institutional capacities of the founding members
• Knowledge Exchange Workshops: Co-organization of workshops to enable coordinated action, by bringing together Int./European/National officials, technical experts, industry leaders, and civil society representatives
• Initial Pilot Projects: Early-stage initiatives/workstreams to support & demonstrate strategic impact and innovation potential (i.e. Dependency mapping, co-development of required metrics and indexes)
• Status Report : First "European Technological Resilience & Sovereignty Status Report" outlining existing initiatives, gaps, and recommendations

Founding members include Bertelsmann Stiftung • CEPS • AI & Society Institute • Polish Economic Institute, stemming from Germany, France, Belgium and Poland. Many more joining institutions across Europe will be announced by the preparatory Secretariat of the Network on November 17th, 2025, during a formal side-event of the Digital Sovereignty Summit in Berlin, Germany.