The EU needs a Ministry of Moonshots
Our thoughts on Draghi’s recommendations for European competitiveness
The European Commission tasked Mario Draghi to prepare a report of his personal vision for the future of European competitiveness, which was finally released this September. Formerly head of the European Central Bank and Italy’s Prime Minister, Mario Draghi (otherwise known as Super Mario) is often described as Europe’s most influential economist, so it’s worth considering his view.
Read Draghi’s short take in an invited piece in The Economist or the full report at nearly 400 pages (in two parts).
What does Draghi’s vision have to do with moonshots?
Taking a moonshot mindset
First, Draghi challenges EU politicians to act boldly and go bigger – in other words, to take a moonshot mindset. He pushes EU policymakers to move beyond the current “existential crisis” on the continent by addressing European tech investment, the green transition, and defense.
In doing so, Draghi received considerable criticism from a slew of commentators, business executives, even academics. It is too easy to say it cannot be done!
Bolstering Draghi’s proposal, consider Vinod Khosla’s language from a recent podcast with Nicolai Tangen, CEO of Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM). For those that don’t recognize the names, Khosla is a legendary inventor, innovator, and investor, and a billionaire business leader, and NBIM is the largest single investor in the world’s stock markets. Khosla described the “power of the improbable”, which builds on points he raised in his TED Talk earlier this year, especially his closing remarks on how “a really abundant world is possible.”
The EU already has top universities. Europe offers an attractive market. As one European entrepreneur from a hot AI startup pointed out recently, “Nearly half of our revenue came from European countries this year”. Yet one reason that persuaded them to leave Europe is entirely about mindset: “America’s willingness to build the future.” Guillaume Roux-Romestaing writes:
Americans are naturally more optimistic, more risk-prone and more forward-thinking than we are. This stems from different histories and socio-economic circumstances. It has an evident impact on how much more dynamic their tech ecosystems are and will continue to be. However, that’s no excuse for Europe to lag. We need to get back to work and stop being so gloomy about the future. We need to start building again… We have so much going for us. We have talent, capital, a solid work culture, stable institutions and a massive market (500m Europeans with an average GDP per capita higher than the rest of the world, bar a few outliers).
Fostering the ARPA culture
Second, Draghi calls out the need for an EU agency to pursue “disruptive innovation”, specifically:
… a genuine “ARPA-type agency”, supporting high-risk projects with the potential of delivering breakthrough technological advances.
This resonated with us! Some of you know that Tamara had her earlier DARPA research featured as a chapter in a seminal book documenting DARPA’s model for transformative technologies (download free here). We have written about ARPA-inspired variants in the US and globally, such as ARPA-E and SPRIN-D. Plus, Tamara was recently invited to speak about the ARPA model at a US National Academies roundtable (alongside ARPA-E deputy director Danny Cunningham, former DARPA program manager John Paschkewitz, and private ARPA organization Speculative Technologies CEO Ben Reinhardt).
We challenge people reading Draghi to embrace the ARPA culture more than its organizational model. Based on the original DARPA agency, the ARPA model is predicated on an American context and way of working, which doesn’t directly translate into Europe. And we all know comparisons to DARPA’s budget are unfair, especially when much of the real funding is classified. Moreover, recent ARPA-inspired entities – like ARPA-H and ARIA – have changed the ARPA model to better address their unique needs.
In short, it is the ARPA culture that drives the moonshot mindset that we see Draghi urging, including:
Risk taking: Encouraging bold, high-risk, high-reward efforts that push the boundaries of technology and science.
Interdisciplinary collaboration: Bringing together experts from different fields and empowering passionate mavericks to tackle complex problems from multiple angles.
Rapid decision making: Relying on a lightweight, almost flat hierarchy without the classic committee or peer review process for greenlighting ideas with great potential.
Launching a Ministry of Moonshots
In the report, Draghi focuses readers on the financial requirements to accelerate innovation, close the skills gap, sustain the investments, revamp the competitive model, and strengthen governance – all described in the second part.
So, borrowing from sci-fi – a moonshot way highlighted in our Building Moonshots book – in the spirit of The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson, we recommend that the European Commission create a Ministry of Moonshots for Europe that can serve as the beacon of a bold and positive future.
A Ministry of Moonshots can serve as the tip of the spear for European competitiveness and renewal. It can take a more expansive EU+ approach, inviting the nearby nations of Norway, Switzerland, and Great Britain to join forces and funding. This new agency should focus on agency – giving big ideas the power and resources to fulfill their potential and ensuring these ideas are handed across various funding groups, so they continue critical momentum.
Let’s rise to Draghi’s call to action for Europe! There is still much truth to the classic maxims:
Fortune favors the bold.
Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
You have to start somewhere!
We always love to hear from our readers, so send us an idea or request any time to hello@buildingmoonshots.com.
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