Why Europe Should Create Its Own Future, Not Imitate Others - HiPEAC Vision 26' | CONNECT University

European Commission – DigitalEU (DG CONNECT)
European Commission – DigitalEU (DG CONNECT)May 20, 2026

Why It Matters

The Vision frames how EU policy and R&D funding should prioritize competitive, sovereign capabilities in AI and computing rather than chasing others, with implications for industrial strategy (chips, fabs, autonomous systems) and Europe’s ability to translate research strengths into deployed products. Accelerating funding and adoption is crucial to retain competitiveness and leverage Europe’s regulatory and engineering advantages.

Summary

Speakers at the HiPEAC Vision session argued that Europe must stop imitating other regions and craft its own computing and AI future, building on two decades of HiPEAC strategic guidance. The Vision emphasizes the computing dimension of AI, with particular focus on autonomous systems—cars, drones and humanoid robots—where shared hardware and software stacks, inference accelerators and open-source platforms can be reused across markets. Panelists urged faster funding, investment and deployment cycles in upcoming EU programs (FP10, Competitiveness Fund) and highlighted Europe’s strengths in nonfunctional requirements such as safety, security and privacy. The European Commission has renewed support for HiPEAC with a new three-year contract to inform longer-term research and innovation planning.

Original Description

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What if there were another paradigm for next-generation computing? What if this paradigm avoided reliance on massive data centres, with their eyewatering energy demands? What if it facilitated collaboration and the pooling of existing computing resources; eschewed the antisocial incentives of the attention economy and surveillance capitalism while allowing users to harness computing power tailored to their needs; and was based on rightsized infrastructure created in Europe which allowed for flexible, sustainable, resilient operation?
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