Critical Tech Forum

What is the issue?

Critical technologies underpin Europe’s economic strength, strategic competitiveness and security. They create major opportunities for growth and innovation but also introduce vulnerabilities that, if unaddressed, can be exploited by hostile actors and erode collective resilience. In an environment marked by rising geopolitical tensions and pressure on Europe’s security architecture, ensuring the integrity and resilience of these technologies is essential to sustaining shared prosperity.

Coordination between the UK and EU member states with regard to the security of critical technologies has the potential to bolster collective resilience and economic growth, but discrepancies in approach have obstructed this vision. In the context of a renewed relationship between the UK and the EU and an associated desire to tackle major technology and economic security challenges in a collaborative, mutually beneficial manner, the opportunity to build greater understanding and coordinated responses was clear.

How did we help?

RAND Europe collaborated with the UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to facilitate a closed-door ‘Critical Tech Forum’ in Brussels, which took place in March 2026. The event brought together relevant stakeholders from government and academia to identify common challenges and issues, share best practice, and develop coordinated responses that address the leading technology and economic security challenges confronting the UK, its European partners, and like-minded countries.

The Forum sought to achieve three core objectives:

1. Facilitate Strategic Dialogue: promote discussion on how the growth of frontier technologies is shaping economic security (and vice versa).
2. Strengthen UK-EU Collaboration: provide a forum in which new partnerships between the UK, the EU, and Member States can develop joint approaches to economic security and technology policies.
3. Inform Policy Development: collect and share expert insights that can shape future government policy and ongoing efforts to maintain the UK’s economic prosperity and security.

Across a series of thematic plenary discussions and interactive scenario exercises facilitated by RAND Europe staff, the Forum provided a platform for European partners to consider how economic security instruments can be employed more effectively to strengthen cooperation, manage external risks and reinforce technological leadership. Participants discussed the nature of the threats facing Europe, the structural and regulatory challenges that impede effective responses and the practical measures needed to develop a more secure, competitive technological base.

What did we find?

Discussions throughout the Critical Tech Forum underscored the deep interconnectedness between the UK and the EU in successfully addressing the linked challenges and opportunities related to technological leadership, economic security and industrial development. Participants highlighted that strengthening wider Europe’s resilience will require an integrated strategy that brings together the EU, the UK and partners. This strategy must be anchored in close cooperation among governments, industry and the research community and policies that can support them.

At the core of this vision is a balanced promote, protect and partner approach. On the protective side, governments must deploy precise, intelligence-driven tools, such as export controls, investment screening and knowledge security mechanisms, to mitigate risks posed by hostile actors and strategic dependencies. On the promotional side, Europe must address long-standing structural weaknesses, including underinvestment in technology, fragmented capital markets and insufficient pathways for scaling innovative firms.

Yet significant open questions remain for future discussion:

• How can the EU and the UK best collaborate in these areas to achieve rapid and meaningful progress?
• How can Europe at large ensure economic security and resilience are embedded in the development of transformative technologies such as AI, quantum computing and biotechnology?
• Can compensation or incentive mechanisms be designed in ways that preserve unity among European states facing divergent exposure and economic pressures?
• What is the right division of responsibility between governments, industry and universities in managing intangible and research-linked risks?