
Europe’s technology trends for 2025

The European Innovation Council (EIC) has detailed the emerging technology trends it sees as important for the region in the coming years.
The EIC is the EU’s flagship programme to support deep-tech from early-stage research to market scale-up, with a budget of over €10 billion.
“The EIC Tech Report is a comprehensive watchlist of emerging technologies and breakthrough innovations developed by both funded and aspiring EIC awardees since 2018. It highlights 34 signals, identifying technologies and innovations at early development stages in EIC data that show significant potential for future advancement,” said Jean-David Malo Director of the European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA)
While half the technology areas cover green and biological innovations, for the electronics industry, these 15 areas cover:
- Thermal management innovations from electric vehicles to data centres
- Low-impact and bio-based materials for sustainable electronics
- Ultra-thin 2D and ultra-wide band gap materials for power-efficient electronics
- Brain-inspired computing with advanced neuromorphic chips
- Emerging non-charge-based memories for specialised semiconductor applications
- Photonic integrated circuits for next-generation computing and ICT
- Quantum compilers for enhanced circuit optimisation and reliability
- Fault-tolerant quantum computing to tackle decoherence and noise
- Miniaturisation and integration of quantum systems on a chip
- Edge AI for more sustainable and accessible technologies
- Novel technology enablers for very low Earth orbit satellites
- High-precision LiDAR instruments for atmospheric and environmental monitoring
- Flexible printed circuit boards for multi-level space sub-systems improvements
- Synthetic data-driven virtual worlds in hyper-realistic digital twins of built environments
- Computational approaches for next-generation and high-entropy materials
In AI, two areas cover graph neural networks (GNN) and distributed agentic systems
Recent developments are advancing graph-driven AI systems, including GNNs, emerging graph transformers, and scalable graph databases, to improve link prediction, classification, and explainability. Knowledge Graphs integrated with generative AI, such as large language models (LLMs), enhance factual accuracy and support domain-specific personalisation in fields like healthcare and finance. Retrieval-augmented generation systems (RAGs) further optimise question answering tasks.
Recent advancements in agentic AI involve hybrid agent-based systems with machine learning (ML) models, including Large Language Models (LLMs), deep reinforcement learning, federated learning, edge AI, and other specialised approaches. This hybrid strategy combines adaptive agent behaviour with advanced AI techniques. However, integrating these technologies presents challenges, such as balancing efficiency, ensuring data privacy, and managing computational constraints. Addressing these challenges requires sophisticated engineering and resource allocation, shaping the scalability and responsible deployment of these autonomous systems.
“The significance of sustainable electronics in achieving EU industrial autonomy, particularly in a decarbonised and digital society, is substantiated in multiple signals selected in this report,” said Isabel Obieta EIC Programme Manager for sustainable semiconductors.
“Innovations related to reducing the environmental load of the electronic industry by shifting from traditional manufacturing methods to innovative methods and materials with a lower environmental impact or exploring new solutions that can significantly reduce the energy consumption of devices are clearly highlighted,” she said.
“Only by decreasing the environmental footprint of the devices themselves will their very significant role in “greening” the environment be reassessed and potentially amplified. Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices and systems to monitor and manage environmental parameters is just one example. Aligned with the EU Circular Economy Action Plan, the European Chips Act, the Critical Raw Materials Act, Advanced Materials initiative, and within my current portfolio activities, three key topics merit highlight in this context: a) Reducing power consumption through novel solutions such as 2D and ultra-wide bandgap materials, photonic integrated circuits, emerging memories, and brain-inspired computing can contribute to power-efficient electronics; b) Reducing critical raw materials and hazardous chemicals thanks to the use of bio-based materials and novel manufacturing processes can minimise the negative environmental impact of electronics; and c) Novel integration, assembly, and packaging for reusability and recyclability applied to device design will help in reducing electronic waste.”
The analysis represents an opportunity to extend the Commission’s internal horizon scanning and place these ideas on the public radar, enabling a collective tracking of their potential development into impactful innovations that could inform discussions on future opportunities and form the foundation for critical breakthroughs shaping Europe’s future.
The full report is here: EIC-tech-report-2024
