Operationalisation of Open Strategic Autonomy in the context of industrial innovation

In light of intensifying geopolitical tensions and the risks and uncertainties associated with them, the past two to three years have seen significant changes not only in the central preconditions of the existing world trade order, but also in various crucial framework conditions that enable global cooperation in science and innovation. Due to increasing economic, but also political rivalry, it has become apparent that the securities previously assumed in almost all collaborations do not actually exist in all cases. Against this background, a dynamic debate on technological sovereignty and strategic autonomy has developed without sufficient clarification of the terms or the development of suitable measurement concepts.

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Objectives

Drawing on work of Edler et al. (2020, 2021, 2023), the project will begin with a literature analysis in order to clarify central concepts and to introduce central analytical aspects concerning the criticality of technologies.

Subsequently, a methodology for index calculation will be developed to empirically capture strategic autonomy and sovereignty in both economic and technological terms. The point of reference is the European Union; only dependencies outside the internal market are considered.

Methods

The propised index is based on a differentiated analysis of patent, trade and production data.

Results

Internal reports
Methods and position paper, possibly publication

Publications

Assessing Open Strategic Autonomy - A two-dimensional index to quantify EU-27 autonomy in industrial ecosystems and strategic technologies

Project team

Duration

01.2023-10.2023

Clients

European Commission, JRC Seville

Project