The digital transformation of the European economy, the European Green Deal, and the role of science and technology in this regard are the main topics of the Central European Technology Forum (CETEF'22), which runs until Tuesday at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology.

– Technology has always been a key element in human development. Nowadays it is developing so fast that very often we do not even know how it will be used in the future. New technologies give us freedom, social development, facilitate communication and support the development of medicine. They affect almost all areas of our lives, although sometimes we may not even realize it, but the most important thing is that they serve society," said Prof. Arkadiusz Wójs, rector of Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, during the opening ceremony.

During the forum, participants discuss, among other things, the digital transformation of the European economy in the context of scientific research and industrial development in such areas as robotization, artificial intelligence, cyber security, biomedical technologies. The cooperation of Central and Eastern European countries is crucial for success in this area, but also for building Europe's competitive position in the world.

In his speech, Prof. Jerzy Buzek, former Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland and President of the European Parliament in 2009-2012, stressed that the ongoing process of changing Europe to become more digital and green is now the biggest challenge facing us and a huge commitment for future generations.

– In previous years, the European Union has prepared many regional and sectoral programs and strategies to achieve these goals. The European Green Deal is perhaps the most modern and concrete decarbonization program in the world. As Europeans, we hope that other countries will follow our lead – said Prof. Jerzy Buzek.

According to him, the European digital transformation program will in turn change the standards of our lives in almost all aspects.

– Billions of euros have already been allocated for this purpose, but after February 24, additional challenges have emerged. Five days ago, Ursula van der Leyden, President of the European Commission, clearly announced that we will support Ukraine as long as necessary, and the best answer to Putin's fuel blackmail is European solidarity and unity, the former prime minister noted.

"Horizon Europe" an opportunity for Central European countries.

During the conference, Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner and Director General for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, presented the key principles of the "Horizon Europe" project, a key EU research and innovation funding program.

Among other things, it is intended to contribute to the fight against climate change, help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and stimulate EU competitiveness and economic growth. It is also intended to foster job creation, ensure that the EU's talent pool is fully engaged, boost economic growth, promote industrial competitiveness, and optimize the impact of investments within a strengthened European Research Area. The program's budget is about €95.5 billion.

– A key issue in implementing the program is to strengthen the participation of Central and Eastern European countries. This is largely up to us, but we need to focus on cooperation and improve communication to fill the gaps," said Mariya Gabriel. – It's true that the participation of scientists from this part of Europe in the previous Horizon 2020 program was about 5 percent, but remember that when we launched the European Green Deal program, it was thanks to better communication that the participation in the first tranches of funding for projects from Central and Eastern Europe already amounted to approx. 14 percent. Never before has this participation been so high, so we need to continue and strengthen our efforts in this regard," she added.

Among other things, Horizon Europe implies cooperation with other EU programs and policies, such as InvestEU, Erasmus+, EU Cohesion policy, Digital Europe, the European Structural and Investment Funds, the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and the Recovery and Resilience Facility. This is intended to support faster national and regional dissemination and exploitation of research and innovation results, as well as to improve the effectiveness of the program itself.

– Europe has the opportunity to become a new innovation powerhouse, and we must not squander our potential. It is extremely important in this context to link innovation and education, and to cooperate on the network of European universities. A good example here is precisely Wroclaw, where there are three universities belonging to three such organizations – Mariya Gabriel stressed.

Workshops, discussions and seminars

During the two-day meeting, the conference participants will also deal with inspiring partner networks to implement large European high-tech projects, as well as presenting Poland's technological and research potential in the implementation of European Union development projects, especially in the area of digital and energy transformation.

The event is organized by the Polish Economic Chamber of Advanced Technologies in cooperation with the Wroclaw University of Science and Technology and the Federation of Scientific and Technical Associations (NOT). KGHM is the strategic partner.

The forum has been held since 2014, and its previous editions were attended by a total of about 3,000 participants, including deputy prime ministers and ministers responsible for technological development, European commissioners, as well as technologists, scientists and industry managers, among others, high-level representatives of major European corporations.

For more information, visit the conference website.