The Official Blog of DEEP Ecosystems
When you think of traditional agriculture, ancient olive groves, heritage vineyards, and family-owned fields might come to mind. But today, the global agrifood sector is changing. While facing modern challenges, from rising temperatures and water scarcity to supply chain inefficiencies, it leads to different and modern ways to approach agriculture – sustainable and regenerative agriculture.
Continue reading An Inside Look at the Smarterra AgriFood Ecosystem Accelerator
Meet cohort #7 of the global DEEP Startup Ecosystem Accelerator Innovation does not grow in isolation. While the global venture market is flooded with accelerators designed to scale individual companies, these programs often ignore the surrounding environment. For a startup to truly thrive, it needs a mature, interconnected web of investors, academic institutions, corporations, and public policymakers.
Continue reading Building the Infrastructure Behind Thriving Startup Ecosystems
Leading Hungarian ecosystem stakeholders partner with DEEP Ecosystems to bring the DEEP Startup Ecosystem Accelerator to Hungary and launch eight new systemic growth initiatives. Innovation does not grow in isolation. It depends on people and organizations who connect startups, investors, academia, corporates, and public institutions. People who are willing to work on the hard, structural
Continue reading A New International Partnership to Strengthen Hungary’s Innovation Ecosystem
From copilots to coordinated, autonomous systems, agentic AI is emerging as a major driver of productivity, investment, and competitive advantage across Europe.
Artificial intelligence is increasingly operating in a dual-use context, where the same capabilities support both civilian innovation and security applications. This article explores how AI is reshaping Europe’s dual-use technology landscape—and what it will take to turn innovation momentum into strategic capability.
Open-source AI is rapidly transforming how artificial intelligence is built and deployed—offering transparency, adaptability, and sovereignty at a moment when these capabilities matter more than ever. A new report, The Open-Source AI Landscape, developed under the StepUp Startups project , maps this fast-growing ecosystem and examines Europe’s position within it. The study reveals strong scientific foundations and collaborative strengths across Europe, but also highlights critical gaps in compute access, funding, and scaling capacity. As global competition intensifies, open-source AI offers Europe a realistic and strategic path to strengthen its competitiveness, accelerate adoption, and build trustworthy, innovation-ready AI systems for industry and society.
Issued by: DEEP Ecosystems Project: MED‑Hubs – Blue Economy in the Western Mediterranean (EU‑funded) Submission deadline: extended deadline: 22nd December 2025 Submission email: info@deep-ecosystems.com 1. Background DEEP Ecosystems is implementing the EU‑funded MED‑Hubs project to strengthen the Blue Economy ecosystem in the Western Mediterranean. As part of this initiative, we will expand and professionalize our
Startups are more than just new businesses; they are vital contributors to Europe’s innovation potential and economic dynamism. A newly released report, Ease of Doing Startups in the EU-27: A Path Towards Enhanced Competitiveness and Innovation, examines how startups navigate the regulatory, financial, and administrative landscape of the European Union. Supported by the European Union, this comprehensive analysis reveals the key barriers that hinder startup growth across borders — and outlines practical recommendations to strengthen the EU’s startup ecosystem, promote cross-border expansion, and support the next generation of innovative enterprises.
A new StepUp StartUps report, Untapped Opportunities for European Venture Capital: Pension Funds and Sovereign Wealth Funds, highlights how Europe can bridge its scale-up financing gap by unlocking institutional investment. The study reveals that EU pension and sovereign wealth funds—managing trillions in assets—remain underrepresented in venture capital. Through smarter regulation, stronger integration, and cross-border collaboration, Europe can mobilize its own wealth to fund the next generation of innovative companies.
Funding the AI Economy—a new report developed under the StepUp Startups project—shows AI has moved to the center of global VC, yet Europe still lacks late-stage scale. From 2020–2025, the EU deployed ~€252B in VC with 18% to AI, versus the US’s ~€1.33T with 34% to AI; in €25M+ rounds EU investors provide only ~26% of capital. The report outlines targeted fixes—an AI Scaleup Fund, mobilizing institutional capital, and stronger corporate VC—to keep Europe’s AI champions built and scaled at home.
