If Europe wants to develop a strong digital industry of its own, it must make a conscious choice to purchase European technology. Universities can play an important role in that regard.
European universities spend millions of euros on IT: cloud and software services, cyber-security tools, hardware. The bulk of that money flows to non-European providers. When it comes to critical platforms, we instinctively look to the United States. China, meanwhile, plays a dominant role in hardware, telecoms and global supply chains. Cyber-security is sourced worldwide, with heavyweight players in Israel and the US.
That dependence is the result of market logic: scale wins. Yet we overlook the fact that we create that scale ourselves, time and again, with public money. And digital infrastructure is not an ordinary purchase: it concerns control over data, legal dependence on foreign jurisdictions and geopolitical risk. We also allow ourselves to become so reliant on a single large – often American – supplier that switching to an alternative becomes extremely difficult, costly or risky.
In geopolitically turbulent times, security of supply, export restrictions, sanctions and trade disputes are part of the reality. Digital dependence is therefore a strategic risk. A university is a digital ecosystem. We manage the personal data of tens of thousands of students and staff. We process sensitive research data with economic – and sometimes strategic – value. We are targeted daily by cybercriminals. If email, network access or storage fails, the institution grinds to an immediate halt. It is therefore incomprehensible that procurement processes barely take explicit account of jurisdiction, portability and geopolitical dependence.
If Europe wants a fully fledged digital industry, it must now do what every economic power does: use its own market to build up its own players. Not with slogans about innovation, but with purchasing decisions, procurement policy and long-term choices. There is no need to ban foreign technology, but we must stop pretending that every purchase is an isolated decision without consequences. Each contract helps an ecosystem to grow – and that ecosystem is too often growing outside Europe.
Universities can help bring about change. By actively creating opportunities for European suppliers through smaller tenders. By insisting on open standards. By making exit strategies contractually mandatory. By avoiding supplier concentration. And by recognising geopolitical dependence as a fully fledged criterion.
If Europe wants a digital industry capable of competing globally, it must behave like an economic power and use its public institutions as leverage. Universities, too, must demonstrate through their IT procurement that they are serious about this – not out of nostalgia or protectionism, but out of strategic self-interest.