The internal market turned 30 in the beginning of 2023. It is one of the greatest successes of the union but the EU cannot rest on it laurels. There are several challenges to the internal market, including inflation, high energy costs, competition from global rivals, component supply shortages and the disruptions from the war in Ukraine. There is also an urgent need to push forward with the green and digital transitions. The deep tech sector, which is characterised by science-based revolutionary innovation, holds the key to make Europe globally competitive while at the same time bringing the next generation of clean technology to the market and reducing dependence on hostile counties. The European Commission has proposed several important initiatives to boost the EU’s competitiveness. Private sector, national and regional governments and other stakeholders can join forces to help push for the common aims. The Swedish government and the innovation agency Vinnova, together with the European Innovation Council, will host a presidency conference on deep tech entrepreneurship to provide a forum for knowledge exchange and co-implementation within the framework of the European Innovation Agenda and the Action Plan on Intellectual Property. The discussions will focus on the following areas: • The importance of research-intensive companies for the green and digital transformation • Financing for growth in Europe • Competence supply and diversity • Access to infrastructure for research-intensive young companies • Improved collaboration between small research-intensive companies and large companies and the public sector • Strategic use of intellectual assets The conference will the held at XPO conference centre by Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Sweden. 1-2 June 2023.

The Digital Assembly is an annual event hosted by the European Commission and the holder of the spring presidency of the Council of the European Union. It is a forum to address important issues of the digital transition. The Digital Assembly of 2023 (DA23) will be hosted by the Swedish presidency at Scandinavian XPO during Q2 2023. The Swedish Presidency seeks to build a conference program that addresses current EU initiatives as well as ongoing debates on the conference theme. Thus, the conference will provide an opportunity to showcase the status and potential of initiatives within the Digital Decade, the EU Cyber Security Strategy as well as the Twin transitions. The Swedish Presidency also aims to build upon related conversations previously held within the Troika, such as the Digital Assembly 2022 conference in Toulouse and the conference EU Secure and Innovative Digital Future held in Prague 2022. However, given the quickly changing discursive context within which the conference will be situated, the project management will closely follow the development in related fields and tailor the program accordingly. Objective 1: To stimulate the European discourse on the EUs digital transition and cyber security by providing a platform for multistakeholder dialogue. The target group for DA23 is government officials, regulators, private sector representatives and the academia. Non-governmental organisations will also be approached to contribute their perspective on the topic at hand. EU Commissioners and the Troika ministers in the European Union responsible for digital issues will be invited, as well as high-level business and public policy decisionmakers. By bringing together a multitude of stakeholder in a quad helix constellation the project will stimulate debate, collaboration and innovation on the conference theme.

On the first of January 2023, Sweden took over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. One prioritised area for Sweden and the EU that will be addressed is the future of life sciences, and more specifically the implementation of precision health. To this end, a presidency conference will be held in Stockholm on this topic on 26-27 June 2023. The conference is hosted by the Swedish Government and the objective is to provide a forum for knowledge exchange on how to utilize the opportunities that precision health brings in modernizing our healthcare. The purpose of the conference is to inspire change and to identify needs for continued development of precision health through research and innovation. The conference is also a means of creating conditions for fruitful collaborations within the European union. Four Government agencies with expertise in regulatory affairs, eHealth, ethical approval and innovation, respectively are engaged in preparing and hosting specific parts of the conference programme. The main theme of the conference is precision health – opportunities and challenges ahead. Specific areas that will be addressed are data-driven implementation, ethics, precision prevention and regulatory procedures. Patient participation as well as sustainability will be transversal perspectives throughout the programme. The conference will be held in Stockholm, Sweden, at Karolinska Institutet, one of EUs top ranked medical universities. Karolinska Institutet is situated in the heart of the new life sciences district which also includes one of EUs top ranked hospitals, an increasing number of headquarters and R&D facilities of big and small life science industries, major national research infrastructures and more.