BluSpecs monthly newsletter – April edition

The untapped potential of women in Deep Tech: What the data tells us 📈 

• Women lead only 22% of deep tech firms in the EU.

• Women-led firms take 6 months longer to secure funding.

• Yet, despite making up just 0.6% of non-IPO deals, women-led firms have generated 11% of total exit value.

The EURO_GENDEX Index provides a data-driven analysis of gender diversity across Europe’s innovation ecosystem, helping uncover key disparities and challenges faced by women in deep tech.

Want to benchmark your organisation’s diversity?

GENDEX Pulse enables investors and stakeholders to assess their funds, track progress, and take meaningful action toward a more inclusive and equitable tech ecosystem.

Strengthening EU-Korea cooperation  🇯🇵 🇪🇺

We hosted a key workshop in Nice, France, under the INSTAR initiative, marking a major step forward in our growing collaboration with the Telecommunications Technology Association (TTA) of the Republic of Korea. This workshop follows the signing of our Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in September 2024 and underscores our shared commitment to deepening EU–Korea cooperation in international ICT standardisation.

• Standardisation roadmaps: We defined mutual priorities in the key technology domains, setting a clear path forward for the development and implementation of global standards.

• Concrete next steps: We defined actionable next steps and timelines for publishing joint roadmaps in Cybersecurity, Cloud, Edge, IoT, Internet, and Data, ensuring that both the EU and Korea work in tandem to address emerging digital challenges.

• 5G+/6G and Quantum: Discussions also kicked off around the European priorities for 5G+/6G and Quantum Technologies, where we presented our visions for the future and initiated conversations on joint roadmaps in these groundbreaking fields.

This initiative reflects our belief that global coordination is essential to ensuring compatibility, trust, and innovation in digital infrastructure. Our collaboration with TTA is a testament to the power of unified standards in shaping the future of technology.

Learn more

Connect with us to learn more about building the future of global tech standards

Is technology truly enhancing your work or making it more challenging? How is technology influencing your skills development? Your voice matters 📝

Preliminary findings show that 73% of companies lack a clear strategy for integrating tech with human capabilities (Capgemini, 2023). Your input can help shape recommendations for policymakers, educators, and employers across the continent.

As digital technologies transform workplaces, understanding their impact on human roles is essential. The TechConnect project, funded under Horizon Europe, is conducting a Europe-wide survey to gather insights on how organisations are adopting and adapting to emerging technologies such as AI, IoT and robotics.

The survey explores how businesses are addressing tech resistance, skills mismatches, and organisational readiness.

Advancing digital health together 🌐

Last month, we held a meeting at the Biomedical Technology Center of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid to assess progress on the platform being developed for ELADAIS, bringing together the teams from TICsmart Universidad Politécnica de Madrid BluSpecs, Hospital Infanta Leonor & Hospital Universitario La Paz

• TICSmart presented updates on the web application for Infanta Leonor, integrating with internal systems to support appointment booking & patient access to health information

• For La Paz, the new platform leverages AI to provide a modern alternative to to a legacy MS Access system, transforming unstructured HIV patient data into structured insights.

The session allowed teams to discuss technical updates, address questions, and synchronise their development efforts across both hospital implementations. With strong collaboration among all partners, we are on track to deliver innovative solutions that will significantly enhance chronic care management through digital transformation.

Learn more

Follow our journey toward smarter, more connected healthcare

Save the Date! Info day on sectoral digital skills academies📚

Europe’s goal is to reach 20 million ICT specialists by 2030 and by achieving this they must boost advanced digital skills in key fields like Quantum, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Worlds.

Join the Digital Skills and Jobs Platform for a virtual Info Day, featuring speakers from the European Commission and European Health and Digital Executive Agency (HaDEA), on 16th of May from 09:30 – 12:00 CEST, online

This session will introduce the new call for proposals under the DIGITAL Europe Programme 8th Call. These academies will aim to address the skills gap, develop new training programmes, and expand successful ones. In addition to this they will coordinate with an EU-wide initiative to strengthen Europe’s digital capabilities

Let’s close the digital skills gap together and build Europe’s future tech leadership!