Shaping Europe's Digital Future: IRS at the AI Policy Summit in Amsterdam

Andreas Kuebart, researcher in the Research Area "Economy and Civil Society," represented the IRS at the EU's AI Policy Summit and spoke about critical capital structures for European tech companies. Because one thing is clear: Europe is strong in research, but it shows weaknesses when it comes to growth capital. 

On 11 December 2025, over 200 founders, investors and policy makers gathered at the AI House in Amsterdam for the European Commission's AI Policy Summit. The event also marked the conclusion of the EU project StepUp Startups, which has spent the past few months developing empirical foundations for data-driven startup and AI policy. Dr Andreas Kuebart represented the IRS at the event and discussed the critical capital structures for European tech companies on the finance panel "Understanding & Navigating the Investment Gap in AI". In the debate with the founders of the AI companies Axelera AI and LLeverage, who have been successful in securing financing, it became clear that while Europe is excellently positioned in terms of research and talent pool, there is still a considerable gap in the financing of growth phases (scale-ups). The 12 research reports produced as part of the project – covering topics such as "AI Talent" and "Unlocking Institutional Capital" – now provide the evidence needed to close this gap and keep the European ecosystem competitive.