The world faces many challenges. More intense cooperation between the United States and the EU can help solve them. [Note to journalists: You may quote from this text, provided you mention the name of the author and reference it as a new Strategic Intervention Paper (SIP) published by the Global Ideas Center in Berlin on The Globalist.] www.https://globalideascenter.org/
The
Ukraine crisis is a stark reminder that the transatlantic alliance is as
important today – as both a military and economic partnership – as it has ever
been in the post-World War II-era.
What
focuses the mind
But
U.S.-European cooperation need not and should not be limited to immediate
geopolitical crises. The renewed experience of standing together in the current
confrontation with Russia should be a template for allied solidarity in the
years ahead.
After all,
Europe and the United States confront shared challenges posed by China, future
pandemics and climate change.
The
importance of innovation
Technological
innovation holds the key for overcoming these challenges. Such an effort will
be extremely costly and will require a broad range of scientific talent. To
justify the endeavor, a sufficiently large end market will need for the
technologies developed.
The
private sector cannot do this alone. Europe and the United States need to seize
the current moment of allied solidarity.
The goal
is to commit limited public resources in support of pre-competitive research
and development of a range of emerging technologies that then can be
commercialized by European and American businesses.
The
importance of cooperation
Only
through such working together can governments on both sides of the Atlantic
hope to overcome their shared existential challenges and develop the
cutting-edge technologies so vitally needed for the 21st Century.
If the
European Union and the United States are to be leaders in the creation of
cutting-edge technologies, they must now join forces in limited new support for
technological development.
The
growing cost and complexity of technological innovation, the global diffusion
of scientific talent, as well as the need for a large future market to justify
massive investment give them few other options.
Long-time
technological rivals
Europe
and the United States have long been technological rivals. And both the U.S.
and some European nations – notably Germany, Britain and more recently the
Netherlands and Scandinavian governments – have been leery of excessive
government intervention in the market economy.
But in
the face of emerging challenges, there is new-found support for public private
partnerships and transatlantic cooperation.
In 2021,
Brussels and Washington launched a Trade and Technology Council (TTC) to
coordinate approaches to key trade, economic and technology issues.
Meeting
the technology imperatives facing societies
While a
necessary initiative, the TTC falls far short of meeting the technology
imperatives facing societies on both sides of the Atlantic and around the
world.
To meet
these needs, Europe and the United States should cooperate in pre-competitive
research and development and testing on a range of new technologies.
This can
be achieved through the creation of a Transatlantic Advanced Research Project
Agency (TARPA), with designated funding streams for specific technologies.
DARPA as
a model
TARPA
can be modeled on the highly successful U.S. Defense Advanced Research Project
Agency (DARPA). It has been instrumental over the years in developing the
internet, GPS, the computer mouse and Apple’s voice-recognition system Siri,
that were subsequently commercialized.
To
maximize resources Washington and Brussels might consider creating a
public-private technology venture fund that would use government funds to
mobilize private investment in TARPA projects.
The
global semiconductor shortage as a warning sign
The
global semiconductor shortage exemplifies the most immediate technological
challenge Washington and Brussels are facing. The shortfall has impacted
everything from cars to cell phones, imperiling economic recovery on both sides
of the Atlantic.
Recently,
the United States government has invested approximately $1.5 billion annually
in semiconductor-specific research, less than a third of what experts’ think is
necessary.
In late
July 2022 the U.S. Congress passed the Chips and Science Act, which includes
$52 billion in federal investments for the domestic semiconductor research,
design, and manufacturing.
Toward a
“TARPA-C” for chips
Europe,
for its part, produces only 10% of global semiconductor output. To double its
share, Brussels has proposed its own EU Chips Act, with €3.3 billion in EU
funds.
The
chips of the future need to be smaller and denser. The estimated R&D cost
of moving from a 10nm chip to a 5nm chip is $650 million, even before
manufacturing, testing and packaging.
If
European and American firms are to keep pace with Taiwanese, South Korean and,
most importantly, Chinese chip makers, Brussels and Washington need to bring
together their scientific talent and help shoulder some of the financial
burden.
A
Transatlantic Advanced Research Products Agency-Chip (TARPA-C) effort should be
jointly created to conduct pre-competitive R&D for next generation chips.
A
“testing commons”
At the
same time, since testing new designs requires multi-million-dollar facilities,
the EU and the Biden Administration should jointly create a “testing commons.”
This
would allow both European and American firms to assess the feasibility and
commercial potential of new materials and chip designs.
But the
world currently faces myriad other technological challenges. And some, such as
climate change, have even more dire implications.
Next:
TARPA-B for batteries
Batteries
are one of the key strategic components for the digital world, for modern
manufacturing, for consumer products from cars to dishwashers and for dealing
with climate change.
Small,
powerful, rapidly rechargeable batteries are needed for these purposes. This
field is currently dominated by Asian, especially Chinese, producers.
The European
Union has already taken steps to increase its battery supply through the
European Battery Alliance. This effort is supported by the European Commission
and the European Investment Bank.
The
United States, for its part, has created a Federal Consortium for Advanced
Batteries.
Strong
incentives
Washington
and Brussels should take their efforts to the next level and create a
Transatlantic Advanced Research Products Agency-Batteries (TARPA-B) to pursue
joint pre-competitive research and development.
If this
is not achieved, they both will have a replay of the current chip supply crisis
and find themselves even more dependent on Asian battery production.
Focusing
on global needs
But the
world currently faces myriad other technological challenges that extend beyond
the headline grabbing digital world. And some have even more dire implications.
Climate
change threatens food production, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and South
Asia, because of higher temperatures and water shortages.
This may
pose a particular threat to the double and triple cropping that is currently
necessary to produce sufficient foodstuffs in these regions.
Faced
with feeding more people with less water and hotter temperatures, publicly
funded agricultural R&D has stagnated in both Europe and the United States.
Heat
tolerant food crops
For the
sake of humanity, Washington and Brussels need to dramatically increase their
investment in the development of less water-intensive, heat tolerant food
crops.
Private
seed companies, which cater to richer markets, cannot be counted on to make
such investments that will primarily benefit poor farmers.
R&D
to develop new varieties of wheat, corn, rice and other crops will require
public money. This has been done before. In the mid-1940s, the Rockefeller
Foundation created what became the International Center for Maize and Wheat
Improvement with an initial grant of roughly $200,000.
In 1959,
the Ford Foundations created the International Rice Research Institute with a
grant of roughly $7.2 million.
These
efforts led to the development of “miracle wheat and rice”, greatly enhancing
yields, sparing millions from malnutrition and starvation.
Toward
TARPA-A for agriculture
Today,
the food-production challenge posed by climate change requires a similar effort
backed by even greater resources and scientific talent.
This can
best be accomplished by the EU and Washington pooling their efforts to fund a
Transatlantic Advanced Research Products Agency-Agriculture (TARPAA). Its focus
would be on developing new climate change resistant seeds that can produce in
hot, dry conditions.
European
and American agricultural R&D cooperation can also contribute to the shared
imperative of slowing climate change.
Agriculture
and greenhouse gas emissions
Agricultural
activities contributed to about 10% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in
2019. At the very least, something needs to be done to offset these emissions,
and hopefully to help meet the urgent need for carbon sequestration.
In 2020,
the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $10 million effort to measure
the carbon-capture potential of its Conservation Reserve Program, a
long-standing effort to preserve wetlands and other threatened land.
But both
these efforts are largely aimed at better understanding the potential for soil
carbon sequestration.
From
2017 to 2021, the European Union’s Horizon Project proved €2.4 billion for a
Coordination of International Research Cooperation on Carbon Sequestration in
Agriculture. It included a number of international research centers, including
Colorado State University.
And the
European Union has announced ambitious plans for agricultural carbon capture to
sequester five million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year by 2030.
A
transatlantic effort to improve carbon-sequestering
All
these initiatives are steps in the right direction, but they are woefully
inadequate. There is a need for a sustained transatlantic effort to enlist
plant scientists to improve carbon-sequestering by major food crops.
The Salk
Institute in California is working to develop roots with greater mass, depth,
and decomposition-resistance to increase the carbon-storing capacity of wheat,
rice, corn, soybeans and other foodstuffs.
The
Institute hopes to be able to distribute seeds by 2030, with significant carbon
reduction by 2035.
To
advance that timeline, overcome inevitable problems and accelerate distribution
Europe and the United States need to pool talent and resources in this and
similar pre-competitive R&D efforts.
Yet
another frontier: Global health
Finally,
if the Covid pandemic has taught us anything, there is a pressing need to be
better prepared for the inevitable pandemics of the future.
In the
last two decades, the world has experienced SARS, MERS, Ebola, avian influenza,
swine flu, Covid and now Monkeypox. Infectious diseases keep emerging, but
drugs to treat them have been slow to reach the market.
One
reason is that treatments for such illnesses have not promised the financial
returns sought by Big Pharma. The McKinsey Global Institute estimates that as
much as $83 billion needs to be spend on infectious disease R&D over the
next decade.
Inadequate
funding
Prior to
the Covid outbreak, the European Commission’s average yearly funding for
research into infectious diseases was only €21.5 million. The U.S, National
Institutes of Health budgeted just $6.3 billion.
Much
more public funding is needed to make the economics of producing new treatments
work for drug makers, using the model that led to the development of Covid-19
vaccines.
The U.S.
Operation Warp Speed invested more than $12 billion to create a market for
Covid vaccines, while streamlining the testing and approval process.
Both
were necessary and highly successful measures. What is needed to prepare for
future infectious diseases is more governmental support for pre-competitive
R&D and for governments to assure drug makers of a market if and when they
develop new treatments.
Toward
TARPA H, for health
In his
2022 State of the Union address, U.S. President Joe Biden proposed creation of
an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Congress has yet to
act on this proposal.
The
European Union should suggest joining such an effort, with an initial focus on
developing new pandemic vaccines. By pooling resources and scientific talent,
ARPA-H will maximize the potential for developing life-saving therapeutics.
Such
cooperation is already being pursued in the private sector. American druggiant
Pfizer teamed with German BioNTech to develop a Covid-19 vaccine. But
government’s role in funding basic research and assuring a market were critical
in the effort.
Next
generation therapeutics
But if
there is any lesson to be learned from the Covid pandemic, it is that more
pharmaceutical innovation is needed, faster. And such cooperation need not be
limited to infectious diseases.
It could
be expanded to include work on pre-competitive R&D on next generation
therapeutics to deal with cancer, Alzheimer’s and other widely shared threats
to human health.
Conclusion
A new
era of transatlantic governmental engagement to bolster needed technology
through joint support of pre-competitive research and development is
desperately needed.
Given
the growing cost and complexity of innovation and humanity’s pressing needs,
even economies as large and as talented as Europe and the United States cannot,
on their own, develop the technologies needed to combat climate change, to
overcome future pandemics and to feed the hungry.
Americans,
Europeans and citizens of the world need a new, more profound collaboration
between Brussels and Washington to meet shared, emerging challenges. The need
is great. The time is now.
https://www.theglobalist.com/deepening-transatlantic-cooperation/
****Bruce
Stokes is a visiting senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United
States.
Previously,
he was the director of Global Economic Attitudes at the Pew Research Center in
Washington, D.C. and co-author of numerous Pew Global Attitudes Surveys.
He is a
former international economics reporter for the National Journal, a
Washington-based public policy magazine. He is also a former senior fellow at
the Council on Foreign
Relations.
From
2010-2012, Stokes was a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. He was the
author of the 2009 Transatlantic Trends survey, and two task force reports: The
Case for Renewing Transatlantic Capitalism, and A New Era for Transatlantic
Trade Leadership.
He is
co-author of the book America Against the World: How We Are Different and Why
We Are Disliked (Times Books, 2006).
Stokes
is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, the
School for Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and
attended the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.