Research Minister Dr. Nicodemos Damianou warned that Europe must become a builder of critical technologies rather than just a regulator, highlighting Cyprus's tech sector boom as a model for regional growth.

A Human Continuum of Innovation

The next digital frontier will be defined by people, not infrastructure alone, Dr Nicodemos Damianou, Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation and Digital Policy said on Wednesday during the opening of the Cyprus Presidency’s Digital Conference “Shaping the Next Digital Frontier” in Nicosia.

Dr. Damianou began with the story of Panayiotis and Demetra, two pupils from Kambos village of Nicosia whose curiosity led from a local science fair to international technology competitions and visits from Dr Gernot Gromer of the Austrian Space Forum. "From the earliest spark of curiosity in a two‑student classroom, guided by a teacher who refused to accept geography as a limitation, to Dr Gromer and the scientific networks that allow ideas to transcend their point of origin… that continuum is the thread connecting our discussions,” he said, describing how local initiative rippled to benefit a hundred students.

Geopolitics and the Tech Bridge

Positioning Cyprus as "sitting at the southeastern frontier of our Union", he argued the island understands the value of bridges, between Europe and its neighbourhood, academia and industry, policy and innovation, and "between ambition and implementation." Technology, he warned, is now "a defining asset of geopolitical influence, economic resilience, and strategic relevance". AI is moving "from experimentation to mass deployment", cloud and data are "strategic backbone resources," connectivity is a "baseline condition for growth," space is "critical infrastructure" and cybersecurity is the "trust‑layer" for all.

Building Beyond Regulation

Europe, he said, "cannot afford to be merely a regulator of technologies developed elsewhere. We must be a builder, a deployer, and a scaler of critical technologies. We must remain open, but not dependent. Leading on trust, while competing on innovation, investment, speed, and scale."

Dr. Damianou framed Europe’s response as a continuum beginning with research and innovation and continuing through startups and scale‑ups. Quoting European Commission data, he noted a "30% higher per‑capita concentration of AI researchers than the US”, but warned that Europe produces far fewer scale‑ups, only "8% of global scale‑ups are based in the EU". Bridging that gap, he said, requires immediate, coordinated action on capital, data, compute, talent and regulation.

Cyprus as a Digital Success Story

He held up Cyprus as a practical example: strong Horizon Europe results, a rapidly expanding startup ecosystem, "five times more startups today than in 2020", tech sector contributing "more than 15% to our national GDP", and significant FDI per capita. Over the Presidency, he highlighted progress on the Framework Programme, the European Business Wallet, the AI Act compromise with child‑protection provisions, work on the Digital Networks Act and the Cybersecurity Package, and streamlined agreement on the EU Space Act.

Concluding with the Kambos pupils, Dr Damianou said the next digital frontier "will be defined by people. By their talent, their ambition, and their willingness to transform bold ideas into lasting impact".

Source: CNA(ΚΥΠΕ)