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While Europe is investing billions in digital infrastructure, we must not forget that technology also requires people who can work with it, wrote faculty professor Gerard Barkema in newspaper Trouw.

Recently, my colleagues from Utrecht, José van Dijck and Albert Meijer, advocated for greater independence from Big Tech companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon. I share their concerns about the impact of current geopolitical developments and unreliable world leaders on our digital infrastructure. This adds urgency to the pursuit of digital autonomy. I support their call for universities to invest – locally, nationally and at the European level – in our own expertise and research, so that we maintain control over our data and are not dependent on specific vendors. We must collaborate across Europe to build our own digital infrastructure.

Yes, alternatives to American software do exist. But can they deliver the same quality? No. In terms of user-friendliness, accessibility and functionality, European providers do not measure up to the software developed by Microsoft, Google and Amazon. Academic computer science is a vital part of the digital ecosystem, and we have underinvested in it in recent years. The United States and China have pumped billions into computer technology over the past decade and are now reaping the benefits. In Europe – and especially in the Netherlands – that focus was lacking. All academic disciplines had equal chances of receiving research grants and subsidies. The result: only a handful of European universities can compete at the global top level in computer science.

Alarm bells

It is encouraging that alarm bells are now ringing across Europe. The European Union wants to invest in digital autonomy. One example: Ursula von der Leyen has announced plans to invest €200 billion in European AI Factories – high-tech centres for the development of large AI models, aimed at breakthroughs in medicine and science, among other areas. This funding is mainly going to companies. A second, very recent example is the initiative for Digital Skills Academies, in which consortia of European universities will receive several years of funding to retrain the workforce.

These are commendable initiatives, but they don’t go far enough. The EU wants to more than double the number of IT specialists by 2030 compared to 2022 – from 9 million to at least 20 million. That requires a significant increase in the number of IT graduates in the coming years. The scale and temporary nature of the European plans will not solve this challenge. For that, long-term and structural funding must go to higher education. After all, it is here that the majority of IT professionals are trained, making it the key place to realise the necessary growth.

Investment in human capital

That is why I am calling for investment in human capital and foundational research. In my role as board member of the ICT Research Platform Netherlands (IPN), which represents academic computer science in the Netherlands, I have worked with colleagues on two national plans for investment in IT and computer science. These sector plans, funded since 2019 and 2023, have demonstrably strengthened academic computer science, resulting in nearly double the number of students being trained for the Dutch IT sector. We are now advocating for a scaled-up European sector plan – one the EU can use to help Europe stand on its own digital feet and spark innovation.

With just a fraction of the funds being set aside by von der Leyen for the gigafactories – say, a few billion – we could achieve truly remarkable things. With that money, we could invest in fundamental research, build a solid European knowledge base, and educate the talent of the future. These elements are the foundation of digital sovereignty.

And speaking of talent: if we want to be among the world’s best and become independent from the United States, we must not only invest generously in both fundamental and applied scientific research, but also be willing to attract that expertise to Europe. We need to move away from the reluctance to bring in talent from abroad. Digital autonomy starts with an open mindset.