[jlokier]

There are some science and technology investment projects like this in the EU.

For example:

> Horizon 2020 is the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever with nearly €80 billion of funding available over 7 years (2014 to 2020) – in addition to the private investment that this money will attract. It promises more breakthroughs, discoveries and world-firsts by taking great ideas from the lab to the market.

Horizon is much bigger than ITER, and like the DoD it covers a wide range of R&D areas with industrial collaboration, and says what its main areas of interest are.

[ry454]

Those 80 billions are the micro investments I was talking about. EU needs a 100-trillion-dollar project for the next 50 years + change some laws to improve competition. With 80 billions EU can build a wooden airplane at best.

[dragandj]

Horizon 2020? Yes, lots of paper was pushed and lots of fantastic reports written. It promised more breakthroughs and discoveries, but it only delivered tons of reports printed on dead trees.

[jlokier]

Maybe so, and I'm not going to say Horizon 2020 is equivalent to Silicon Valley investment.

But it has funded lots of small companies doing R&D, which I thought was the subtopic here comparing with DoD funding, which also involves lots of paper and fantastic reports...

[fakedang]

The issue with Europe is that it's all decentralized by nature. They can't expect a company in Prague or one in Madrid to move to Strasbourg, unless given strong incentives, which the EU is pretty loathe to give.