In his intervention, Mattias emphasised that excellence in civilian research is not a luxury — it is the essential foundation for cutting-edge science and advanced technological innovation across both civilian and defence domains. Across the CESAER community, we have learned from institutions that choose to engage in security and defence activities that the most effective approach is to combine openness, responsibility, and security: sustaining strong, excellent civilian research, education, and innovation across the whole university while governing dual-use and defence-related activities judiciously and selectively.
He stressed that Europe must safeguard the ‘excellence drivers’ that make its universities globally competitive: attracting top talent, ensuring the free circulation of scientific ideas, enabling open dissemination of the latest findings, and fostering broad international collaboration. These drivers fuel frontier science and accelerate the development of technologies, yet are — by design — constrained in defence settings due to security restrictions, export controls, partner limitations, and related frameworks. If civilian research becomes absorbed into defence logics, Europe risks weakening the very excellence that underpins its security.
At the same time, he underlined the need for Europe to expand and strengthen dedicated defence instruments, such as the European Defence Fund and its successor. These must better support earlier-stage research, become more attractive for universities, and facilitate deeper cooperation with industry and public actors. As these instruments grow, the EU should systematically draw on the experience of frontrunners already working across civilian, security, and defence-related domains — often with decades of experience in national contexts and increasingly with experience at European level across these domains.
Mattias’s core message was clear: to strengthen European security, resilience, and defence, Europe must not erode excellence — it must enable it. The concept of ‘excellence drivers’ is central. Europe must protect and boost these drivers through civilian-focused research and innovation, while in parallel developing strong, purpose-built defence instruments that can draw on and contribute to that excellence.
He delivered these messages as part of an invited Special Guest Speech during an ‘Engineering for Security’ seminar hosted by EngiRank – European Ranking of Engineering Programs, which brought together leaders of technical universities, industry partners in security and defence, and European policymakers to explore how technical universities can help build Europe’s strategic resilience and defence capabilities. The photo above is from the event.
For those interested in CESAER’s concrete recommendations, see our recent position on dual-use technologies and defence funding, as well as our input note on research security as a collective responsibility.
For more information, please contact the Secretariat.
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