The challenge

The European Commission needed a consistent, regularly updated evidence base on how each industrial ecosystem is progressing in the green and digital (twin) transition, in technological development and adoption, in investment patterns, and in overall competitive performance. To address this need, the European Monitor of Industrial Ecosystems (EMI) was set up as a comprehensive monitoring instrument that structures and organises the relevant data and analysis across ecosystems and Member States, including international comparisons. This enables policymakers to track progress, identify emerging challenges and strategic dependencies, and better steer EU industrial policy.

Approach & result

EMI brings together a consortium of specialised partners to monitor and assess trends across 14 industrial ecosystems. IDEA Consult contributes to five ecosystems:

• Agrifood
• Construction
• Culture and creative industries
• Digital
• Energy-Intensive Industries

Within this framework, IDEA Consult and partners carry out a recurring study that tracks how industrial ecosystems implement the green and digital transition and how this affects their competitiveness. The work is designed to provide policymakers, academia and industry with high-quality, up-to-date data and insights for evidence-based decision-making.

The EMI project delivers a coherent package of outputs, including:

• Industrial ecosystem reports
• EU country reports
• International comparison reports
• A yearly EU-wide synthesis report
• Technology centre reports

Together, these outputs provide a comprehensive view of how industrial ecosystems and value chains are evolving and how they interlink across global economies.

A key feature of EMI is its strong focus on advanced technologies, including green, key enabling and digital technologies, as critical drivers of competitiveness. The analytical work combines traditional data sources (such as official statistics and existing indicators) with novel sources and methods, including web scraping and targeted analyses of dependencies and technological sovereignty. This mix allows EMI to capture new trends and risks more rapidly and in greater detail. In doing so, the project contributes to the effective implementation of the European industrial strategy and complements other initiatives and tools such as the Transition Pathways, the EU Observatory for Critical Technologies and the EU’s Digital Compass, among others.