On November 27, within the framework of the international forum “Up To GATE 2025: New Horizons,” the GATE Institute will give a stage to one of the most important topics for the future of technologies – how regulations can be a driver, and not a brake, on innovation.
The panel “From the Laboratory to the Market: How Can the Regulation of Artificial Intelligence Support the Development of Artificial Intelligence?”, from 11:30 to 12:30, promises a conversation that goes beyond dry rules and documents and enters the essence of how Europe imagines its AI future through the idea of innovation for the benefit of people. The discussion will move beyond the usual headlines and focus on the real question – how we turn good intentions and ambitious policies into solutions that reach the market and improve our everyday lives.
The conversation will also emphasize the path of a technology – from the laboratory, through regulations, to business. What helps this path become shorter and more successful? What slows it down? And how the different European initiatives, including the new Innovation Act and the AI Act, intertwine and influence the development of the ecosystem.
There will also be talk about “evidence-based regulation” – an approach aiming for rules to be based on real data, not on assumptions. The panelists will discuss how policies can support the creation of reliable, competitive, and human-centric AI solutions.
The heated discussion on the stage of “Up To GATE 2025: New Horizons” will feature leading voices on the European scene who shape the AI environment of the continent every day. These are: Yordanka Ivanova, Senior Policy Expert at the European Commission – a person with a key role in creating the rules that will determine what we can and cannot do with AI; Micaela Magas, Innovation Advisor to the European Commission and the G7 leaders, member of President von der Leyen’s High-Level Round Table on the New European Bauhaus and member of the Advisory Board of CERN IdeaSquare (ISAB-G), Chair of the Industry Commons Foundation (Sweden) and winner of the EU Woman Innovator of the Year Award – a bridge between science and industry, whose experience and ideas resonate in Brussels, the G7, CERN, and many other global organizations; Cristina Boca, part of the global intellectual property team of imec (Belgium) – an institution behind some of the most significant technological breakthroughs in Europe; Marcin Olender, Director of Public Policy at AI Chamber CEE – the voice of business and small and medium-sized enterprises in Central and Eastern Europe, familiar with the regulatory environment from the inside, after years at Google and in the public administration of Poland.
Each of them comes with their own point of view – regulatory, business, scientific, or innovation-driven – which turns the panel into a real crossroads of ideas. The discussion will be moderated by Ivo Emanuilov – Head of the Experimental Regulation and Digital Policy Laboratory (ERPL) at the GATE Institute. He is also part of the EU working groups that developed the Ethical Code for AI, and the laboratory he leads is one of the few in Europe where AI products are tested before they enter the market: whether they are safe, ethical, and comply with all rules.
The event will bring together leading Bulgarian and international experts, researchers, and representatives of business to discuss the potential of artificial intelligence and data as drivers of innovation and sustainable development. They will outline the vision for the next stage in the development of the European and global ecosystem for artificial intelligence – from experimental approaches and ethical principles to real impact and sustainable deployment.
The program includes panels with a high level of expertise and demonstration sessions.
The topics cover: analysis of the impact of the European Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act) on innovation; presentation of the latest research of GATE in the applied areas Future Cities, Digital Healthcare, and Intelligent Governance; discussion on the role of sovereign and trustworthy data exchange as a foundation for innovation, inter-institutional cooperation, and new business models in Europe; visions and examples of a successful transition from research activity to deployment and economic impact through innovations based on data and artificial intelligence.