We would like to acknowledge Dr. Dieudonnee Cobben, Assistant Professor Open Innovation Ecosystems Open Universiteit, whose valuable contributions helped shape both the workshop and this post-event summary.
We have all been in many discussions surrounding Digital sovereignty the last few years. As cloud, data, and AI infrastructure choices become increasingly difficult to reverse, it is also becoming a strategic issue for European businesses. Decisions made today shape long-term cost structures, resilience, innovation capacity, and freedom of choice.
Initially, digital sovereignty was considered under the umbrella of technology ownership or provider selection, but is there another way of looking at it? At the World Open Innovation Conference (WOIC) 2025, the Leaseweb Challenge deliberately set out to explore a broader and more practical question:
How can Europe strengthen its digital sovereignty not just technologically, but systemically?
Why digital sovereignty has become a strategic business issue
Europe’s digital ecosystem is increasingly dependent on non-European hyperscalers. While these platforms have enabled rapid scale and global reach, this dependency also introduces structural risks: technological lock-in, reduced strategic autonomy, lower innovation flexibility, and exposure to geopolitical and regulatory shifts outside Europe’s control.
For organisations building digital products, services, and platforms, these risks are at the forefront. Cloud and infrastructure decisions are hard to undo, and dependency compounds over time. In saying that, digital sovereignty is not only a policy concern but also a long-term business strategy.
An open innovation approach at WOIC 2025
The Leaseweb Challenge, organised during WOIC 2025, brought together participants from across industry, infrastructure, innovation, and policy in an open innovation workshop. Rather than debating predefined solutions, the session was designed to surface real-world constraints and explore possible solutions together.
Participants engaged in brainstorming, thematic deep dives, and interactive synthesis sessions, sharing insights through post-its and group discussions. While not all thematic challenges were fully completed, participants all seemed to reach a similar conclusion.
What became evident was that digital sovereignty is not held back by a single missing technology or policy, but by a set of interrelated system-level conditions.
Digital sovereignty as a system-level challenge
After many discussions, digital sovereignty was explained as being an ecosystem capability. Not a result of individual organisations, providers, or technologies, as often thought previously. Focusing on just one area, such as infrastructure, regulation, or funding, risks solving surface level issues rather than the underlying problem.
These discussions highlighted how digital autonomy is a key factor in enabling digital sovereignty. Digital autonomy was understood as something that emerges (or fails) at the intersection of finance, regulation, technology design, learning, and collaboration.
Using these areas as a starting point, participants were then divided into groups based on their expertise or interests, with each group focusing on one of these dimensions. From this perspective, five core capacities stood out.
Five capacities that shape Europe’s digital autonomy
Financial and investment capacity
Digital autonomy depends not just on funding, but on long-term investment models that support resilience rather than short-term returns.
Institutional and regulatory capacity
Stable frameworks matter, but so does flexibility, particularly the ability to test, learn, and adapt policies as technologies evolve.
Technological and infrastructural capacity
Interoperable and replaceable systems help avoid lock-in and preserve freedom of choice over time.
Learning, awareness, and strategic capability
Sovereignty requires continuous understanding of dependencies and informed decisions about emerging technologies.
Collaboration and ecosystem governance
Real progress depends on coordinated action, shared standards, and long-term commitment across the ecosystem.
From shared recognition to deliberate action
One striking outcome of the Leaseweb Challenge was the level of alignment around the problem itself. Participants clearly recognised the urgency and importance of strengthening Europe’s digital sovereignty. Awareness, however, is not the main barrier.
The challenge lies in coordination and execution.
The five capacities identified are mutually reinforcing. Weakness in one undermines the others, while a one-sided focus risks shifting dependency rather than reducing it. Strengthening digital autonomy therefore requires deliberate ecosystem design, aligning financial incentives, regulatory frameworks, technological architectures, and collaboration over time.
Sovereignty is built, not declared
The outcomes of the Leaseweb Challenge underline a simple but important truth: digital sovereignty is not something Europe can declare or procure off the shelf. It is built gradually, through sustained investment, adaptive policy, open architectures, continuous learning, and genuine collaboration.
Structured, open dialogue, such as the conversations enabled at WOIC 2025, plays a critical role in moving this discussion forward. By approaching digital sovereignty as a system-level challenge, Europe can move beyond fragmented initiatives and towards a more resilient, autonomous digital future.
Read more on sovereignty at https://www.leaseweb.com/en/about-us/sovereignty?srsltid=AfmBOopOWa_nbpm550J-wOYKsjkelZri7NuWEnFAtZ6eYJ7R0cGXdCvY