The case
Shared infrastructure,
not another initiative.
Europe’s book and publishing ecosystem is rich, diverse and globally influential. It is also under converging pressure: weakening reading proficiency and fierce competition for attention, rapid technological change and the format shifts that follow it, fragile economics in parts of the value chain, and rising sustainability and compliance requirements.
Innovation knowledge, meanwhile, stays fragmented across countries, languages and segments of the value chain. Insight into new business models, sustainability practice, digital formats, AI tools, accessibility and reader engagement remains siloed inside individual markets.
Many European countries have already built strong innovation programmes. They evolve in parallel – duplicating programming, pilots, tools and mistakes – while a shared agenda across the sector goes unbuilt. That fragmentation has a cost, financial and strategic, and it now constrains the pace at which the industry can adapt.
What the platform delivers
- Faster adoption of what already works, in markets where it has not been tried
- Comparable learning across countries, rather than anecdotes across borders
- Cross-border replication and collaboration on concrete pilots
- International exposure for European innovation
Scope
Innovation first: editorial, rights, production, supply chain, retail, marketing, discovery, data and AI, formats across audio, ebook and print, reading promotion, libraries, sustainability, accessibility and multilingualism. Alongside it, evidence and learning from policy and pilots – the failures as much as the successes – and the cross-cutting issues shaping the sector: digital transformation, sustainability, freedom of expression, media ecosystems and information integrity.
Goals for the first 18 months
- Build a trusted knowledge base of case studies, tools, benchmarks and policy trackers
- Grow an active community of practice spanning countries and value-chain roles
- Enable cross-border replication of successful pilots and partnerships
- Increase the visibility of European innovation internationally
Route to scale
| Phase | Timeframe | Focus | Key actions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foundation | 0–6 months | Set the basis and launch | Align mission, governance and taxonomy; seed with 30–50 high-quality case studies. |
| Activation | 6–18 months | Build momentum and collaboration | Communication, working groups, matchmaking and a member directory. |
| Scale | 18–36 months | Expand and professionalise | Widen participating countries and value-chain partners; stabilise the funding mix across EU grants and sponsorship. |
If we build this well, Europe does not just keep up.
It becomes a place where the book industry can reclaim leadership – by sharing what works, learning faster together, and turning fragmentation into coordinated momentum.