In 2021, we expanded our scope by creating a DO TANK.
This strategic intelligence offering is the natural extension of Digital New Deal’s work to build a third European digital way, as an alternative to Big Tech, through the creation of:
a framework of trust through regulation → THINK TANK
a trusted ecosystem through cooperation → DO TANK
The Do Tank helps companies structure their industries as digital ecosystems through joint initiatives — including industry-wide initiatives — and by building sovereign technological alliances.
How?
By leveraging the opportunities created by current and upcoming European regulations (DGA, DSA, DMA, AI Act, etc.).
By taking advantage of the resulting European funding opportunities, particularly calls for projects requiring consortium-based approaches.
The Do Tank’s initiatives, led by Arno Pons, can be carried out in partnership with major consulting and IT services firms, particularly to coordinate and integrate the various stakeholders involved.
The Do Tank has successfully launched several industry-wide digital initiatives stemming directly from the think tank’s publications:
INFRATEX : European sovereign Infratech
Winning consortium of the European SIMPL tender (€150 million): do-tank drafted the ‘Sovereign Infratech’ strategy and brought together public and private sector stakeholders during the drafting of the ‘Trusted Data’ report, thereby enabling it, alongside Sopra Steria, to form this consortium of 25 companies from 15 different European countries, endorsed by Gaia-X and selected by the Commission to develop the ‘smart middleware’ for the European Data Strategy.
THEMIS-X : Data collaboration for AI
Data Space for the tourism sector: the do-tank has established and fully operates this consortium, which puts into practice the recommendations of the white paper ‘Data sharing: an opportunity for tourism stakeholders to take back control’, based on the use cases shared at the Tourism Data Forum organised by Digital New Deal and Bpifrance. Themis-X subsequently merged with EONA-X (ADP, Air France, SNCF, Accor, Renault, Amadeus, etc.) to secure €20 million in funding.
Do-Tank supported the implementation of the flagship proposal set out in the report ‘Cybersecurity: Guardian of our Strategic Autonomy’, which called for the creation of a European sovereign cyber risk rating agency.
Agentic AI for travel: development of a generative AI system designed to enable travel assistants to act as agents (in a consortium with Mistral AI, Linagora, Capgemini, EONA-X, Docaposte, etc.), based on data from member companies of the EONA-X Data Space, following the white paper ‘GenAI: unite or face the consequences’, co-published with MEDEF. Project supported by France 2030, with an R&D budget of €3.7 million
Stemming from the work carried out for the think-tank’s ‘AI is Law’ report, this consortium brings together 43 organisations from 10 European countries, coordinated by Atos and Themis-X (budget of 26 Millions €). Its aim is to industrialise compliance in order to accelerate the development of trustworthy AI in Europe, notably through the use of data spaces. The aim is to transform compliance into a shared, automatable and reusable digital asset, drawing in particular on the capabilities of agent-based AI.
DRI
In 2026, we launched the Digital Resilience Index.
For Digital New Deal, the Digital Resilience Index (DRI – IRN in french) is the continuation of a doctrine developed over several years: “digital sovereignty” is a misleading catch-all term, because no one can truly claim to be sovereign. Just as in defence or energy, Europe cannot expect to control the entire global technology value chain on its own. What it can and must do, however, is preserve its freedom of decision within chosen alliances and interdependencies: in a Gaullist vision, alliance does not preclude autonomy.
Digital New Deal therefore defines strategic autonomy as “the management of interdependencies within an ecosystem of trust.” Having explored the conditions required to build such an ecosystem through its publications on AI, cloud and trusted data, the think tank still had to address one essential question: how can we manage interdependencies that today are neither objectively assessed nor measured?
This is precisely the purpose of the Digital Resilience Index (DRI).
The DRI turns digital resilience into a strategic lever for competitiveness and autonomy. It gives companies a clear, objective view of their critical dependencies, enabling them to manage their information systems as strategic assets.
Neither a new regulatory standard nor an additional compliance tool, the DRI provides a common language for executive committees, comparable to what B Corp represents for CSR. It structures dialogue across IT, risk, procurement, compliance and strategy functions, while enabling companies to communicate credibly with partners and investors.
By moving beyond siloed assessments covering cybersecurity, business continuity, GDPR, procurement and other areas, the DRI provides a single strategic compass. At the end of the process, the company receives an overall, concise and actionable score, which can be independently certified and leveraged with key stakeholders.
Designed as an industry standard by David Djaïz, Yann Lechelle and Arno Pons, the DRI is led by the Digital Resilience Initiative association, with Olivier Sichel serving as Honorary Chairman.
