The pandemic has radically accelerated an important trend and more or less anticipated the "metaverse": working from home, remote and hybrid working strengthen the symmetry of opportunities between urban and rural structures. Innovative companies can access talented people all over the world. Innovative economic approaches do not necessarily have to be found in cities must be located. The involuntary – and hopefully never repeated - large-scale "field test" of societies in lockdowns and quarantines has thus also shown new ways of dealing with the increasingly acute demographic change throughout Europe. Which new technologies will be the focus in the coming years and what role can they play in particular for sustainability, but also for European economic and digital sovereignty?