After spending months watching the sinking of Qimonda — which it seems must now be set to go down with no jobs saved — as well as the demise of Microemissive Displays before it, it would have been understandable to become despondent about the future of electronics in the Dresden region and in Europe in general.

In 2008 western consumers came to realize they had been living in a debt-fueled, fools' paradise of "I want it now" to a sound-track provided courtesy of the iPhone and the iPod. The merry-go-round stopped all of a sudden throwing economies into reverse and millions around the world into unemployment. Was this the shock that would send the remnants of Europe's electronics industry to China and the far-east?

But now up pops Professor Gerhard Fettweis, with an expansive, forward-looking plan that is set to help job-creators try to address one of the biggest challenges facing the planet: the more electronics that is made and sold the more energy is expended in their manufacture and use. Fettweis describes the innovations to be developed in Dresden over the coming years as "conflict-resolution technology."

And what is particularly encouraging is that the three anchor projects — on energy efficient ICs and systems, on electronic-readers, and on energy-neutral sensor nets — would appear to be well thought out and focused on broadly applicable technologies in which Europe can make a difference over the next five to ten years.

It is also a notable that this project has been put together at speed — starting in September 2008 we are told — and without any funding or apparent involvement from the European Union. Perhaps the speed of action and the lack of European involvement go hand-in-hand.