Global Innovation & Tech Investment Summit Malta 2026

Authored by: Legal-Malta Team

Legal-Malta is an independent legal information platform covering Maltese law, taxation, residence, citizenship, property and business. Our editorial team works with experienced Maltese lawyers and tax professionals to provide clear, practical and up-to-date guidance for individuals, families, investors and businesses with interests in Malta.

At a glance

International technology lawyers, Maltese researchers, founders, academics, investors and professional advisers will meet in Valletta on 17 November 2026 for the Global Innovation & Tech Investment Summit Malta 2026, the annual international summit convened through World Tech Legal. Hosted by Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates at the University of Malta Valletta Campus, the Summit will examine how artificial intelligence, geopolitical change, capital, digital regulation, international talent and intellectual property are reshaping the development of technology businesses.
The programme gives particular visibility to Malta’s research and innovation capability. Leading Maltese academics and innovators will contribute alongside World Tech Legal lawyers from Europe and Asia, connecting scientific and commercial experience with the legal frameworks needed to finance, protect and scale innovation internationally.
A limited number of Malta-based researchers and innovators working on mature projects may request consideration for an invitation through Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates.

Legal takeaways

  • Technology businesses increasingly need corporate, investment and governance structures capable of operating across several jurisdictions.
  • Artificial intelligence, data use and digital regulation must be addressed through practical governance, contracting and risk-management systems.
  • Research commercialisation requires coordination among researchers, universities, founders, investors, industry and professional advisers.
  • Intellectual property should be protected without preventing useful collaboration, licensing, investment or international expansion.
  • Founder relocation and specialist-talent mobility can affect taxation, immigration, employment, corporate residence and business operations.
  • Malta Vision 2050 places innovation, productivity, digital transformation and higher-value activity within Malta’s long-term development framework.
  • A limited number of mature Malta-based projects may request an invitation, but the Summit is not an open startup-pitching or fundraising event.

A global innovation summit in Malta

The Global Innovation & Tech Investment Summit Malta 2026, convened through World Tech Legal, will bring international technology-law practitioners together with participants from Malta’s research, investment and innovation community.
Hosted by Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates, the principal programme will be held at the Aula Magna, University of Malta Valletta Campus. It will examine how artificial intelligence, geopolitical fragmentation, changing investment priorities, digital regulation, talent mobility and the commercialisation of research are affecting internationally active businesses.
The Summit takes place as organisations face several connected pressures. Artificial intelligence is altering products and operating models. Geopolitical developments are influencing capital, supply chains and market access. Regulation of AI, data, cybersecurity and digital activity is developing differently across jurisdictions. Founders and investors must also compete internationally for finance, specialist talent and intellectual property.
The central question is therefore not whether disruption will affect a business or jurisdiction, but whether its legal, investment and institutional frameworks can respond coherently.

“The defining challenge is no longer whether technological disruption will affect a business or jurisdiction, but whether its legal, investment and institutional frameworks can respond coherently. Bringing practitioners, founders, investors and academics into the same discussion allows us to compare what is happening across markets and identify where capital, talent and innovation can move and collaborate effectively. Malta provides an internationally connected European setting for that conversation.”
Dr Jean-Philippe Chetcuti, Managing Partner, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
Global Innovation & Tech Investment Summit Malta 2026 host

Connecting Malta’s research with international experience

The Global Innovation & Tech Investment Summit is designed as an interactive working forum rather than a sequence of promotional presentations. World Tech Legal lawyers will contribute experience from their respective jurisdictions, while Maltese speakers will provide perspectives drawn from artificial intelligence, biomedical research, engineering, university technology transfer, deep-technology entrepreneurship and sustainable energy.
This combination matters. Research does not become economic or social impact through technical excellence alone. It also requires suitable intellectual-property arrangements, investment readiness, corporate and governance structures, access to specialist talent, regulatory planning and relationships capable of supporting international application.
By bringing together people who develop technology, finance it, regulate it, protect it and help it enter international markets, the Summit aims to identify practical connections across disciplines and jurisdictions.

“World Tech Legal connects specialist firms that regularly advise technology businesses operating beyond their home jurisdictions. This Summit is intended to make that network more useful to clients and members by comparing market developments, identifying cross-border opportunities and building working relationships around the issues shaping technology, investment and innovation.”
Dr Danielle Mercieca, Senior Associate, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
Global Innovation & Tech Investment Summit Malta 2026 programme lead

Global Innovation & Tech Investment Summit programme

Opening keynote: AI disruption and geopolitics

09:10–09:30
Prof. Alexiei Dingli, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Malta, will examine how AI and geopolitical disruption are changing business models, strategic decisions and international competitiveness. The keynote will establish the context for the day’s discussions on capital, regulation, talent, intellectual property and growth.

Capital flows in the age of disruption

09:30–10:10
Moderator: Dr Jean-Philippe Chetcuti, Managing Partner, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
Panellists:
  • Dr Danielle Mercieca, Senior Associate, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
  • Dejan Perić, Partner, Doklestic Repic & Gajin, Serbia
  • Dr Christian Badura, Of Counsel, 3T.LAW, Germany
The panel will examine how geopolitical uncertainty, technological change and evolving investment priorities are affecting international capital flows. The discussion will address corporate structuring, investment readiness, financial regulation, taxation, shareholder arrangements, market access and the international protection of business assets and intellectual property.

Structuring technology businesses for growth, investment and exit

10:40–11:20
Moderator: Dr Charlene Mifsud, Partner, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
Panellists:
  • Dr Priscilla Mifsud Parker, Partner, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
  • Maarten van der Voort, Partner, Benvalor, the Netherlands
  • William T. Gillespie, Senior Advisor, So & Sato Law Offices, Japan
The panel will consider how technology businesses can build corporate, governance and transaction structures capable of supporting investment, international expansion and eventual exit. It will cover investment readiness, founder and shareholder arrangements, governance, intellectual-property ownership, taxation and cross-border transaction risk.

Research and innovation spotlight

11:20–11:40
Prof. Joseph Borg, Professor of Applied Biomedical Science at the University of Malta, will demonstrate the international relevance of scientific work undertaken in Malta. His contribution will connect biomedical research and international scientific collaboration with the wider conditions required to develop knowledge into social or commercial impact.

AI, data and digital regulation in practice

11:40–12:20
Moderator: Dr Danielle Mercieca, Senior Associate, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
Panellists:
  • Dr Suzanna Grech Deguara, Partner, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
  • Paul Eastwood, Partner in the Contracts and Technology team, Tughans, Northern Ireland
  • Prof. Kenneth Scerri, Associate Professor of Systems and Control Engineering, University of Malta
The panel will examine how organisations can move from broad compliance principles to workable governance, contracting and risk-management arrangements. It will consider artificial intelligence, data use and the challenge of operating internationally where regulatory frameworks and enforcement priorities develop differently.

Talent mobility, founder relocation and global teams

13:20–14:00
Moderator: Magdalena Velkovska, Partner, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
Panellists:
  • Pierre Treille, Partner and Co-Founder, Levine Keszler, France
  • Łukasz Szmit, Co-Founder, DSK, Poland
  • Dr Henning Frase, Partner and Co-Founder, 3T.LAW, Germany
Technology businesses increasingly recruit and relocate founders, executives, researchers and specialist employees across jurisdictions. The panel will consider how mobility can affect personal tax, payroll, social security, immigration, corporate residence, permanent-establishment risk and the management of intellectual property.

From research to commercialisation

14:00–14:20
Speakers:
  • Dr Ing. Anton Bartolo, Acting Managing Director, Malta University Innovation Portfolio Ltd
  • Dr Keith M. Azzopardi, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Smart Materials Ltd
This spotlight will examine how research and intellectual property can move from academic or technical development towards investment, company formation and commercial application. It will address university spin-outs, technology transfer, patent development, access to capital, commercial validation and the founder’s journey from advanced research to market entry.

Private capital, family offices and technology investment

14:20–15:00
Moderator: Dr Priscilla Mifsud Parker, Partner, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
Panellists:
  • Dr Jean-Philippe Chetcuti, Managing Partner, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
  • Yuki Sato, Managing Partner, So & Sato Law Offices, Japan
  • Dr Rodolfo Fernández-Cuellas, Partner responsible for Corporate and Innovation, Augusta Abogados, Spain, and World Tech Legal Board Member
The panel will consider the role of private capital and family offices in financing technology, innovation and intellectual property. It will examine how investor objectives, governance requirements and time horizons may differ from conventional venture-capital or private-equity funding, and how internationally active families integrate technology investment into wider private-capital strategies.

Protecting innovation across borders

15:30–16:15
Moderator: Dr Danielle Mercieca, Senior Associate, Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates
Panellists:
  • Prof. Luciano Mule’ Stagno, Director, Institute for Sustainable Energy, University of Malta
  • Prof. Michał Jackowski, Co-Founder and Head of the Technology Law Practice, DSK, Poland
  • Paweł Kuźmiak, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, DSK, Poland
Research collaborations, licensing, investment, manufacturing and international expansion can expose an innovation to several legal systems at once. The panel will address how researchers and businesses can protect intellectual property while enabling useful collaboration, investment, commercial partnerships and international market access.

World Tech Legal roundtable: Opportunities across jurisdictions

16:15–17:00
Participating World Tech Legal firms will identify significant developments, client needs and opportunities across their jurisdictions. The roundtable will compare issues involving investment, regulation, AI, taxation, international talent, intellectual property and cross-border expansion, turning the day’s discussion into practical knowledge sharing and stronger international working relationships.

Closing remarks

17:00–17:15
Dr Jean-Philippe Chetcuti will draw together the principal themes emerging from the keynote, panels, research contributions and jurisdictional roundtable, focusing on the role of international collaboration in supporting technology, capital, talent and intellectual property across borders.

Maltese innovation voices at the Summit

The programme brings together Maltese expertise across artificial intelligence, biomedical research, intelligent systems, technology transfer, advanced materials and sustainable energy.
  • Prof. Alexiei Dingli will establish the strategic context through his keynote on AI disruption and geopolitics.
  • Prof. Joseph Borg will connect Malta’s biomedical and space-bioscience research capability with international scientific collaboration and the translation of specialised knowledge into wider impact.
  • Prof. Kenneth Scerri will contribute an engineering perspective on machine learning, intelligent systems, modelling and applied data.
  • Dr Ing. Anton Bartolo will explain the institutional structures needed to support university spin-outs and research commercialisation.
  • Dr Keith M. Azzopardi will present the founder’s perspective on developing, patenting, financing and commercialising Maltese deep technology.
  • Prof. Luciano Mule’ Stagno will contribute scientific, industrial and patent experience involving semiconductor materials, photovoltaics and renewable-energy technologies.
Together, these speakers show that Malta’s innovation story is not limited to policy ambition. It includes research, intellectual property and commercial experience capable of contributing to international discussions.

International perspectives from World Tech Legal

World Tech Legal panellists from Serbia, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan, Northern Ireland, France, Poland and Spain will bring comparative experience across corporate growth, capital, digital regulation, talent mobility, private investment and intellectual-property protection.
The network’s model supports trusted cooperation among specialist technology-law firms in participating jurisdictions. For a technology business expanding internationally, that can make multi-jurisdictional advice easier to coordinate and reduce the time needed to identify suitable local counsel.
The Summit therefore provides more than an exchange of legal developments. It allows participants to understand how other markets approach similar commercial and regulatory questions and to build relationships before a cross-border matter requires them.

Malta Vision 2050 and the shift towards higher-value growth

Malta Vision 2050 places sustainable economic growth, innovation, productivity, digital transformation, modern education and skills within a common long-term national direction. It supports a move towards a more quality-driven economy built on stronger capability rather than volume alone.
The Summit’s programme reflects several practical questions arising from that direction:
  • How can Malta identify and retain researchers, founders and specialist talent?
  • How can mature research be commercialised more consistently?
  • What forms of capital can support technology beyond its earliest stages?
  • How can artificial intelligence be governed without preventing useful innovation?
  • How can Maltese intellectual property be protected and applied internationally?
  • How can Malta connect local research with international markets, institutions and expertise?
The broader opportunity is to support projects capable of producing substantial value through knowledge, technology and intellectual property rather than relying principally on large labour inputs. This includes projects addressing national challenges in health, mobility, climate, education, infrastructure, digital public services and quality of life, as well as research with credible international potential.
Malta’s long-term competitiveness will depend not only on investment, but on people, research and intellectual property capable of producing exceptional and sustained value. Within Malta’s wider legal and policy landscape, meaningful contribution, distinguished achievement and national relevance are increasingly important themes. The Summit will consider how Malta can create the conditions in which such contribution is identified, supported and connected with international opportunity.

Invitation to mature research and innovation projects

A limited number of invitations may be extended to Malta-based researchers, innovators and research-led organisations working on mature projects relevant to Malta Vision 2050 and Malta’s next phase of high-value development.
Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates welcomes brief expressions of interest from people whose work demonstrates meaningful research or technological progress and who could contribute substantively to the Summit’s discussions. Particular relevance may arise where a project:
  • addresses an important national challenge;
  • develops valuable or protectable intellectual property;
  • supports qualitative or productivity-led growth;
  • applies scientific or technical research to a credible use case;
  • involves serious academic, institutional or industry collaboration;
  • has reached validation, pilot or implementation stage; or
  • has credible potential for international collaboration or market application.
The Summit is not an open startup-pitching or fundraising forum. An early-stage business seeking only to solicit investment would not ordinarily fall within the intended audience. Submitting an invitation request does not guarantee attendance.
Applicants should initially provide only:
  • their name and organisation;
  • the project or research title;
  • a one- or two-sentence description;
  • why the work is relevant to the Summit; and
  • the perspective they could contribute.
Further confidential information may be requested after an initial review.
Invitation requests should be sent to Dr Danielle Mercieca at [email protected] using the subject line:
Global Innovation & Tech Investment Summit Malta 2026 – Invitation request – [Project name]

The Aula Magna and Malta’s academic setting

The principal programme will be held at the Aula Magna, University of Malta Valletta Campus.
Located within the Old University Building in central Valletta, the Campus provides an academic setting for dialogue among lawyers, researchers, founders, investors and innovation leaders. The venue connects the Summit’s forward-looking programme with Malta’s long-standing university tradition without turning the occasion into a ceremonial exercise. The emphasis remains on practical discussion and collaboration.

About World Tech Legal

World Tech Legal is an international network of entrepreneurial law firms with specialist technology-sector experience. It supports international technology businesses and investors by connecting them with legal advisers across participating jurisdictions and encouraging trusted collaboration, knowledge sharing and coordinated cross-border support.

Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates and the Summit

Chetcuti Cauchi Advocates is the Malta member of World Tech Legal and host of the 2026 Annual Summit.
The firm advises international clients across technology, corporate and commercial law, taxation, private-client matters, intellectual property and global mobility. Its role in the Summit is threefold: convening the event, connecting Malta’s research and innovation ecosystem with international perspectives, and contributing practical legal insight into the structures required to finance, protect and scale technology across borders.
CCA will also receive and assess requests from Malta-based researchers and innovators seeking consideration for a limited Summit invitation. Legal-Malta serves as the editorial publishing platform for this coverage and will carry further speaker features, panel previews and post-event analysis.

Malta innovation coverage beyond the Summit

This page will serve as the principal Legal-Malta hub for the event. Further coverage may include:
  • interviews with Maltese researchers and innovation leaders;
  • panel previews and key questions;
  • research-commercialisation case studies;
  • Malta Vision 2050 analysis;
  • approved speaker quotations and short videos;
  • initial Summit takeaways; and
  • a detailed post-event report.
The Summit coverage will also provide a foundation for a separate Malta 3.0 publication examining Malta’s longer-term transition towards qualitative, research-led and high-value development.

Strategic implications for Malta

The Global Innovation & Tech Investment Summit Malta 2026 will bring international and Maltese perspectives together around a common question: how can innovation be financed, governed, protected and scaled effectively across borders?
Malta’s opportunity does not lie in presenting every new business as strategically important. It lies in identifying the research, intellectual property, talent and projects capable of producing sustained national and international value, and in building the institutional and professional structures required to support them.
The Summit offers a focused setting in which researchers, innovators, lawyers, investors and institutions can examine those structures together.
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