EIT
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is an independent body of the European Union, established in 2008 to strengthen Europe’s ability to innovate. The EIT is an integral part of Horizon Europe, the EU’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.
What does the EIT do?
The EIT is a unique EU initiative that drives innovation across Europe by bring together organisations from business, education and research to find solutions to pressing global challenges, create jobs and deliver sustainable economic growth opportunities for Europe.
It does this by supporting the development of dynamic, long-term pan-European partnerships among leading companies, research labs and higher education institutions, called EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). Bringing together more than 2 000 partners, the EIT is Europe’s largest innovation network.
There are currently eight EIT KICs and each focuses on a specific societal challenge:
- EIT Climate-KIC: Accelerating the transition to a zero carbon economy
- EIT Digital: For a strong, digital Europe. Inclusive. Fair. Sustainable.
- EIT InnoEnergy: Accelerating sustainable energy innovations
- EIT Health: Promoting innovation in health
- EIT RawMaterials: Developing raw materials into a major strength for Europe
- EIT Food: Making the food system more sustainable, healthy and trusted
- EIT Manufacturing: Leading manufacturing is Made by Europe
- EIT Urban Mobility: Solving the mobility challenges facing our cities together
Together with leading partners, all EIT KICs offer a wide range of innovation and entrepreneurship activities: entrepreneurial education courses that combine technical and entrepreneurship skills, tailored business creation and acceleration services and innovation driven research projects. This turns students into entrepreneurs, brings new ideas and solutions to the market and accelerates their growth, and, most importantly, delivers innovation.
Additionally, each EIT KIC runs dedicated activities under the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) to support the innovation capacity of countries, and regions in those countries, which are classed as modest and moderate innovation performers according to the European Innovation Scoreboard, as well as the Outermost Regions, to foster their integration into the EIT community.
EIT IN THE WESTERN BALKANS
In the past years, the EIT has been steadily expanding its cooperation with the Western Balkans and bolstering its engagement with the region will be a top priority in 2021-2027. Five different EIT Hubs are currently established in the region: EIT InnoEnergy, EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Urban Mobility and EIT Food have opened hubs in Serbia, while EIT Raw Materials has a Hub in Croatia with outreach to the entire Western Balkans.
The EIT will focus its engagement with the Western Balkans, through the enhanced EIT RIS, a dedicated and joint activity of the EIT Community focused on the Circular Economy launching in 2021 and a new EIT Action to Support the Innovation Capacity of Higher Education Institutions. Synergies with the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance are also being sought.
Innovate with the EIT and discover the opportunities that suits you best. In this section of the EIT website, you can find all available opportunities offered by the EIT and its KICs.
