Strategy

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology’s (EIT) Governing Board submitted the EIT’s Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA) – Investing in Innovation beyond 2014 to Androulla Vassiliou, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Multilingualism on 15 June 2011.

In the SIA, the Governing Board outlines the EIT’s vision for the future as an entrepreneurially driven innovation impact investment institute and its proposed strategy for contributing to the increase of Europe’s innovation capacity and competitiveness.

The SIA outlines how the EIT wants to cement its position within the EU innovation landscape by building on the successes and lessons learnt since its inception in March 2008.

In concrete terms, the EIT’s future strategy centres on strengthening and developing the successful KIC model developed to date: the EIT and its current three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) are proving that there is a need for a different approach to innovation at the European level and the EIT is committed to stepping up efforts needed to ensure Europe remains a key competitor on the global stage.

Experience to date has shown that by integrating the knowledge triangle (business, education and research) with entrepreneurship as its key driver, the EIT establishes and facilitates a culture that helps unlock Europe’s underused potential to leverage people, technology and business innovation for greater EU innovation impact. To maximise its impact on innovation and new business creation, the EIT and its investment in the KICs acts as a catalyst and also plays an ‘ice breaker’ role in the EU innovation landscape in that its focus on simplification and leadership could perhaps be emulated by other EU initiatives.

Entrepreneurship is the central driving force of innovation in the EIT and its KICs. By educating a new generation of entrepreneurially minded young talent the EIT and its KICs are paving the way for a cultural shift towards a more innovative Europe contributing to a more entrepreneurial labour force and continued growth.

The SIA therefore presents the EIT’s vision for increased EIT impact through more KICs, new themes and a wider geographical coverage, including the request to the Budgetary Authorities for an appropriately increased EU budget allocations to realise its ambitions.

Six potential new themes have been proposed:

• Human Life and Health
• Human Learning and Learning Environments
• Food 4 Future
• Manufacturing by and for Creative Human Beings
• Security and Safety
• Mobility and Smart Cities

Through the currently proposed six new KIC themes, the EIT not only addresses today’s grand challenges but also provides viable and sustainable solutions for some of society’s most pressing challenges. The EIT believes that each theme and respective sub-fields would benefit compellingly from the EIT approach, making use of the full knowledge triangle in an innovation web rather than a linear innovation chain.

Following the submission of the draft SIA by the EIT, the European Commission will prepare its Strategic Innovation Agenda, which will take into account the EIT’s SIA as well as the consultation on the EIT and the evaluation of the EIT. As stated in the EIT Regulation (Article 18), the European Commission will submit its proposal for the SIA to the European Parliament and Council before the end of 2011.