One of the key components for a pathway to success in the 21st Century is "open innovation", which was very much discussed during the Lisbon Council meeting. "In addition to open innovation, a structural change in Europe’s innovation ecosystem also requires the full integration of the knowledge triangle; that is of higher education, research and business/innovation. To unleash Europe's innovation potential, borders between academia and business, between teaching and research must be broken and made largely subordinate to entrepreneurship, which should be both the glue and the driver to success in innovation within the knowledge triangle", Dr Martin Schuurmans pointed out during the panel discussion.

Dr Schuurmans emphasised that "we, Europeans, have been good at setting-up objectives and targets that have hardly been met. Now, Europe should go beyond policy co-ordination to real delivery using impactful initiatives. The European Institute of Innovation and Technology, EIT, is one such initiative. Their Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) are test beds for a new kind of collaborative, entrepreneurial approach".

To watch a clip of Dr Schuurman's intervention, please follow this link.

For more information about the Lisbon Council, please visit their website.

* Please note that the EIT is not responsible for content of external websites and assumes no responsibility or liability with regard to these.

Following hearings with the six shortlisted candidates (two from each priority area), the Governing Board designated the first three KICs:

Climate change mitigation and adaptation: Climate-KIC

Sustainable energy: KIC InnoEnergy

Future information and communication society: EIT ICT Labs

Statement from Dr. Martin Schuurmans - Chairman of the EIT Governing Board:

"Today is a great day for innovation in Europe. With the selection of the first three Knowledge and Innovation Communities, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology marks the starting point of a new approach to innovation and knowledge sharing. The KICs will be our test-beds for an entirely new type of collaborations across the innovation web, bringing together our most excellent resources from higher education, research, business and entrepreneurship. Through the KICs we want to generate real impact in terms of new business creation, entrepreneurship and societal benefit.

Over the past months, universities, research centres, technology transfer organisations, big industry and smaller businesses have come together – in a probably unprecedented manner – to present their proposals for the first KICs. In the Governing Board we were extremely impressed with the response to the call for KICs, as the proposals showed a high level of commitment from stakeholders across Europe and from all over the innovation web. The firm interest in the opportunities offered by the EIT and its KICs across the three priority areas of the call – climate change mitigation and adaptation, sustainable energy and future information and communication society – also proofs to us that there is a real need and a real momentum for this initiative.

When selecting the first KICs, our overriding criteria for our decision were leadership and excellence. The KICs' ultimate real-life success and impact will clearly depend on a number of key elements: co-locating people from across the innovation chain to work closely together, clear leadership and a 'can do' approach, as well as entrepreneurship and a real commitment from the private sector.

Today's decision is only the starting point of our common effort to turn the KICs into a true success for Europe and its citizens. It is now our foremost task in the EIT to get the KICs energised by mid next year and to immediately start a substantial learning process based on the wealth of knowledge and good ideas that has been put into all the proposals.

The EIT will help the KICs launch their activities immediately. We must get down to action now. Let us shape Europe’s innovation future together."

For further information about the selected KICs, see also the official EU press release.

For further information about the press conference, click here.

For further information about the EIT and the KICs, please refer to the EIT FAQs and to the KIC FAQs.

Please do not attempt to contact members of the EIT support staff or the EIT Governing Board for more details during the selection procedure as no further information will be available prior to the announcement of the designated 2 or 3 KICs.

The Director will play a key role in guiding the EIT and its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) towards full operationality, and will be responsible for the daily management of the EIT headquarters in Budapest.

Martin Schuurmans, Chairman of the EIT Governing Board says he is very confident that the EIT will set up a modern, flexible and service-oriented support structure under the leadership of Mr. de Nazelle.

Gérard de Nazelle, a French citizen, holds an engineering degree from ENSIC (France) and a PhD in physics from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands). He joined Shell in 1990 and was Global Manager Innovation & Research, responsible for the development of new technology options and clean energy futures.

Please find the full press release (EN, FR) here.

draft rolling Triennial Work Programme

The Governing has also adopted its 2008 Annual Report, outlinining the EIT's main achievements and activities of 2008.

The draft rolling Triennial Work Programme in all official languages can be found here.

More than 165 participants from Europe and beyond met with the Executive Committee of the EIT Governing Board (Martin Schuurmans (Chairman), Giovanni Colombo, Anders Flodström, Daria Golebiowska-Tataj, and Yrjö Neuvo) to get a comprehensive run-through of the requirements and selection criteria for the first two to three KICs, which are to be designated by the end of 2009.

The full presentation can be found here.

Daria Golebiowska-Tataj, member of the EIT Governing Board's Executive Committee and organiser of the seminar, stressed the importance of entrepreneurship for the success of the EIT: "innovative European entrepreneurs are a major output of every KIC". This view was very much shared by panellists and speakers, who insisted that heterogeneity and co-location were crucial if the KICs were to create a fertile breeding ground for entrepreneurship.

More information on the seminar, including presentations and speakers' profiles can be found here.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, President Barroso highlighted the milestones the EIT Governing Board has achieved since its inauguration on 15th September 2008. He said that in spite of pessimistic voices when the initiative was first proposed, "the EIT is today a promising reality". He was very encouraged by the EIT Governing Board's commitment and congratulated them for having acted swiftly to set up the selection process for the Knowledge and Innovation Communities.

President Barroso also emphasised the role of the EIT in the EU's road to recovery from the current economic crisis, saying the EIT had the potential to be a powerful new driver of sustainable growth and competitiveness in Europe: "Its Knowledge and Innovation Communities are a concrete example of the type of action we need." He confirmed his commitment to ensuring the EIT's success in the future, in particular through further encouraging active business participation in the EIT and efforts to allocate additional budgetary resources to the EIT.

Martin Schuurmans, Chairman of the EIT Governing Board, underlined that the EIT was a new concept – even an experiment – that should help Europe "to move away from being perceived as low in innovation and instead embrace its innovation potential".

KICs will drive effective new interactions between partners in terms of ideas, technology, culture, business and design models. They will create new business for existing industry, including SMEs, and for new endeavours alike. A strong component of KICs' innovation strategies will be to educate and develop entrepreneurial people working across traditional borders, sectors and disciplines.

Launching the call for proposals for the KICs consists of a major step forward for the EIT. The call will be open until 27 August and the first two or three KICs selected by the end of 2009.

Further Information: 

link to Official Commission Press Release

KICs page

Each seminar generated much interest from across Europe and beyond, with representatives from business, entrepreneurship, government, higher education, research and technology transfer – reflecting the EIT's objective of bringing together all parts of the innovation web.

The seminars not only generated fruitful discussions, but also provided interested parties with an opportunity for networking and partnering activities in view of the formation of future KICs.

For further information on the thematic seminars, please visit the EVENTS section of the website.

KIC Selection Criteria

The detailed call for proposals is expected to be published in the Official Journal of the European Union in early April and will equally be available through the EIT website.

The EIT presentation will provide background information on the concepts referred to in the selection criteria.

COLOMBO Giovanni Adjunct Professor, Politecnico di Torino. Former CTO, Telecom Italia LAB and Head of long-term research, Telecom Italia

FLODSTRÖM Anders, Dr. University Chancellor, Swedish National Agency for Higher Education

GOŁĘBIOWSKA-TATAJ Daria, Dr. Founder and Managing Partner, EMF (Enterprise Management & Finance) Consultancy Professor/Researcher, Warsaw University of Technology Business School

NEUVO Yrjö, Dr. Professor, Research director, Helsinki University of Technology Former Chairman, ARTEMIS Joint Technology Platform Former CTO, Nokia

Short biographies: Europa Press Release (IP/08/1220)

Prof. Dr. Martin Schuurmans has been elected Chairman of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology's (EIT) Governing Board. In their constituent meeting, held on 15 September 2008 in Budapest, the Governing Board Members unanimously elected the Professor of Physics and former Executive Vice President of Philips Research to head the EIT's independent decision-making body.

While explaining the significance of the inaugural Governing Board meeting, Prof. Schuurmans said "I think I have never seen a group of people which has such a collective wisdom in so many fields of innovation." He added "Let's make sure that in the next two to three years we have at least two successful KICs, successful in innovation and successful in education."

Short biography

The inaugural Board meeting has already been set for 15th September in Budapest and the Board's first major task will be the selection and launching of the first 2-3 Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) by the end of 2009 / start of 2010.

See also: Europa Press Release (IP/08/1220), including short biographies of the Board members.

The discussions on the location of the EIT headquarters clearly reflected the genuine interest and strong mobilisation of national, regional and local authorities across the Union in support of the EIT.

The Committee is expected to decide on the names of the 18 members of the EIT's first Governing Board by June 2008.

Nota bene: please note that, due to timing constraints, no further applications can be accepted.

Taking into account these proposals, the Identification Committee has produced a final set of selection criteria.

During the second phase, relevant organisations are invited to propose candidates as future members of the Governing Board, bearing in mind the revised selection criteria.

Please note that the closing date for submissions is Friday 25th April 2008.  

The Regulation will enter into force at the end of April.

Further information:

Regulation (EC) No 294/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2008 establishing the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.