European Institute of Innovation and Technology

KIC InnoEnergy launches EcoEmprendedor XXI Contest in Barcelona

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 14:36:00 +0100

The second edition of the contest EcoEmprendedor XXI, an entrepreneurship program focused on cleantech ventures, was launched last month in Barcelona. In this new edition, KIC InnoEnergy will be active part of the organisation and one of the sponsoring institutions.

Participants will compete for the EcoEmprendedor XXI award valued at 35,000 euros. The award includes cash, training activities, business incubation and support for internationalization. From the 13 projects of the first edition, 10 have incorporated a company and 3 have won other industry awards.

Website (in Spanish)

Launch of the Climate-KIC Alumni Association

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:07:00 +0100

More than fifty alumni, students and Pioneers into Practice (PiPs) gathered in Wageningen on 14-15 January to launch the Alumni Association in the presence of Climate-KIC and EIT representatives. During a fruitful and energetic weekend the first official Climate-KIC alumni board was formed.

Mary Ritter, the Climate-KIC CEO, described the alumni association as an "important and highly innovative project". In particular, she highlighted the process to become a legal entity and to become affiliate partner in Climate-KIC.

Host your event at the EIT Headquarters: call is open – apply now!

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:31:00 +0100

Call for Ideas/Participation in Knowledge Sharing at the EIT Headquarters

The EIT is launching a call for participation in knowledge sharing by hosting conferences, seminars, workshops etc at its headquarters in Budapest.

The EIT will provide you with a meeting platform. You organise, we facilitate!

This is another step in getting together the wider community of EIT’s stakeholders.

What does the EIT offer?

meeting space with technical facilities for up to a maximum of 50 attendees per event
usage of the EIT logo;
online promotion of the event via EIT channels (including website and social media);
ex-post online dissemination of the events’ results and findings including the EIT and KICs web pages, etc.

Furthermore the EIT might provide catering services to the meeting subject to prior agreement.

How to?

This is a running call. One can always submit an application. The pilot phase ends on 31 December 2012.

Apply here

KIC InnoEnergy students selected for the Hult Global Case Challenge

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:54:00 +0100

The Hult Global Case Challenge announced a students team from KIC InnoEnergy (one of the EIT's Knowledge and Innovation Communities) has been accepted and will compete in the 3rd Annual Hult Global Case Challenge (Hult GCC) – an initiative that brings together top students from all over the globe to generate solutions to the world's most pressing social challenges.

The 2012 Hult Global Case Challenge will focus on breaking the cycle of global poverty through developing sustainable solutions that will provide affordable housing, affordable energy, and affordable education to the bottom of the pyramid. USD 1 million in seed capital is made available annually to provide funding to pilot the very best ideas.

Each team selected was chosen from more than 4,000 applications received. Most colleges and universities had multiple team applicants with one or two teams from each school being chosen.

The Hult GCC regional competitions will take place on February 24-25, 2012 on Hult International Business School’s five campuses in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai and Shanghai. KIC InnoEnergy's team will compete in London.

About KIC InnoEnergy's team

EIT's KIC InnoEnergy’s team members include:

Eduardo M. Appleyard - Team Captain - from Canada/Argentina
Francesco Fuso-Nerini from Milano Italy
Vincenzo Capogna from Rome, Italy
Oisin Tummon from South Africa
Eric Bowler from Chicago, USA

They were all enrolled in KIC InnoEnergy's Master SELECT.

The objective of the team is to find a solution for Solaraid a UK based NGO for the mass implementation of micro solar products in Africa.

The team

To learn more about the Hult Global Case Challenge, please visit the Hult GCC website, or follow it on Facebook and Twitter.

Administrative announcement: cancellation of call for independent experts (2009)

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 11:31:00 +0100

For administrative reasons the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has to cancel and close the call for expression of interest for the establishment of a database of independent experts published in 2009. Please be informed that the experts’ database will be cancelled and closed by 31 January 2012.

We would like to assure you that the personal data of the experts included in the database was processed pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data. In case you have queries concerning the processing of your personal data, please address them to the EIT’s Data Protection Officer: EIT-DPO@eit.europa.eu.

Please note that in the future the EIT may appoint experts from the European Commission’s databases and/or from the shortlists established inter alia by DG Research and Innovation (more information) and DG Education and Culture.

We thank you for your interest in working for the EIT as an expert and strongly encourage you to register in the European Commission’s experts’ databases. We are looking forward for future collaboration with you.

EIT Krakow conference (October '11): Videos online!

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 14:57:00 +0100

The films of the EIT Youth & Entrepreneurship conference have been released.

View the YouTube playlist

View the videos in the Storify of the conference

For any personal request regarding these videos, please contact EIT-conference@eit.europa.eu

EIT awards: A Dutch spin-out wants to see solar panels everywhere

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:17:00 +0100

Two Delft graduates, named as EIT Awards finalists by the Climate-KIC, are working at Schiphol airport to develop lightweight, flexible solar panel supports.

Thomas de Leeuw and Jan van Kranendonk, who both graduated in December 2011 with a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Delft University of Technology, were far more ambitious than most students. During their studies they founded the solar energy company Sunuru, wrote their respective Masters theses on the commercial and technical feasibility of Sunuru, and secured a Dutch patent for their product.

Read the full entry on eitawards.eu

EIT awards: with Blaast, a smartphone is just a Blaast away

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:14:00 +0100

Finnish start-up Blaast, nominated for an EIT Award by the ICT KIC, has an 'app' to make your phone a smartphone.

The main aim of Blaast is to bring mobile applications and a smartphone user experience to people who don't own top-of-the-range phones. With Blaast, the "apps" run in a cloud computing environment - on remote computer servers connected to the phones, rather than on the devices themselves.

Read the full entry on eitawards.eu

Master students: write your Master Thesis with EIT!

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:18:00 +0100

ELIGIBILITY AND SELECTION

- In order to be eligible for this scheme you must be currently enrolled in a Masters Programme offered by one of the universities or Higher Education institutes that is a partner of one of the EIT’s KICs. See the list of partner universities.

- Your thesis should be drafted in English language (EIT's official working language) or translated into English from your original language. The EIT can not cover the translation costs.

More info

EIT awards finalist: Ennesys wants to cover your building in algae

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:06:00 +0100

Here's a new approach to bio-energy: Flat panels of algae growing on the side of an office building. That's the vision of a French start-up named as an EIT Awards finalist by the Climate-KIC.

It's hard to imagine that tiny algae could generate enough energy to heat a building, reduce carbon dioxide emissions and clean wastewater. Yet at Ennesys, founded in January 2010 by entrepreneurs Jean-Louis Kindler and Pierre Tauzinat, the technology is being developed to do just that.

Read the full entry on eitawards.eu

Photo: Jean-Louis Kindler, co-founder of Ennesys

Memo to entrepreneurs: location counts if you want to start a business

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:27:00 +0100

Was one of your New Year's resolutions to finally start your own business? If so, there's growing evidence that suggests at least three things matter a lot: location, location and location.

A broad set of international data compiled and analysed recently by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based policy research organisation, shows huge variation from one country to another in the business of starting a business, even within Europe. Public attitudes, paperwork requirements, supply of capital, the dynamics in each sector - all show perplexing variation, and can make it easy or hard to get your venture going.

Read this entry on eitawards.eu

EIT awards finalist: Think CO2 wants to build your ideal 21st century home

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:12:00 +0100

Mobile, pre-fab and sustainable – that's what the modern dwelling needs to be, says a Spanish start-up named as an EIT Awards finalist by KIC InnoEnergy.

Rosa Vilarasau was approaching her 40th birthday when she decided she had had enough of working for a Spanish confectionary company. "If I'm going to do something on my own, it has to be now," she recalls thinking to herself.

So she contacted a university friend, Pol Guiu, and they started throwing venture ideas around. They finally hit on one that chimed with them both: designing the perfect 21st century house. What's that? In their view, it's a sustainable, mobile home, NOEM.

Read this entry on eitawards.eu

Photos: Rosa Vilarasau, Think CO2 / NOEM sustainable house

EIT awards finalist: Heliocaminus wants to see a solar collector on every roof

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 14:40:00 +0100

Why can't solar panels be easier, better and - well, prettier? A Swedish start-up, named an EIT Awards finalist by KIC Innoenergy, is developing new panels with the homeowner in mind.

Erik Hindrikes and Viktor Ölén met each other on their first day at university in Sweden. At the time there was little to suggest they might one day be business partners. But in the summer of 2010, during a university reunion weekend, Hindrikes recalls his friend saying to him: "I want to start a business. How about it?"

Article by Anna Jenkinson, Science|Business.

Read the full version on eitawards.eu

Photo: Erik Hindrikes, co-founder, Heliocaminus

EIT Budapest is searching for talents!

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:43:00 +0100

The EIT is looking to recruit five new members of staff to join its headquarters in Budapest, Hungary.

The five posts currently open until 31st January are:

Head of Unit for the Intelligence Unit
Seconded National Expert (SNE) for Grant Simplification Management
Seconded National Expert (SNE) for New Innovation Funding Instruments
Seconded National Expert (SNE) for Knowledge Triangle Policies
Seconded National Expert (SNE) for Knowledge Triangle Good Practice

For more information on these posts and information on how to apply, visit our Careers page.

7 tips if you want to start your own company, by Richard L. Hudson

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:24:00 +0100

Richard L. Hudson is CEO and Editor of Science|Business.

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The economic news is grim these days. But so what? If you have a dream to start a company, just do it anyway - or so say some experts that the EIT invited to discuss the do's and don'ts of starting a business.

"Don't let the environment of the economy stop you; just do it now," said Bruno Claude, a Belgian entrepreneur and former CEO of Swiss Cablecom. "There's a lot of risk in being an entrepreneur. When you're young you can pick up the pieces and move on. So don't wait."

That advice, from one of the international cable-telecommunications industry's most successful entrepreneurs, was among several tips offered at the EIT entrepreneurship conference organized in Krakow Oct. 21-22. Promoting entrepreneurship is central to the EIT's mission - and is also why it recently launched its first EIT Awards contest. For that, nine start-ups have been nominated for three prizes, to be awarded at a conference and awards ceremony on 21 February in Brussels.

Read the 7 top tips to become a successful entrepreneur

EIT awards finalists: Trifense fights the unknown cyber-threats

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:57:00 +0100

The Berlin spin-out Trifense, named as an EIT Awards finalist, takes a new approach to providing cyber security - and starts to gain traction in the market.

Protecting a company or organisation against known cyber-security threats is one thing; protecting them against unknown cyber-threats is quite another. But that is exactly the goal of Trifense, a Technical University of Berlin spin-out named as an EIT ICT Labs finalist for the EIT Awards.

“It is crucial for governments, operators of critical infrastructures such as utilities, and companies in all sorts of sectors from financial services to healthcare to be able to detect such risks and protect themselves against them,” said Trifense Managing Director and Co-founder Patrick Duessel. “A modern society can be vulnerable to pretty huge threats. Our technology can address this appropriately.”

Read the news by Anna Jenkinson, Science|Business on eitawards.eu

Photo: Patrick Duessel, Managing Director and Co-founder, Trifense.

EIT awards finalists: Smart Signs helps you find your way

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:50:00 +0100

Ever get lost in a building? Maria Lijding wants to sell you some computerised signs so that never happens again. Her company, Smart Signs Solutions, is developing personalised signage that can point the way for each visitor in a business, hospital or other big building. And it is one of three finalists from the EIT ICT Labs KIC, competing for the EIT Award.

Trento becomes EIT ICT Labs' sixth co-location

Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:32:00 +0100

As of January 1, 2012 Trento is a fully committed co-location centre of EIT ICT Labs, the Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) for ICT, initiated by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT).

The Trento co-location centre focuses on leveraging ICT for Quality of Life. Located in the FBK Research complex in Povo, Trento, in front of Trento Technical University, it is close to its core partners: Engineering, Telecom Italia and TrentoRise.

The location is at the core of the Trentino Region, an area rich in communications infrastructures and bristling with innovative companies (it is sometimes referred to as Semantic Valley). The co-location centre provides a common showcase for innovation and projects - both those conducted on site and for those conducted in other parts of Italy by its affiliated partners, such as Centro Ricerca FIAT (CRF) and STMicroelectronics. Other affiliated Partners with activities all over Italy are; in Lombardy (Polimi), Piedmont (Polito), Emilia Romagna (Università di Bologna) and Tuscany (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna).

The Trento Node is active in all parts of the Knowledge Triangle - Education, Research and Business Innovation and in all present thematic action lines of EIT ICT Labs: Digital Cities, Smart Spaces, Smart Energy Systems, Intelligent Mobility and Transportation Systems, Healthcare & Wellbeing and Future Media & Content Delivery. The co-location centre strategy is to become the hub for all trials and experimentations going on in the Trentino territory, thus providing a single holistic view on how ICT can contribute to increase the quality of life.

Trento Node core partners:

Telecom Italia (industrial partner)
Engineering (industrial partner)
Trento RISE (academic partner)

Trento Node affiliate partners:

Centro Ricerca FIAT (CRF)

STMicroelectronics
Politecnico di Milano
Politecnico di Torino
Università di Bologna
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna di Pisa

For more information: eit.ictlabs.eu

EIT ICT Labs Master School: apply online

Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:05:00 +0100

In the fall of 2012 EIT ICT Labs Master School will be able to welcome its first students (approximately 200).

The KIC launched the Master School's website where you can find all information about the various choices of our Master's programmes in ICT Innovation that are offered in different combinations at almost 20 universities in Europe.

Visit the website to also find out more about how it combines a technical major and a minor in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, providing graduates with double degrees and a special EIT and EIT ICT Labs certificate.

Students who will take the chance and fullfill the programme will gain a fantastic network of exclusive contacts with leading research and business organisations and fellow students all over Europe.

The application period opens on January 1 and closes on February 15.

EIT ICT Labs Master School's website

More information about EIT ICT Labs

The EIT to set up new KICs!

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 12:43:00 +0100

The EIT brings together excellent higher education institutions, research centres and businesses with a view to tackling major societal challenges in an innovative way, its Knowledge and Innovation Communities and the Commission plans to set up the new KICs in two phases:

• The first wave, to be set up in 2014, will have the following themes: innovation for healthy living and active ageing (improving the quality of life and well-being of citizens of all ages); food4future (sustainable food supply chain, from farm to fork); raw materials (sustainable exploration, extraction, processing, recycling and substitution of raw materials).

• The next wave of KICs, to be established in 2018, will focus on: added value manufacturing (developing more competitive, sustainable and environmentally-friendly manufacturing processes); smart secure societies (addressing Europe's security gaps through the development and deployment of innovative ICT solutions); and urban mobility (delivering a greener, more inclusive, safer and smarter urban mobility system).

The SIA is based on a first SIA draft from the EIT Governing Board submitted to the European Commission on 15 June 2011, in conformity with the requirements of the EIT Regulation. It also builds on the results of an independent evaluation of the EIT's initial period as well as on a consultation process open to all those having a current or potential stake in the EIT's activities, including businesses, higher education institutions, and research organisations, as well as national and regional authorities.

The EIT will strongly contribute to the objectives set out in Horizon 2020, in particular by addressing societal challenges in a complementary way to other initiatives in these areas. The Commission proposal for Horizon 2020 will now be discussed by the Council and the European Parliament, with a view to adopt the proposals before the end of 2013.

European Commission Press Release European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) to create more innovation hubs

European Commission Press ReleaseHorizon 2020: Commission proposes €80 billion investment in research and innovation, to boost growth and jobs