EIT Acting Director Dr Ronald de Bruin and the KIC CEOs at the European Parliament
The European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) invited the EIT Headquarters and the three KIC CEOs to discuss state of play and simplification of rules for seed financing of the KICs.
During his intervention, the EIT Acting Director, Dr Ronald de Bruin stressed the importance of the EIT becoming the catalyst for a step change within the EU's innovation capacity and of acting as an icebreaker in the European innovation landscape. He recalled that none of what the EIT has realised thus far has ever been achieved on a European scale before.
The EIT currently follows three strategic main strands: building up the EIT and the KICs by further development of the Headquarters and the KIC Co-location Centres as hotspots driving innovation effectiveness; development of entrepreneurship education within KIC higher education institutions, sealed and branded with an EIT label; keeping a continuous focus on business creation leading to new products and services for existing industry as well as new businesses inclusing SMEs.
The EIT needs to maintain and further develop its independent role in acting as an entrepreneurially driven European impact institute.
The KIC CEOs, Prof. Mary Ritter (Climate-KIC), Diego Pavia (KIC InnoEnergy), and Prof. Willem Jonker (EIT ICT Labs) outlined the concept and the objectives of their respective KICs highlighting their specific added value for excellence driven innovation, for entrepreneurial education and for European cohesion.
Presentations were followed by a discussion and exchange of views with Members of the European Parliament who acknowledged the EIT's achievements to date, in particular its learning by doing approach combined with a result focused performance measurement. Members of the ITRE Committee reiterated the need for the EIT to remain lean and flexible in order to fully assume its role as an engaged investor.
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