EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) receive positive reviews
EITThe EIT Community is home to nine Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) – public and private partnerships that house over 2 400 partners, from research, academia and business.
EIT’s Knowledge and Innovation Communities are instrumental in leveraging their network and expertise to solve pressing global challenges in the areas of climate, cultural heritage, digtialisation, energy, food, health, raw materials, manufacturing, and urban mobility,
An independent review recently carried out on five KICs, have noted many success for the innovation communities. Among other things, how the KICs contribute to the EU’s sustainability goals, have established innovation ecosystems of their own across Europe, and have introduced gender-sensitive measures.
Among the improvements to be made, the consultants recommend that one or two KICs might review how revenue is generated, consider differing options on how to retain and attract partners, and continue to ensure their calls remain open.
The EIT Regulation requires the EIT to organise continuous monitoring and periodic external evaluations of each KIC. This includes their progress towards financial sustainability, cost-efficiency, openness to new members, results and impact. All of the reviews described below were carried out by independent consultants and provide an assessment of their progress. In the case of the three-year reviews, the independent consultants also provide recommendations for improvement.
EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Digital and EIT InnoEnergy form the EIT’s first-wave of KICs. 2024 marks 15 years of supported for the first three KICs.
EIT Climate-KIC was established to address climate change mitigation and adaptation, notably to accelerate the transition towards a decarbonised and resilient society through innovation. EIT Climate-KIC has become the world’s largest climate-focused acceleration programme, gathering around 450 partners and incubating over 2 100 climate-positive companies, attracting over EUR 2 billion in capital and creating more than 15 000 jobs.
Read the EIT Climate-KIC report here
EIT Digital was set up to bridge the gap between research and innovation to develop products, services and businesses that will increase Europe’s digital competitiveness and quality of life. With more than 440 key partners, EIT Digital represents the largest digital innovation ecosystem in Europe. It has supported over 2 900 students with the development of their digital knowledge and skills, launched more than 415 products and services, formed more than 265 ventures, and helped more than 455 start-ups grow internationally.
Read the EIT Digital report here
EIT InnoEnergy was created to connect people and resources across the world to accelerate the energy transition in Europe. Over the past years, it has transformed into the largest sustainable energy innovation in the world. Its network comprises over 1 200 partners, it invested around EUR 690 million in 500 sustainable energy innovations and more than 1 600 graduates accomplished its Master programmes. Furthermore, EIT InnoEnergy is leading the transition towards a carbon-neutral Europe by 2050 in strategic industrial sectors: green hydrogen, battery storage and solar photovoltaics.
Read the EIT InnoEnergy report here:
Three years on, two of the EIT’s newest KICs have also been reviewed.
The reviews of EIT Manufacturing and EIT Urban Mobility cover both KICs’ first three years of operations.
EIT Manufacturing was established in 2019 to connect manufacturing actors across Europe, including industry partners, academics and research institutions, with the intention to lead manufacturing innovation globally. EIT Manufacturing’s vision is for Europe to lead Global Manufacturing Innovation. EIT Manufacturing strives to accelerate faster innovation to safeguard Europe’s strong competitive position.
Read the EIT Manufacturing report here
EIT Urban Mobility was also established in 2019 and has the main goal of facilitating innovation in the urban mobility sector. EIT Urban Mobility focuses on cooperating with partners from higher education and industry to develop innovative solutions in cities tackling urban mobility problems by increasing the efficiency of transporting people, goods, waste in innovative ways, and thus creating liveable urban spaces.
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