EIT launches its first Entrepreneurship awards

As a driver and key element in combining the different areas of the knowledge triangle and in developing new innovation models, entrepreneurship is at the very heart of the EIT vision and activities. Boosting and encouraging individuals and companies to embrace innovation and take it to the market is among the EIT’s top priorities. As such, the EIT is pleased to announce its first EIT Entrepreneurship Award competition which it is organising in close collaboration with its three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs): Climate-KIC, EIT ICT Labs and KIC InnoEnergy.

The 2012 Entrepreneurship Awards will put the spotlight on and encourage entrepreneurial ventures within the Knowledge and Innovation Communities thematic areas (climate change adaptation and mitigation, the future of information and communication society and sustainable energy) and help them develop in a successful and sustainable way.

“Mentoring is key for emerging companies. The connection to powerful executives in European industry will give credibility to entrepreneurs. It will hopefully help them get access to new clients, markets and to think big! This is how the EIT wants to leverage its network and help expand companies, which were born in KICs: born-to-be-global” says Daria Tataj, Member of the EIT’s Governing Board’s Executive Committee.

The selection of the nominated ventures is driven by the three KICs and each KIC will put forward three ventures that will be invited to do a business pitch at a high-level conference, where the three EIT Entrepreneurship Award winners will be selected. The finalists will be given the opportunity to attend a training course on how to successfully present their businesses and will also be given the opportunity to meet with leading entrepreneurs who will provide them with guidance on how to prepare for the scaling up of their businesses.

The high-level conference where the three winners of the EIT Entrepreneurship awards will be selected, is the EIT Entrepreneurship Awards 2012 / ACES Academic Enterprise Awards and Conference organised in cooperation with Science|Business, that will be taking place in Brussels on 21 February 2012. The ACES awards, now in their fourth year, are a separate contest open to all university spin-outs across Europe, and are judged by the Science|Business Innovation Board AISBL, a Belgian non-profit association to promote innovation in Europe.

To give the opportunity to meet the finalists for the 2012 EIT Entrepreneurship Awards prior to the competition in February 2012, more information on the nine ventures selected by the three KICs will follow soon.

Find more information about Climate-KIC entrepreneurship, EIT ICT Labs entrepreneurship and KIC InnoEnergy entrepreneurship

Download the full press release (PDF)