Reflections on the EIT

By Alexander von Gabain – Chairman of the EIT Governing Board

Alexander von Gabain - Chairman of the EIT Governing Board (center) and Jose Manuel Leceta - EIT Director (right)
In the world of innovation, many things can happen over the course of a year. Ideas can be born, companies can be set up or equally disappear, careers can take new and different directions, daring solutions can be found, and bold decisions may even be taken in the direction of setting up new ventures. This was indeed the case for the EIT and its three ‘innovation factories’ (KICs – Knowledge and Innovation Communities): Climate-KIC, EIT ICT Labs and KIC InnoEnergy.
It is heartening for me to see the progress that our three innovation factories have made during 2012, but also the team at the EIT headquarters in Budapest with its director, Jose Manuel Leceta at the helm, orchestrating the evolution of the KICs and the supportive function in this process of the Governing Board and the colleagues at our Commission directorate. We all take great pride in the impact and results they have achieved this year, and I would like to congratulate their management teams led by Mary Ritter (Climate-KIC CEO), Willem Jonker (EIT ICT Labs CEO) and Diego Pavia (KIC InnoEnergy CEO). It is crucial that the KICs create value and produce tangible results as they have proven in the short period of their existence. Each KIC of course creates value independently, but most of all together, as it is only through a joint effort that we can have a true impact and shake awake the ‘Sleeping Beauty’ – Europe’s unlocked innovation potential. Examples such as the newly created master programme of EIT ICT Labs, based on the collaboration of 19 leading European universities and businesses in the field; the start-up company Naked Energy fostered by Climate-KIC shining of the enthusiasm of its creators; the students of KIC InnoEnergy achieving second place, worldwide, at the HULT Global Challenge venture competition, are just a few of many early successes the KICs achieved during 2012. Most of all, uniting a growing number of partners and geographically spread innovation hot-spots under one umbrella to embrace innovations in the thematic fields they each represent.
For a very concrete and visual area of development, we can take a look at the KICs’ 17 co-location centres. We can indeed walk into these buildings, meet entrepreneurs and students in the corridors, eavesdrop on meetings with lively discussions and the latest IT technologies to connect with other co-location centres across the EU. During the course of the past year, I had the occasion to visit a number of these co-location centres and have seen said centres thrive to become real innovation hotspots by bringing together highly motivated, dedicated and creative people. The development of these centres into bustling centres where students and partners come together to discuss projects, innovative solutions and business ideas and incubators nest start-ups to eventually integrate them into the local eco-systems. While all three KICs are united in their overall objectives, they have each found their own, individually most promising path to lead them there.
Speaking of entrepreneurs, 2012 saw the first edition of the EIT Entrepreneurship Awards. In its first instance, these EIT Awards highlighted and encouraged the best start-ups emerging from the KICs. Naked Energy, Trifense and Noem working in the field of climate change, ICT and sustainable energy respectively were selected as the first winners of the EIT entrepreneurship award. Encouraging entrepreneurship is a key element of the EIT's mission and so the first EIT Entrepreneurship Awards put the spotlight on the most promising ventures that have emerged from each of our three KICs. I was extremely impressed with the nine ventures that pitched for the EIT Awards and was delighted to see such dedicated and committed entrepreneurs already emerging from our innovation factories (KICs).
2012 also brought some exciting developments in the field of entrepreneurial education with the first graduate students emerging from the KICs’ education programmes with new Master and PhD schemes set up in their partner universities throughout Europe. In parallel, work continued, with the participation of experts, EIT Governing Board members, KIC representatives and of course EIT staff to define and approve the characteristics and specific learning outcomes of the EIT labelled degrees. The ‘EIT label’ stands for those education programmes that, next to scientific excellence, put a special emphasis on enabling their students to be effective entrepreneurs, introducing element of inter-sectorial and international mobility in their programmes and creating conditions for the students’ creativity to gain ground.
The EIT also showcased its and the KICs’ first achievements and results as well as increased understanding of how they can help advance innovation in Europe by organising a conference on good practices and lessons learnt in Copenhagen in June. In this context, the EIT published its first publication on practices emerging from its three current Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) called Catalysing Innovation in the Knowledge Triangle. Then in November, the Cypriot Presidency of the Council of the EU organised a stakeholders conference where the discussion on certain aspects of the potential themes and characteristics of future KICs already started. Whilst negotiations on the future of the EIT in the European Parliament and Council are still on-going, the intention of the European Commission is clear: there is great support for innovation and the EIT, its model and concept as well as the early results already emerging from the KICs. There is a strong belief that creating more KICs in additional areas of societal importance will contribute to the enhancement of Europe’s innovation capacity. I am very much looking forward to the preparations next year that will lead to the future wave of KICs, and equally to continuing the journey already started engaging more actively with the EIT community.
Last but not least, in September, the EIT welcomed the newly appointed members of its Governing Board, but also the consulting Round Table of Entrepreneurs. Two thirds (i.e. 12) of Governing Board members appointed in 2008 were replaced while six members , including myself, stay on for an additional two-year period.
The upcoming year is crucial for the EIT: we have to consolidate our current three KICs as well as prepare for further KICs joining the family so I am very pleased our Board is so dynamic and engaged! It has become apparent that the EIT has come a long way, since its operative implementation in the autumn of 2008. The more the Governing Board and the Headquarters are eager to prove that the EIT approach to unifying the knowledge triangle under the umbrella of entrepreneurship, coded by accountability and ownership will push the innovation agenda in Europe onwards and upwards. Towards this destination, 2013 promises to become another very exciting year for the EIT and our KICs.
Alexander von Gabain
Chairman of the EIT Governing Board