EIT Label - Call for Applications 2023

The EIT is welcoming applications from Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) for Degree Programmes (Masters, Doctoral), Non-Degree education and Fellowship schemes to be awarded the EIT Label.

One of the EIT's unique features is to integrate entrepreneurial education into the Europe’s innovation ecosystem. The EIT champions education and training activities that have strong entrepreneurship components in order to train the next generation of talents and learners. 

Its Degree Programmes at Master’s and PhD levels combine technical and business courses and equip students with creativity,  innovation and and entrepreneurship skills. The EIT Label model as a certificate of quality is only awarded to excellent educational programmes that focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, creativity, and leadership and are based on the knowledge triangle paradigm - the integration of business, education and research.

The EIT Fellowships are KIC-specific schemes that equip learners with a similar experience and learning outcomes as the EIT-Labelled Degree Programmes while enabling individual learning pathways including recognition of prior learning. In practice, EIT Fellowships are focused on schemes of shorter duration than Degree Programmes. The Fellowship may include inter-sectoral and cross-organisational mobility and/or an opportunity to attend an EIT Labelled Summer/ Winter School which focus on solving societal challenges on the KIC thematic area and developing and putting ideas into action through entrepreneurial competencies.

In addition to Degree and Fellowship Programmes, EIT’s education and training offer comprises a rich portfolio of professional (non-degree) education, based on partnerships between universities and other education providers, companies, public bodies, NGOs, and research centres that collaborate closely to offer leading-edge hands-on education and training in innovation and entrepreneurship.

The information below outlines the main characteristics of the process for preparation, submission, evaluation, and selection of proposals in response to the 2023 assessment call launched by the EIT for awarding the EIT Label to all three segments.

The basis for awarding the EIT Label

All submitted applications shall comply with the provisions and requirements set by the EIT Label Handbooks and the QALE system:

• EIT Label Handbook for Degree Programmes
• EIT Label Handbook for Fellowship schemes
• EIT Label Handbook for Non-Degree Education

The EIT quality indicators and quality requirements

The EIT QALE system is based on a set of quality indicators (Qi1-Qi4), divided into different assessment fields, that – with minor adaptations – apply to all Programme types.

• Only two indicators – Qi1 and Qi2 – are used for the labelling of new programmes.
• The first quality indicator (Qi1) differs in that it addresses a number of compulsory requirements on a yes/no basis whereas the quality indicator Qi2, is evaluated on a four-grade scale.

The transition of the existing Degree (Masters / Doctoral) programmes due for relabelling to the new model

All existing EIT Label Degree Programmes at Master’s and Doctoral level (awarded the EIT Label before 2021 which have limited duration) are required to submit the application to receive the new Label upon the expiry of the existing award as follows:

• Standard full application as laid down in the new EIT Label Handbook, following the templates for Quality indicator 1 – Compulsory requirements and Quality indicator 2 – Qualitative requirements.
• Report on past performance following the transition templates Oi3 (the results) and Qi4 (stakeholder experiences) – for links see below.

Please note, that if the programmes due for relabelling have less than 30 graduates four months prior to the deadline for submitting the application, they shall submit in this round only Qi1 and Qi2 (according to the new model) and the transition templates Qi3 and Qi4 in the following year or in the year when they reach 30 graduates.

Submission of applications: general rules

Registrations and proposals can be submitted through the designated Innovation Community's Single Point of contact (S.P.O.C.).

1. It is suggested to applicants to register the intention to submit a proposal and contact Innovation Community staff prior to submitting their application, to receive further advice.
2. Each application must be submitted online, and a link will be provided at a later stage.
3. Each application must consists of:
   • applicant details
   • a fact sheet for communication purposes
   • contextual information
   • a self-assessment report of the programme, prepared in line with the requirements stipulated in the Handbook
   • a list of attachments for supporting evidence
   • the attachments which document fulfilment of particular requirements
4. Frontpage page with applicant details shall include: (a) the title of the programme (b) the name of the KIC, (c) administrative information i.e. identification of the submitting partner (leading HEI) and the names of the partner HEIs, and other partner organisations, each followed by the country code and a link to the website, and (d) contact details of the applicant.
5. The application and self-assessment should be structured according to the sections in the template and addressing the question in the quality indicators and accompanied with relevant supporting evidence. (In case of the application in the non-degree segment, where labelling is applied for the competency certification, in addition to the self-assessment report, the applicant shall also provide further competency certification background material as part of the application)
6. All assessment fields must be answered by applicants with an explanation in the form of a narrative answer and the provision of supporting documents as evidence.
7. In the narrative answers in the template applicants should clearly indicate for reviewers where the relevant information can be found in the chosen accompanying documents (including page numbers).
8. The general principle for the choice of material to be used is the portfolio principle. That is, ‘the applicant should select the necessary documentation for the self-assessment report in order to give sufficient evidence for each requirement. This selection is guided by the questions in the templates, along with the non-exhaustive list of examples of possible supporting evidence. In addition to text documents, the supporting documents may consist of different visuals such as figures, infographics, video materials, photos etc. The supporting documents and evidence must be concise and limited – the idea is not to provide as much as possible, but to clearly and briefly document how the particular requirement is achieved.’
9. As far as possible, official documents from the Innovation Community and/or from Innovation Community partner universities should be used as appropriate as well as any relevant supporting official documents from the Innovation Community.

Deadline and timeline for 2023 assessment

The full applications must be submitted by Friday 7 July 2023 EOB.

Timeline and milestones

The assessment process and responsibilities of the parties

• Every application (structured as mentioned above and accompanied material as an evidence) for the candidate programme is produced by the applicant organization (normally Higher Education Institution), or by consortium of partners together with Innovation Community education teams, in accordance with the requirements stipulated in the new EIT Label Handbook.
• Full application and all the accompanying documents are submitted to the EIT through the Innovation Community's designated Single Point of Contact, who will submit the application through the available online tool (EIT Cloud or other online form decided by the EIT).
• The EIT will nominate the external experts that are assigned to review the applications and the self-assessment reports for the award of the EIT Label.
• The evaluation of the application is conducted remotely. However, the EIT might – after consulting with EIT KICs who submitted the applications – suggest a specific face-to-face discussion (hearing) involving the representatives of the applicants, the KIC and the review team. In such case, the review team will submit specific question for the discussion in due time (ideally not later than one week before the meeting) as a basis for the discussion. They can be also held online.
• The experts review teams submit their evaluation reports to the EIT. After having considered the evaluation reports of the review team, the EIT Director decides on the initial award of the EIT Label for each of the submitted programme.
• In cases of awarding provisional Label, requirements for specific improvement measures are forwarded to the relevant applicant(s). Applicant(s) are expected to submit the status report addressing the requirements within the duration of the provisional Label set in the awarding decision (up to two years).
• The EIT also updates information on its website regarding the EIT Label awards on the basis of the outcome of the given evaluations.

Guidelines and supporting documents

For further description of the EIT Label and the awarding procedure, see the new EIT Label Handbooks, and the EIT Label Framework.

All existing EIT Label programmes due for relabelling (if their Label is expiring this year) are required to submit the Qi1 and Qi2 according to the templates in the new handbook, but also report on past performance against the Transition templates Oi3 (the results) and Qi4 (stakeholder experiences).

Recording of personal data

All personal data are processed by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) in accordance with the provisions of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data.

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