18 Dec 2023
EIT Higher Education Intiative to be extended to 2027 after successful pilot phase
The Governing Board of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) has announced the continuation of the ‘EIT Higher Education Institutions (HEI) Initiative’ until 2027. The pilot phase of the HEI Initiative involved training for 40,000 students and staff and provided support to over 1,000 start-ups and scale-ups. The EIT HEI Initiative supports systemic transformations within universities to steer their research and innovation strategies beyond the classroom to address some of the biggest global challenges.
The EIT HEI Initiative programme is dedicated to connecting universities to regional non-academic partners to foster innovation; and transferring business and entrepreneurship teaching beyond traditional business faculties, in order to unlock the full innovation and entrepreneurship potential of HEIs. During the programme’s pilot phase, 359 HEIs and 179 non-academic were supported with € 69 million.
The EIT HEI Initiative was centred around creating institutional change in universities to increase their innovation potential. Supported projects were successful in creating new start-up support infrastructures on campuses, including offices that mandated improved technology transfer, new guidelines for research, commercialisation and intellectual property right strategies, and new curricula for students and staff.
The EIT HEI Initiative and its network of over 500 organisations, was also instrumental in providing support to Ukraine and its partners during the past two years. Nearly € 4 million was channeled support 35 Ukrainian HEIs and 6 non-academic oraganisations, connecting them to new partners in Europe and expanding their expertise and knowledge on entrepreneurship.
The EIT states that its decision to extend the EIT HEI Initiative signifies the EIT’s a commitment to further empowering European HEIs. In its post-pilot phase, the initiative will deepen synergies with EIT educational activities, consolidating the gains made during the pilot but also incorporate new HEIs into the existing network, fostering a collaborative environment that transcends geographical boundaries.
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