European Institute of Innovation & Technology

The EU, like the UK governement, has recognised that Innovation is the key to growth, competitiveness and thus social well-being in the 21st century.

In recognition of the gap between the established academic and research institutes and the business community, the EU Commission has elected to foster innovation by creating a new forum in which these players can participate to achieve the necessary “critical mass”.

The new initiative is to be the 6 year € 308.7 million European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) with the intention of addressing globalization issues by being the flagship for excellence for European. The proposals intend that the EIT will lean more towards sustainable economic growth and job creation across the EU by generating new products, services and markets responding both to public demand and to the needs of the knowledge economy.

This seems to be yet another initiative to transform education and research into tangible economic benefits through commercialisation. The EU have had several of these initiatives over the years to address these issues, including the Frameworks Research programmes which are not in their 7th iteration. Framework 7 lasts until 2013 and is funded to the tune of € 50+ billion and included Technology Platforms as forums for industry, academia and the commission to formulate requirements for the research programmes, sound familiar?