A European Institute of Innovation and Technology

The European Parliament decided to rename the EIT "European institute of Innovation and Technology" so as to reflect its primary focus on innovation.  The seat of its governing body should be "located near existing centres of European excellence and academic reputation in order to best benefit from existing infrastructure", say MEPs.

 

 

The EIT will have a two-tier structure: a Governing Board selects higher education institutions, research organisations, companies and other stakeholders to form partnerships called "Knowledge and Innovation Communities" (KICs). In contrast to the Commission's plans, MEPs want KICs to be "legally autonomous from the EIT".

 

Although KICs will have "substantial overall autonomy" to define their internal organisation and working methods, MEPs do lay down some basic rules for their composition: Every KIC should consist of at least three partner organisations, situated in at least two different participating states and including at least one higher education institution and one private company.

 

 

The institute's overall budget of an estimated €2.4 billion for the first six years is to be funded from a combination of private and public sources. The EP agrees with the Commission that €308.7 million should come from the Community budget.

 

On 19 September 2007 the Commission put forward a proposal to revise the Multi-Annual Financial Framework 2007-2013 in order to ensure the funding for Galileo and the EIT. This proposal is now the basis for further negotiations between Parliament and Council (the Budgetary Authority).

 

Additionally, the Commission suggests financing the EIT partly through existing Community instruments such as the Framework Programme for Research, the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme or the Lifelong Learning Programme. MEPs, however, stress that applications from KICs should in no way be privileged over other applications. Furthermore, funds stemming from those programmes should not finance establishment and administration costs directly associated with the EIT or the KICs but rather the mobility of researchers or research programmes.

 

 

MEPs also introduce the idea of a "pilot phase" into the text. At the latest two years after the entry into force of the regulation establishing the EIT, the Governing Board would select two or three KICs "in areas that help the EU to face today's and tomorrow's challenges, such as climate change, sustainable mobility, energy efficiency or the next generation of ICT".

 

The EIT could select additional KICs after the adoption of its first "Strategic Innovation Agenda" (SIA), a concept also incorporated in the text by the EP. This SIA should identify the EIT's long-term strategic areas "in fields of key potential economic and societal interest which are likely to generate the greatest innovation added value". The EIT would have to draw up an SIA by the end of 2011 at the latest and thereafter every seven years. Acting on a proposal from the Commission, Parliament and Council shall then adopt this agenda

 

 

MEPs reject the Commission's proposal for the EIT itself to award degrees and diplomas. Instead they ask for an EIT mark to be added to qualifications awarded through the higher education institutions within the KICs.