12 September: Innovators supported by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology present their projects | CDE Almería - Centro de Documentación Europea

On 12 September 2019, the European Commission and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) will co-host an event to showcase how the EIT promotes talented innovators, helping them to turn their ideas into products that benefit our societies. Innovators and entrepreneurs who have benefited from the EIT will tell their stories.

Tibor Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, responsible for the EIT, will give a speech on the future role of the Institute and participate in a panel discussion on innovation and how the EIT can help ensure that the EU remains competitive.

Background

The EIT is an EU body created by the European Union in 2008 to strengthen Europe’s ability to innovate. It is an integral part of Horizon 2020, the EU’s Framework Programme for Research and Innovation. The Institute is a unique in driving innovation across Europe by integrating business, education and research to find solutions to pressing global challenges. The EIT supports the development of dynamic, long-term pan European partnerships among leading companies, research labs and companies, called Knowledge and Innovation Communities. Bringing together more than 1000 partners, the EIT currently runs eight such Communities, forming Europe’s largest innovation network.

Context

Over the past five years, the EIT has made great strides. The number of EIT Innovation Communities supported has grown to eight and our wide range of innovation support activities has already resulted in:

a new generation of entrepreneurs with over 2 300 graduates from our entrepreneurial education programmes and thousands of other entrepreneurs trained through EIT education programmes
generated more than 900 new products and services brought to the market and more than 6 100 jobs created
powered over 2 000 innovative start-ups and scale-ups that have raised more than EUR 1.5 billion in external investment