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5.1. Budget needs 108 5.2. Impact (monitoring and evaluation) 109 5.2.1. Reporting and monitoring 109 5.2.2. Evaluation, interim review and comprehensive assessment 111 Appendix 1 112 Appendix 2 115 1. INTRODUCTION This Strategic Innovation Agenda sets out the priority fields and strategy of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) for 2021-2027 (SIA 2021-2027). It establishes the EIT’s objectives, key actions, mode of operation, expected results and impact, as well as an estimate of the resources needed. SIA 2021-2027 ensures the necessary consistency of the EIT with Horizon Europe.

SIA 2021-2027 is informed by an impact assessment carried out by the Commission. It takes into account the draft SIA prepared by the EIT and submitted to the Commission on 20 December 2017, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 294/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council . It also reflects Regulation (EU) 2021/695, and, in particular, the key role of the EIT as part of Pillar III ‘Innovative Europe’ of Horizon Europe, and its contribution to addressing global and societal challenges, including established targets and commitments to climate objectives and the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and to Pillar I ‘Excellent Science’ and Pillar II ‘Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness’ of Horizon Europe. SIA 2021-2027 builds on the lessons learnt over the previous years of operation of the EIT and the results of a wide consultation process with key stakeholders.

The EIT was established in 2008 in order to contribute to sustainable economic growth and competitiveness by reinforcing the innovation capacity of the Union and Member States. It pioneered the integration of higher education, research and innovation (the ‘knowledge triangle') together with a strong emphasis on entrepreneurial talent, business creation and innovation skills. Since its establishment, the EIT has gradually established itself as a unique instrument addressing societal challenges through the integration of the knowledge triangle. The EIT operates mainly through Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) . There are currently eight KICs that operate in the areas of climate change, digital transformation, energy, food, health, raw materials, urban mobility and added-value manufacturing.

(a) education and training activities with strong entrepreneurship components to train the next generation of talents, including the design and implementation of programmes, in particular at master’s and doctoral level, awarded the EIT label, namely a quality seal awarded by the EIT to a KIC’s educational programme which complies with specific quality criteria related, inter alia, to entrepreneurial education and innovative ‘learning-by-doing’ curricula, the EIT’s education agenda being key to developing highly entrepreneurial and skilled innovators, hence the importance of programmes and activities aiming to develop entrepreneurship and digital skills and re-skill and up-skill human resources in a lifelong learning perspective;

(b) activities that support research and innovation to develop innovative and sustainable products, processes, technologies, services and non-technological solutions that address a specific business opportunity or social objective;

(c) business creation and support activities, such as accelerator schemes to help entrepreneurs translate their ideas into successful ventures and speed up the growth and development process.

In the context of Regulation (EU) 2021/695, the Commission made a firm commitment to raise Europe’s innovation potential further in order to be able to respond to future challenges. The EIT’s distinctive role in fostering innovation by bringing together business, education, research, public authorities and civil society is reinforced by its positioning in Pillar III ‘Innovative Europe’ of Horizon Europe. Regulation (EU) 2021/695 reflects the growing Union ambition of innovation and the need to deliver on that ambition. The strategic planning of Horizon Europe aims to ensure coherence between the EIT activities and other activities under Regulation (EU) 2021/695. The EIT shall contribute to the strategic coordinating process for European Partnerships. The EIT shall continue to work closely with other implementing bodies under the Pillar III ‘Innovative Europe’ of Horizon Europe and use best efforts to contribute to a one-stop shop for innovation. The EIT shall continue to strengthen innovation ecosystems that help to tackle global challenges by fostering the integration of the knowledge triangle in the thematic areas of activity of the KICs.

Strong synergies, including through cooperation at governance level, between the implementing bodies of the Pillar III ‘Innovative Europe’ of Horizon Europe are required. The EIT and the European Innovation Council (EIC) shall run complementary activities aiming to streamline the support provided to innovative businesses, including business acceleration services and training. The EIC may help start-ups supported by KICs with a high growth potential to rapidly scale-up. In particular, the most innovative ventures supported by the KICs may benefit from simplified and thereby faster access to EIC actions, in particular to the support offered by the EIC Accelerator and by the financial support offered by the InvestEU Programme established by Regulation (EU) 2021/523 of the European Parliament and of the Council . Furthermore, the EIT shall facilitate the access of EIC beneficiaries to the KICs’ innovation ecosystems and relevant actors of the knowledge triangle. EIC beneficiaries can thus become actively involved in the KICs’ activities and benefit from the KICs’ services.

The EIT shall ensure consistency with the European innovation ecosystems component of Pillar III ‘Innovative Europe’ of Horizon Europe. In particular, the EIT shall take an active part in the activities of the EIC Forum referred to in Council Decision (EU) 2021/764 and shall establish links between the EIT Community and relevant activities supporting innovation ecosystems in order to avoid duplication and to ensure the consistency and complementarity between actions of the EIT and of the EIC. The EIT shall also ensure stronger synergies between its actions and the programmes and initiatives of the Pillar I ‘Excellent Science’ of Horizon Europe, to accelerate the transfer of knowledge resulting from blue sky research into concrete applications benefiting society. In particular, with regard to the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) and the European Research Council (ERC), the EIT shall collaborate on the development of innovation and entrepreneurial skills of MSCA fellows and ERC grantees at all stages of their career. That collaboration shall remain voluntary and shall not increase the administrative burden on the beneficiaries.

The EIT shall contribute to the Pillar II ‘Global Challenges and European Industrial Competitiveness’ of Horizon Europe, complement relevant activities to tackle global and societal challenges, and foster the sustainable growth and competitiveness of the Union on a global scale. In particular, through the KICs, the EIT shall seek to contribute to and ensure stronger synergies with relevant missions and thematic clusters and other European Partnerships, such as by supporting demand-side measures and providing exploitation services to boost technology transfer and accelerate the commercialisation of results achieved. The EIT shall explore opportunities for synergies between the ‘Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area’ part of Horizon Europe, including the teaming and twinning activities and the outreach activities that it supports. In particular, target entities of the ‘Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area’ part of Horizon Europe, as well as EIT outreach activities, may leverage EIT expertise and support.

2. RAISING THE BAR: EIT STRATEGY AND OBJECTIVES FOR 2021-2027

During the period 2021-2027, the EIT shall continue to support the KICs in order to strengthen the innovation ecosystems that help to tackle global and societal challenges, in full complementarity with Horizon Europe and other Union programmes. It shall do so by fostering the integration of higher education, research and innovation, thereby creating environments conducive to innovation, and by promoting and supporting a new generation of entrepreneurs, contributing also to closing the entrepreneurial gender gap and to stimulating the creation of innovative businesses, with a particular focus on SMEs, in close synergy and complementarity with the EIC. Particular attention shall also be paid to gender balance and gender-sensitive approaches, in particular in areas where women remain underrepresented, such as information and communications technologies, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In doing so, on the basis of the areas of intervention established in Regulation (EU) 2021/695, the EIT shall, in particular:

(1) strengthen sustainable innovation ecosystems across Europe;

(2) foster innovation and entrepreneurial skills in a lifelong learning perspective, including increasing capacities of HEIs across Europe;

(3) create new solutions to the market to address global challenges; and (4) ensure synergies and value added within Horizon Europe. In line with the challenges that the EIT is facing and in order to contribute to its general objectives as set out in Article 3 of Regulation (EU) 2021/819 and thereby to the scientific, economic, technological and societal impact of Horizon Europe, the EIT’s specific objectives for 2021-2027 shall be to:

(a) increase the openness, impact and transparency of the KICs and the integration of the knowledge triangle across the Union;

(b) increase the entrepreneurial and innovation capacity of higher education across Europe by promoting and supporting institutional change in HEIs and the integration of HEIs in innovation ecosystems;

(c) increase the regional and local outreach of the EIT and the KICs, in particular by including a wider range of stakeholders in order to address disparities in innovation capacity and to enhance knowledge and innovation diffusion across the Union.