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1. The KICs shall undertake at least the following:

(a) innovation activities and investments with Union added value, including facilitating the creation of innovative start-ups and the development of innovative businesses in complementarity with the EIC and the InvestEU Programme, fully integrating the higher education and research dimensions to attain a critical mass and stimulating the dissemination and exploitation of results;

(b) innovation-driven research, experimentation, prototyping and demonstration in areas of key economic, environmental and societal interest and drawing on the results stemming from Union and national research, with the potential to strengthen the Union’s competitiveness at international level and find solutions for the major challenges faced by European society, including those relating to health and the digital market;

(c) education and training activities in particular at master’s and doctoral level, as well as professional training courses, in areas with the potential to meet future European socio-economic and socio-ecological needs and which expand the Union’s talent base, promote the development of innovation-related skills, the improvement of managerial and entrepreneurial skills and the mobility of researchers and students, and foster knowledge-sharing, mentoring and networking among the recipients of EIT education and training activities, including those that are EIT-labelled;

(d) actions as part of the pilot higher education initiative to better integrate HEIs in innovation value chains and ecosystems and bring them together with other key innovation players from the knowledge triangle and thereby improve their innovation and entrepreneurial capacity;

(e) outreach activities and the dissemination of best practices in the field of innovation with a focus on the development of cooperation between higher education, research and business, including the service and financial sectors, and, where relevant, public and third sector organisations;

(f) RIS activities, fully integrated in the KICs’ multiannual strategy and linked to the relevant smart specialisation strategies as defined in point (2) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2021/695 in order to strengthen innovation capacity and to develop sustainable innovation ecosystems with a view to decreasing the disparities and divide in innovation performance across the Union;

(g) to seek synergies and complementarities between KIC activities and existing Union, national and regional programmes, in particular the EIC, other European Partnerships and missions of Horizon Europe, as appropriate;

(h) to mobilise funds from public and private sources, in particular seeking to raise an increasing proportion of their budget from private sources and from income generated by their own activities, in accordance with Article 18;

(i) to provide, on request, information on research and innovation outputs and results, and related intellectual rights, developed pursuant to the activities of the KICs, and on the relevant inventors.

2. Without prejudice to the partnership agreements and grant agreements between the EIT and the KICs, the KICs shall have substantial autonomy to establish their internal organisation and composition, as well as their agenda and working methods, provided that they result in progress towards achieving the objectives of the EIT and the KICs, while taking into account the strategic planning of Horizon Europe and the strategic direction of the EIT set out in the SIA and by the Governing Board. In particular, the KICs shall:

(a) establish internal transparent governance arrangements which reflect the knowledge triangle of higher education, research and innovation;

(b) ensure and promote their openness through clear and transparent accession and exit criteria, including through open calls, to potential new partner organisations across the Union that add value to the partnership;

(c) establish internal rules, including codes of conduct, that ensure their functioning in an open and transparent manner;

(d) establish and implement their business plans;

(e) establish and implement strategies for achieving financial sustainability.

3. KICs may adopt measures and initiatives aiming to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 crisis, in particular actions aiming to increase the resilience of microenterprises, SMEs and start-ups, as well as students, researchers and employees.

4. The relationship between the EIT and each KIC shall be based on a partnership agreement, a grant agreement or, subject to Article 12, a memorandum of cooperation.