EIT Cross-KIC Regional Innovation

The expected outcome should be focused (but might not limit) on:

• strengthening the EIT KICs’ presence, outreach and integration within the RIS area and other priority regions, including a specific focus on the Western Balkans region and Ukraine, and support the objective of attracting and facilitating the integration of potential new partners in the EIT KICs;
• exploring linkages and synergies between the EIT Community and local innovation ecosystems and Smart Specialisation Strategies, and provide capacity building support;
• consolidation of EIT RIS hubs into EIT Community Hubs at country or regional level in line with the EIT RIS Minimum Standards and Guiding Principles;
• identifying best practices in the field of start-up support and incubation, education and KTI development and transfer them to create synergies within the EIT Community;
• exploring and establishing strategic alliances and possible cooperation with key actors in the targeted countries and regions, at different levels (e.g. Regional Cooperation Council, Enterprise Europe Network, among others).;
• exploring and linking the EIT funded activities with other potential funding streams including the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA) and ESIF;
• scoping, preparation and implementation of potential innovation projects addressing circular economy challenges in the Western Balkans region.
• strengthening entrepreneurial education via implementation of the joint pre-accelerator EIT Jumpstarter;
• development and implementation of knowledge-sharing platform to ensure alignment between regional priorities and KICs’ EIT RIS activities;
• effective management of the activity.

Maximise the EIT Community’s impact in the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme area as well as other priority countries and regions.

• Geographical scope: regions and countries eligible under the EIT RIS scheme as well as other priority countries and regions, including all the Western Balkan countries.

to be defined by applicants addressing the specific objectives of the activity, its scope and expected results in the context of elevating the impact of the EIT Community in the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme area as well as other priority countries and regions and increasing their competitiveness and innovativeness level. The impact description should be supported by results KPIs and qualitative and quantitative description of the long-term impact in line with the impact KPIs in the EIT Impact Framework. The Cross-KIC activity should demonstrate in the proposal how the cross-KIC activity contributes to KICs' financial sustainability and how it contributes to the EIT core KPIs.