The EIT published a report for its Regional Innovation Scheme activity 2019 to 2020, one of Europe’s key innovation cohesion programmes.
On 3 September 2021, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) published the “EIT Regional Innovation Scheme Activity Report” for 2019–2020. The report focuses on the scheme’s main achievements and services during that time span and highlights how the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (EIT RIS) strengthens the innovation ecosystems of European countries with more modest innovation capacity. Furthermore, the report includes testimonials and success stories by start-ups and innovators within the EIT RIS.
The EIT RIS was introduced in 2014 to advance the innovation performance of countries with moderate or modest innovation scores as defined by the European Innovation Scoreboard. The targeted countries are mostly located in Southern or Eastern Europe. All EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (EIT KICs) are involved in EIT RIS activities, in line with their respective strategies and priorities. Since its establishment, the EIT RIS has contributed to the expansion of EIT Community activities to more countries and regions across Europe.
The scheme’s activities range from providing start-ups with business creation and support programmes, offering education activities to students in EIT RIS countries, to establishing EIT Hubs and sharing EIT Innovation Community expertise with them. Only recently, the EIT Community Hub opened in Budapest, to further foster innovation in the Eastern and Southern European region.
According to the report, the EIT RIS activities in 2019 and 2020 were successful. In 2019, more than 700 start-ups took part in the business creation and support programmes. In 2020, even though the programmes had to go online because of COVID-19, the EIT Innovation Communities could still engage 680 start-up teams in various programmes. Furthermore, the EIT Innovation Community offered education activities to over 1’000 students from the EIT RIS countries over the course of both years.
The EIT RIS aims to promote so-called innovation cohesion. Innovation cohesion addresses the persisting innovation divide between the EU’s member states and regions. The goal is to narrow the innovation gap between countries within Europe and vis-à-vis the world leaders.
EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, responsible for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, stated in June 2021, that Europe “needs to work for a European innovation ecosystem where all our talents have access to quality information, to funding, and they can build networks”. Europe’s ability to innovate has high priority in the transition towards climate neutrality, a digital society, and in the recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. In September 2021, the EU Commission collected ideas on how to strengthen the European innovation system, also raising the question how to address the innovation divide. The report on that will follow shortly.
In the future, the EIT will continue to support innovation systems of countries and regions that underperform. In its report, the EIT concluded that there is an uneven representation of the EIT RIS countries in the EIT Innovation Communities. They have to be incorporated more strongly into the EIT Innovation Communities’ networks. As part of an attempt to address this deficit, the EIT RIS countries will be fully included in the EIT Innovation Communities’ strategies within the framework of the EIT Strategic Innovation Agenda 2021–2027.