The 2018 report describes on-the-ground activities and presents showcases to widen participation in EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities.
The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has launched the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) in 2016 to support EU Member States and Horizon 2020 Associated Countries that are modest and moderate innovators, and harbour innovation communities with few or no partners. The classification into lower- and higher performing countries is based on the European innovation scoreboard, which regularly carries out a comparative analysis of innovation performance of EU Member States and other countries. One reason for lower innovation performance, so the EIT, are weaker linkages among key innovation actors. The EIT identifies innovation gaps and strengthens links among key innovation actors in RIS countries by encouraging the sharing of good practices, experiences and know-how. In addition, the scheme supports RIS countries’ engagement within EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). KICs are public-private partnerships that focus on eight different challenges and aim to harness European innovation and entrepreneurship.
As an initiative to widen participation of RIS countries in EIT KICs, the 2018 EIT RIS report describes main activities of the scheme at the local level and presents success stories from innovators and start-ups in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe that benefitted from collaboration with KICs.
One important RIS element are EIT Hubs – local organisations from RIS countries, which have been selected through an open and competitive process and function as centres for a specific KIC. Their role is to ensure the respective KIC’s visibility, raise awareness for cooperation opportunities among local innovation players and to liaise with relevant authorities at different levels. To date, more than 60 EIT Hubs are representing the eight KICs in 18 RIS countries. In 2018, 42 organisations have joined existing EIT KICs as new partners. Also, more than 600 start-ups took part in specially designed business creation programmes and competitions.
The EIT itself has invested €33 million in RIS activities since their launch in 2016. In 2018, EIT KICs allocated €15 million to EIT RIS programmes and activities. Besides the specific EIT RIS funding, around 10% of the overall EIT budget is on average spent in EIT RIS countries.