The EU's Competitiveness Council on 25 June reached agreement on a 'general approach' to a draft regulation to establish a European Institute of Technology (EIT). The Council agreed that the EIT would start with an initial two to three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), which will address the EU priorities of renewable energy and climate change. The establishment of the first KICs (expected in 2009) will form the first of a two-step approach. Subject to an evaluation of the EIT's activities, a second step will see the creation of further KICs and a longer-term strategy for the EIT.

The establishment of a European Institute of Technology has several motivations:

• the economic relevance of research has increased substantially, while the EU's share in worldwide knowledge creation has gone down;
• Europeans have been less successful in turning research results into economic assets than their main competitors, while China, India and other states are emerging rapidly as important actors in the knowledge-driven world;
• making the best use of knowledge is a crucial challenge for Europe.

The KICs will be partnerships specialising in trans-disciplinary areas between the private sector, the research community and universities. They are designed to play a unique role in the European Research Area by combining all sides of the 'knowledge triangle': education, research and innovation. It is hoped that they will be able to rapidly convert the results from basic research into new technologies ready for the market.

The details of the relationship between the EIT and the KICs have yet to be fully defined, but they are proposed as integrated partnerships between the EIT and universities, research centres, and companies, which will have a medium/long term (10-15 years) education, research and innovation agenda in a wide strategic interdisciplinary field. Further details can be found in a recent communication from the Commission to the European Council.

In a report to the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, a panel from the United Nations University proposed an alternative structure of perhaps 20 "cluster" EITs each at or linked to one or two strong universities, working closely with industry on problems that determine long-term industrial development in a region. Such an approach, the panel argues, would better reflect the heterogeneity of technology innovation and transfer across Europe. The resolve of the European Commission to explore new ways of improving technology innovation and transfer across Europe is reflected in a recent call from the Directorate for Education and Culture (EAC/26/2007) for pilot projects to design, implement and test new models of cooperation in the "knowledge triangle", with the aim of establishing new partnerships in strategic interdisciplinary fields.

On 9 July 2007, the European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE) of MEPs proposed that the European Institute of Technology (EIT) should be renamed to include 'innovation', reflecting its primary focus. Observing that "Innovation is Europe's Achilles' heel", they decided therefore to rename the EIT the 'European Institute of Innovation and Technology'.

If you would like to comment upon issues arising from the above material, please contact Melvin Brown.

related resources:

»	European Institute of Technology: General approach agreed