Nearly 750 partners apply for the EIT’s HEI Initiative’s pilot Call for Proposals

The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) has received 64 applications from almost 750 partners for the Pilot Call for proposals HEI Initiative: Innovation Capacity Building for Higher Education. This new initiative should unlock the full innovation potential of higher education institutions (HEIs) by increasing their entrepreneurial and innovation capacity whilst integrating them into Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem. 

The diverse consortia of the 748 partners resulted in 64 applications. The partners come from 36 European countries, 26 European Member states countries and ten non-EU countries. Of these partners, 319 come from higher education institutions and 429 from non-academic organisations. In other words: there is more than expected spirit within companies, research institutions, higher education institutions and public bodies to work together on innovation and entrepreneurship in Higher Education. 

EIT thanks everyone who submitted their proposals for unlocking the potential of higher education in Europe, says Caroline Vandenplas, Head of Communications of EIT. The Pilot Call results will be announced on the HEI Initiative website on 12 July. The initiative is expected to announce another call towards the end of 2021.

The HEI Initiative is a new EIT initiative for which a Pilot Call for Proposals was launched in March 2020. This call invited higher education institutions to design activities that will improve their entrepreneurial and innovation capacity.

The call will fund 24 pilot projects to be implemented in 2021-2023. The total maximum budget per project is €1.2 million, broken down as follows: €400,000 for Phase 1 (July-December 2021) and €800,000 for Phase 2 (January 2022-July 2023).

The initiative is a joint EIT Community activity. As such, EIT Digital is involved in the HEI Initiative.