HEI Initiative

About the project

The Higher Education Institution (HEI) Initiative supports HEIs to improve their innovation capacity. The initiative is a joint EIT Community activity and a key objective of the EIT Strategic Innovation Agenda 2021−2027.

Purpose of the project

Provide HEIs with expertise, access to EIT’s innovation ecosystem and funding, enabling them to develop unique innovation action plans.

Societal impact

400+ actions taken across 5 initiative domains:

• fostering Institutional engagement and change;
• strengthening partnerships (knowledge triangle integration);
• contributing to developing innovations and businesses;
• enhancing quality of innovation and entrepreneurial education;
• and collecting and sharing success stories and lessons.

Main results & insights

Across the initiative, current involvement includes 65 projects, 359 HEIs, 386 non-HEIs and 43 countries (22 RIS). Some 10,000 students and staff were trained in I&E in the first 6 month of the initiative. By 2027, 500+ HEIs will be involved.

At EIT Manufacturing, in 2022: 9 projects; 104 start-ups or scale-ups supported; 3547 students trained; 464 academic staff trained; 471 non-academic staff trained; 27 new or improved support structures established; and 18 new partnerships established.

Quote from the Activity Leader