EIT Higher Education Institutions (HEI) Initiative Call for Proposals 2024
ClosedDescription
The EIT Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA) 2021-2027 sets the strategic direction, priorities and objectives of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (EIT KICs). Under this EIT SIA 2021-2027, the EIT and the EIT KICs will raise the bar and create systemic impact in higher education by strengthening innovation ecosystems. This will be achieved through the following: • Increasing the entrepreneurial and innovation capacity of higher education institutions across Europe by promoting and supporting institutional change in higher education institutions. • Strengthening the integration and contribution of higher education institutions to innovation ecosystems. To realise these ambitions, the EIT and EIT KICs established the EIT Higher Education Institutions (HEI) Initiative. The EIT HEI Initiative plays a crucial role in driving economic and societal transformation. In line with the EIT SIA, it focuses on building innovation and entrepreneurship capacity at the institutional level and fostering the strategic integration of higher education into the wider innovation ecosystem by equipping HEIs with essential knowledge, tools and networks. Its Calls for Proposals incorporate the EIT Knowledge Triangle Model which brings together partners from education, research, and business to collaborate on innovation action plans. This approach fosters systemic change by enabling the co-creation of knowledge and impactful solutions to global challenges, both within individual projects and across the broader portfolio. Central to the EIT HEI Initiative is its commitment to building a dynamic, inclusive community of HEIs and non-HEIs to enhance the role of European higher education in the innovation ecosystem, promoting a more innovative and competitive Europe. The Call for Proposals 2024 aims to further enhance the quality and competitiveness of European higher education by funding innovation capacity building projects that will bring about institutional and systemic change. It offers applying consortia the opportunity to shape their own pathway to innovation by selecting activities that address their specific capacity building needs. Selected projects will implement funded actions that, among others, will strengthen staff capacity, establish innovation structures, support technology transfer and business creation activities and foster collaboration between HEIs and business partners across Europe through the establishment of strategic partnerships.
Beneficiary & submission
The applicants are required to create an Innovation Vision Action Plan (IVAP) as the core of their proposal. The answers provided by applicants to the questions in the EIT HEI Initiative Application Portal cumulatively generate the IVAP; in other words, the proposal is the IVAP.
The IVAP will be submitted through the application portal, in two Parts, A and B, according to the following structure:
Part A – Technical information (to be completed online within the Application Portal):
1. General information
2. Applicant information
3. Associated Partners
4. Domains and Actions
5. KPIs
6. EIT KIC alignment
7. Project budget
Part B – Narrative content (a downloadable Word document template, containing instructions for what to cover in each Section, to be completed and uploaded as an attachment within the Application Portal):
• Section 1: Excellence
• Section 2: Impact
• Section 3: Quality and Efficiency of Implementation
Once all the above elements of Part A and Part B are completed and/or uploaded within the application portal, the lead partner (applicant) must download and sign the Declaration of Honour template on behalf of the project consortium and upload it to the portal, before clicking ‘submit’. The IVAP should be shaped based on the HEInnovate self-assessment tool, to be performed by each HEI individually or as a group. Applicants should complete the HEInnovate self-assessment as an indication of the current state of the innovation and entrepreneurship capacity of the consortium and the results should be used to inform the choice of funded Actions to be implemented at the corresponding HEIs. The IVAP will provide a clear, step-by-step action plan consisting of work packages, milestones, deliverables, and beneficiaries, as well as other key indicators to track progress and impact. A risk management and intellectual property management approach must also be included. Projects selected for funding will participate in a mandatory face-to-face IVAP Kick Off Workshop in April/May 2025, during which participants will co-learn and collaborate across projects around the core themes of their IVAP. While the EIT HEI Initiative will provide funding and support to selected projects for 25 months of the IVAP, from 1 April 2025 – 30 April 2027, the IVAP will be continued beyond the project funding period to achieve the project’s outlined 2030 vision.
The EIT HEI Initiative projects will be reviewed through a competitive, external and independent evaluation process. To be considered for selection, the applicant/coordinator must submit an application on behalf of the consortium as a response to this call. Applications will be assessed against the eligibility criteria presented in Call for Proposals 2024 document. Applications must be submitted in the EIT HEI Initiative Application Portal by the 12 December 2024, 17.00 CET.
Successful and unsuccessful applicants will be informed in writing within the week of 3 – 7 March 2025. A reserve list for the call, based on the final ranking list of proposals, will be in place in case a selected project cannot move forward with their funding period.
The submission can be done via an online platform. The full Evaluation process can be found in the Call for Proposals 2024 text.
Further information
Further details are available at:
https://eit-hei.eu/app/uploads/2024/09/EIT-HEI-Initiative-Call-for-Proposals-2024.pdf