• Organised by the EIT Community under the title ‘The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and the new European Innovation Agenda’, the Spanish innovation ecosystem met yesterday in Madrid.
• The event was attended by the Director General of the CDTI, Javier Ponce, the Secretary-General for Innovation, Teresa Riesgo, and brought together a large part of the Spanish innovation ecosystem.
• The EIT Community has renewed its commitment to innovation in Spain through various communities and programmes. In the last two years, EIT has supported hundreds of startups and invested more than €100 million in Spain, helping to bring more than 80 innovative products to market.

Madrid, 10 October 2023 – The EIT Community, the most significant innovation ecosystem in Europe, is a decisive agent for boosting innovation in Spain and contributing to its leadership in Europe. This was stated yesterday by the heads of the different knowledge and innovation communities in Spain of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), a body of the European Union.

This satellite event of the official agenda, organised on the occasion of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union, brought together a large part of the Spanish innovation ecosystem. It emphasised the importance of the collaborative and interdisciplinary work promoted by the different EIT communities to tackle today’s society’s complex challenges, focusing on the various cross-sectoral programmes developed by the EIT Community to boost Spain’s innovative leadership in Europe and to support the New European Innovation Agenda, approved by the Commission in July.

The impact of the EIT in Spain and the need for cross-sectoral collaboration
“The EIT, Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem, can be proud of its active presence and support for innovation in Spain. Our innovation and knowledge communities have attracted 250 partners from different sectors, including academic institutions, companies, and research organisations. Together, we have supported hundreds of start-ups and thousands of students on their journey through innovation, investing around EUR 100 million in Spain in the last two years alone and helping to bring more than 80 innovative products to market. Our commitment to Spain will continue to grow because innovation is needed more than ever to tackle some of the biggest global challenges and drive a more sustainable future for Europe,” said Martin Kern, Director of the EIT.

The event discussed the importance of the interdisciplinary and intersectoral approach to boost innovation in our country and its leadership in Europe, in line with the new European Innovation Agenda. In addition, a wide range of topics were addressed during the interventions of the representatives of each of the KICs, from the strategies to support startups, innovation and entrepreneurship to DeepTech, cities and climate transition, or the role of culture in innovation, skills and the talent of the future.

During the event, three main ideas were highlighted:

• Innovation is, more than ever, cross-cutting. The majority the initiatives and projects fit into various Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs)
• We face a systemic transformation that needs collaborative solutions to adapt to the current societal challenges’ scale, urgency, and complexity.
• Co-creating solutions is not enough: Innovation has to be consolidated; it has to be implemented.

The EIT Day ended with the intervention of Teresa Riesgo, Secretary General for Innovation of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, who highlighted the long history of EIT in supporting innovation in Europe and stressed the importance of cross-cutting meetings such as this one. Finally, Riesgo warned of the need to develop policies that do not contribute to generating inequality in access to innovation between the different regions of Europe.

About the EIT Community

About the Prize

The Deep Tech Talent Training Prize celebrates the best-in-class organisations committed to upskilling, diversifying training partnerships and building inclusive training offerings in deep tech. The Deep Tech Talent Training prize aims to celebrate and reward organisations including training providers, universities, and industry partners for their exceptional contributions in tackling deep tech training challenges.

We encourage applications from a range of backgrounds and organisations. To be eligible for the prizes, applicants must meet the Deep Tech Talent Initiative pledger criteria and have successfully completed the pledge registration and quality check of the training.

Entry categories include:

• Partner Training: This celebrates the training providers that have come together to develop robust and comprehensive courses that complement one another supporting our goal of upskilling 1 million learners in deep tech. Entering as a partnership allows all partners to become part of our Pledger community. Entries to this category must be made up of a minimum of two entries. Read here to find out more.
• Targeted Training: This category is for individual training providers who have demonstrated excellence in a specific, targeted approach to address challenges in Deep Tech training. The target approach may address targeted audiences that are often underrepresented in Deep Tech fields(e.g., women, disadvantaged background, individuals re-entering the job market, etc.) or may address an immediate market or training need that is underdeveloped.

For more details on the eligibility criteria and how to apply, please check the Deep Tech Talent Initiative website.

Why enter?

• To have the chance to collect Prize funds up to up to a maximum of 60,000 EUR per entity.
• An opportunity to celebrate your excellence and be recognised as a leaderin the field of deep tech training in the EU.
• Entrants will be benefit by becoming part of the EIT Deep Tech Talent Pledger community with access to larger, Europe-wide exclusive events, and numerous networking opportunities with leaders in deep tech.
• Prize winners will get their hard work recognised and their training offer will get a quality seal by the EIT Deep Tech Talent Initiative.

One application per category – for evaluation and Prize criteria, please see www.eitdeeptechtalent.eu/calls-and-opportunities/training-prize

Deadline: 31 October 2023, 17hr CET

In total 12 innovative start-ups selected for second edition of New European Bauhaus programme

Amsterdam, the Netherlands – The EIT Community New European Bauhaus have today announced the 12 innovative start-ups and scale-ups they will be supporting through their NEB Booster 2.0  programme. The programme will support innovative organisations to grow their businesses and help them become international gamechangers. Each of the selected businesses is working on ideas that make Europe more sustainable, inclusive and improve the quality of a wide range of citizens’ lives. EIT Urban Mobility, an initiative of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, a body of the European Union and part of EIT Community, has three of start-ups selected to receive support.

Initially announced by President Von der Leyen in her State of the Union address and launched by the European Commission in early 2021, the New European Bauhaus (NEB), translates the European Green Deal into a tangible, positive experience in which all Europeans can participate and progress together.

The EIT Community is ideally placed to support implementation of the NEB as it has created Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem with over 2,000 partners (business, research, education, cities) cooperating in over 60 hubs across Europe. By engaging with European innovators and civil society at large, the community is promoting business through start-up creation and growth, as well as contributing to citizens’ education and engagement.

The NEB Booster 2.0 programme will offer them a prize and acceleration support services worth a total of €50,000 (each), including business coaching, mentoring, internationalisation, and fundraising support as well as access to the vast network of the most prominent innovation community in Europe.

Meet the start-ups

3 start-ups on mobility

SEADS Sea Defence Solutions

SEADS Blue Barriers are an award-winning solution that collects about 100% of mixed plastic in rivers, capturing also microplastic.

Find out more here.  

BeTRITON

We build Amphibious Camper Tricycles, offering the most sustainable, unique, and continuous mobility over land and water. BeTriton is a fully electric three-in-one vehicle that seamlessly combines the functionalities of an e-boat, an e-bike, and a compact e-camper.

Find out more here.  

Parkly

Parkly is a movement with a mission – connecting people and transforming urban spaces into green, inviting places. The multifunctional and modular urban furniture helps to rapidly change and reimagine our cities, while pioneering circular economy solutions.

Find out more here.  

Other start-ups

NATIVES

NATIVES is the Impact Digital Platform for schools, integrating sustainability through multimedia best in class contents and project proposals based in real life learning scenarios.

Find out more here.  

Agua de Sol SAS

Agua de Sol developed the SunAir Fountain®, which is a solar/water panel transforming air moisture into carbon-free, fresh drinkable water, thanks to solar heat, in complete autonomy.

Find out more here. 

Imperfect 

Imperfect does not just reimagine housing and renovation; we are reshaping them with citizens at the heart of it all, creating local solutions to global challenges.

Find out more here.  

Energy Shift

Energy Shift is a web based, blockchain powered platform that enables citizens to jointly invest in and co-own solar parks, thus democratizing the energy sector and enabling citizens to actively participate in the energy transition to renewable energy.

Find out more here.  

Hempstatic GmbH

Hempstatic specializes in renewable building elements made from high-quality agricultural residues.

Find out more here.  

Novellic

Novellic is a mobile app for readers and book clubbers that curates and personalises book recommendations to each user’s particular reading taste, and provides tools to create, discover, join and manage book clubs to meet like-minded readers and share book recommendations.

Find out more here.  

ParaStruct

We enable a circular economy in the construction industry through digital manufacturing methods and new materials.

Find out more here.  

Geodesic.Life

Geodesic.Life is a sustainable prefabricated dome home at a lower cost with a unique combination of geodesic structure made of Cross Laminated Timber and insulated with Hempctere.

Find out more here.  

Oleago

Oleatex is a plant-based next generation material that is 100% vegan, and sustainable innovation for the textile industry. It is crafted from bio-wastes with an awarded formula.

Find out more here.  

About the call

The New European Bauhaus Booster 2.0 supports socially conscious innovators across the continent. The call was launched by EIT Digital, EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Food, EIT Manufacturing, and EIT Urban Mobility, and looked for the most innovative ventures developing solutions that make Europe more sustainable, inclusive and improve citizens’ quality of life. Stay tuned for NEB Booster 3.0, the first-ever NEB acceleration programme bringing together both entrepreneurship and business skills with NEB training and coaching.