Kyriacos Kokkinos appointed to European Institute of Innovation & Technology board

Kyriacos Kokkinos, Former Deputy Minister for Research, Innovation and Technology has been appointed by the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Ms Iliana Ivanova, as a Member of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology EIT https://eit.europa.eu/. EIT is Europe’s largest innovation network strengthening innovation, is an integral part of Horizon Europe HE and its objectives are tied with that of Horizon Europe. Its mission is to create jobs and deliver sustainable and smart growth across EU. The EIT Governing Board sets the strategy and the direction of the EIT in achieving its goal, thus ensuring that it delivers value added for the European Union and contributes to the objectives of Horizon Europe. Mr Kokkinos thanked Commissioner Iliana Ivanova and highlighted that it is an honour for Cyprus to be represented to EIT Governing Board, as this signifies Cyprus Innovation capacity, growing momentum and contribution to EU. It is worth noting that Cyprus ranks 10th on the European Innovation Scoreboard. 

Horizon Europe, the Framework Programme for research and innovation, is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of EUR 95.5 billion. Pillar 3 of Horizon Europe is ‘Innovative Europe”. That’s where EIT comes in as contributor with a budget of EUR 3 billion, with goals:

• Strengthen sustainable innovation ecosystems across Europe
• Foster the development of entrepreneurial and innovation skills in a lifelong learning perspective
• Support EU universities in integrating more entrepreneurial education
• Bring new solutions to global societal challenges to the market
• Create synergies and added value within Horizon Europe

EIT operates as a unique EU body in that its method for driving innovation involves bringing together organisations across business, education, and research. The goal of these partnerships is to find and commercialise solutions to pressing global challenges. For each global challenge, there is an ecosystem of partnerships called Knowledge and Innovation Communities. These partnerships foster talent and ingenuity for facing  global innovation challenges, offering a wide range of education courses, business creation and acceleration services, and innovation-driven research projects. With its focus on the knowledge triangle of business, education and research, the EIT has a very specific positioning to help support the needed transformations in all the sectors covered by the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), from skills development, entrepreneurship education, business creation support to innovation ecosystem building.

In line with the criteria for European Partnerships funded under Horizon Europe, the EIT Governing Board has a key role to play in steering the KICs to become more transparent, efficient and inclusive while reinforcing their impact and leading them towards financial sustainability, based on sound exit strategies from Framework Programme funding.