The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is inviting companies, universities and research institutions to submit proposals for a contest to create two new innovation clusters in the fields of food and manufacturing.
The new food cluster will aim to develop new technology and methods to ensure a “climate-resilient and sustainable global food value chain”, while the mission of the manufacturing cluster is “to strengthen and increase the competitiveness of Europe’s manufacturing industry.”
The clusters, or Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), are large consortia of universities, companies and others that collaborate to carry out research, start new companies and train a generation of budding entrepreneurs.
The deadline for submissions is 14 July and the winning partnerships will be announced in November 2016. There will be a special information day on 18 February in Brussels for interested parties.
The EIT central office in Budapest, currently co-funds five KICs – in information technology, energy, life sciences, raw materials technologies and climate change.
Each KIC has about around 30 core partners led by five or six co-location centres which act as hubs for the lab work, teaching and marketing of innovations.
Around 25 per cent of a KIC’s funding comes from the EU with the rest coming from national or regional governments, other EU sources, and private companies and investors.
There are tentative plans for a competition on urban mobility for 2018.
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