The Guild submits amendments to the EIT legislative proposals

The Guild has presented the European Parliament with amendments on the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) legislative package. The package comprises the proposals for a Regulation and for a Decision on the Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA), which defines the EIT’s priority fields and strategy for the period 2021-2027.

The Guild welcomes the work of the European Parliament and the many positive amendments introduced in the Parliament’s draft reports. These will allow to considerably improve the legislation. In particular, we appreciate that the Parliament made the openness and transparency of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) one of the specific objectives of the EIT. We also welcome the revised provisions which will ensure better alignment between the EIT and Horizon Europe’s rules. Additionally, we applaud the draft report for keeping excellence the prior selection criterion when attributing funds, while introducing some additional criteria to promote a more balanced brain circulation and geographical distribution within the European Union.

The Guild’s proposals for amendments aim to further clarify certain legislative provisions to:

• Foster more integration between the different lines of action of the KICs;
• Ensure new KICs’ topics are selected based on a transparent process;
• Make the KICs, including the new ones to be established, more open to new partners and to external stakeholders wishing to join specific activities, as well as ensuring the transparency of the respective calls;
• Ensure that the enhanced higher education activities and the new initiative to foster the entrepreneurial and innovative capacities of Higher Education Institutions are based on bottom-up and flexible approaches. They need to serve real local needs and to avoid duplication with already existing initiatives. Such activities should be open to all Higher Education Institutions wishing to participate.

The Guild stands ready to continue collaborating with the European Parliament and the Council during the next phases of negotiation.

The article was first published on 24 April by The Guild.