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The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is heavily involved in supporting the innovation ecosystem in the Western Balkans, promoting dedicated EIT Community activities for the region, funding programmes offered by EIT KICs for local researchers, students and entrepreneurial talents, and supporting the networking of Western Balkan academic, research and business institutions with EU innovation ecosystem actors.
The EIT Community has already provided the region with substantial funding of over EUR 4.55 million by mid-2023. Moreover, thanks to its support, over 8,000 individuals from the region were trained through EIT educational programmes.
To better integrate the region’s entrepreneurial talents into the European startup ecosystem, EIT Communities has launched dedicated cohorts of the EIT Jumpstarter pre-accelerator for Western Balkan founders. Each year, 30 early-stage startup teams have the opportunity to develop their business ideas, receive mentoring and financial support to better prepare them to launch their businesses and take advantage of further opportunities offered by EIT and EU accelerator programmes.
To strengthen collaboration between science and business, the EIT community has launched its flagship initiative, EIT InfraBooster, designed exclusively for research infrastructure institutions in the Western Balkans. After initial training on the commercial exploitation of research infrastructures in general, participants are encouraged to analyse specific cases of their own institutional assets and develop services that can be marketed and offered to business customers.
The EIT’s support to the establishment of EIT Community Hubs in the region (already operational in North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania, and expected to be officially launched in Serbia) is a good example of cooperation between different EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), which aim to make it easier to find, apply for and benefit from the wealth of different programmes and support instruments in the EIT portfolio. Training activities, business incubation support and networking with high-level partners in the EIT network have never been closer to potential beneficiaries in the Western Balkans.
The cross-sectoral support under EIT Community Strategical Regional Innovation Cluster activity, led by EIT Food, is powered by EIT Climate-KIC, EIT Health, EIT Raw Materials and EIT Manufacturing and supported by the rest of EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities.
Source: EIT