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The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) announced that the EIT Higher Education Institutions (HEI) Initiative will launch its new call for proposals in autumn 2024.
The EIT HEI Initiative, a Horizon Europe programme created by the EIT – Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem has a twofold aim: a) transforming HEIs into innovation and entrepreneurship powerhouses and b) strengthening their integration into local, regional and pan-European innovation networks. To date, the programme has supported over 40,000 students and staff in entrepreneurship training and provided support to over 1,100 start-ups and scale-ups.
The EIT HEI Initiative Call for Proposals 2024 will focus on enhancing the quality and competitiveness of European higher education. It will improve research and technology transfer at HEIs and support business creation through strengthening collaboration between HEIs and business partners. Selected projects of the EIT HEI Initiative Call for Proposals 2024 can expect to have a duration of 25 months, and an estimated total budget of EUR 1.34 million per project to implement their activities. It is open to participation from HEIs, businesses (including NGOs), research institutes and public bodies, and requires diversity in consortia composition.
The call will incorporate a two-strand approach, where applicants will need to select one the following strands to apply to:
- Strand A: Innovation and entrepreneurship capacity building at higher education institutions (HEIs).
- Strand B: Innovation and entrepreneurship capacity building at HEIs for the enhancement of Deep Tech.
* Full details of the call for proposals, including the final budget and duration are subject to the final call text, will be published on the EIT HEI Initiative Call for Proposals 2024 webpage in the autumn of 2024. You can find the Call for Proposals 2024 webpage HERE, which contains basic information on the call, including the consortium composition and funding distribution criteria. Complete and finalised details will be published shortly, in autumn 2024, when the call officially opens.
Consortium composition criteria
Eligible applying consortia to the EIT HEI Initiative Call for Proposals 2024 must consist of a minimum of five full (funded) partner organisations, and comply with the following criteria:
- Minimum three full partner higher education institutions (HEIs), from three different countries
- One of the full partner HEIs must be the Project Coordinator
- Minimum two HEIs must be a ‘new’ partner (i.e., didn’t participate in an HEI Initiative Cohort 1, 2 or 3 project)
- Minimum one business partner
Networking and matchmaking platform
The EIT HEI Initiative launched in August 2024 a networking and matchmaking platform (hosted on Conversation Starter) for organisations to browse and connect with potential project partners, with whom they may decide to submit a joint application to the EIT HEI Initiative Call for Proposals 2024.
For more information about the EIT HEI Initiative, the background and success stories, please see the source page of this announcement: https://eit.europa.eu/news-events/news/eit-hei-initiative-launch-new-call-proposals-autumn-2024 and visit this page to create a profile at the networking platform.