Achievements

65 projects

€69 million awarded to support 359 HEIs and 380+ non-academic organisations

90000 +

Trained students, academic and non-academic staff on innovation and entrepreneurship

1700 +

Start-ups and scale-ups supported
What is the EIT's HEI Initiative?

Empower, transform and thrive in higher education

The EIT HEI Initiative is a joint activity of the EIT community, which recognises higher education institutions (HEIs) as the pivotal actors in regional and European innovation ecosystems.

The EIT HEI Initiative is uniquely designed to enhance the innovation capacity and entrepreneurial mindset of HEIs and foster collaboration between academia, industry, research institutions, public authorities and governmental organisations. Through competitive calls for proposals, the initiative offers non-reimbursable grants to consortia formed by HEIs and their partners to work on innovation and entrepreneurship, but also on other dimensions of strategic interest for Europe, such as deep tech.

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Testimonials

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After the successful pilot phase, training over 40 000 students and staff, I am eager to see what this initiative will achieve with a broader reach and more partners.

Iliana Ivanova
European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth