COPILOT is building up on the great success of a former EIT HEI Initiative project, TREATY, which successfully nurtured thousands of European Deep Tech Talents in sustainable green energy, clean and digital technologies by implementing various strategies. This includes developing support structures, improving student engagement activities, collaborating with EIT KICs, creating structures for innovation-driven research, updating I&E curricula, assessing teaching and learning practices, supporting and creating startups, creating national and international partnerships between academic and industrial partners, etc. all with a certain focus on sustainable deep tech energy technologies.

Vision 2030’s of COPILOT is to drive structural changes in HEIs to strengthen Deep Tech entrepreneurship and innovation in Sustainable Energy and Clean Technologies. The project focuses on fostering inclusivity, particularly gender inclusivity, and bridging disparities between developed and less developed universities, including those related to EU-accession states and innovation performance levels. By leveraging the HEI Initiative and aligning with European priorities like the Green Deal and Smart Specialisation Strategies, COPILOT seeks to create a cohesive and impactful European innovation ecosystem, addressing regional needs and driving sustainable economic growth.

COPILOT’s general objective is to achieve a mentality and practices shift in its HEIs toward deep-tech innovation and contribute to the generation of the next European deep-tech talents in sustainable green energy and clean technologies as well as to integrate Deep Tech entrepreneurship and innovation processes, structures, and mindsets in this area at a more impressive extent and in a wider range of EU countries. This includes supporting Deep Tech talent development, integrating entrepreneurship and innovation into curricula and research, and strengthening collaboration between HEIs, industry, and innovation ecosystems. Specific objectives of COPILOT include: i) enhancing structures within novice partner institutions to accelerate Deep Tech innovations, ii) building strategic partnerships between HEIs and stakeholders to address real-world challenges, iii) creating mechanisms, conditions, and structures for innovation-driven R&I, iv) transferring and co-creating Deep Tech courses and deliver them to students and staff, v) reorienting curricula to include market-relevant Deep Tech courses, vi) establishing a cross-consortium internship program to enhance talent mobility and competitiveness, vii) documenting and disseminating success stories and lessons learned, and viii) supporting continuous impact self-assessment of HEIs’ implemented IVAP. These specific objectives are linked to the project’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to continuously monitor and evaluate its progress and ensure the fulfillment of the general objective as explained above as well as the project’s vision 2030.

Project coordinator

Ahmad Arabkoohsar, Professor, Technical University of Denmark (contact)