HEIght is an initiative of a pan-European consortium of four forward-thinking higher education institutions (HEIs) and one actor from another side of the knowledge triangle, united to cultivate a mutually beneficial and collaborative consortium. It leverages existing innovation and entrepreneurial knowledge of all partners and draws on the resources of HEInnovate to spur on growth of the sustainable innovation in our communities and in our institutions.

HEIght delivers on the consortium’s shared vision of prosperous, inclusive and climate-resilient societies where food systems and other areas of human activity that are sustainable, trusted and healthy contribute to net-zero carbon emission economies through a structured programme of work packages. Through training, designed and tailored to develop innovation and enterprise, these activities support the development of academic and non-academic staff and students. Across two phases, HEIght achieves key performance indicators of delivering training (including mentoring) to 645 students, 66 academics and 66 non-academics in order to build innovation and entrepreneurial capacity within HEIs across the consortium, EIT HEIs, the EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities, and into society. Sustainability is achieved through enabling lifelong learning, particularly through the development of communities of practice which can grow from the consortium to EU Member States.

Through open resources, stakeholders are enabled with tools for transformative change beyond the life of the project. HEIs will develop capacity in innovation and enterprise. In addition, a ‘train the trainer’ method will ensure exponential growth of academic and non-academic expertise and skills to support capacity building of innovative and entrepreneurial staff and students to effect great societal innovation.