The Innovation Capacity Building in UNITA (INNOUNITA) project represents the opportunity to bring together experiences and know-how, and develop a consistent overall strategy, based on the UNITA University alliance. UNITA is a European University alliance of six comprehensive research universities from five countries, gathering together more than 160,000 students and 15,000 staff members. The alliance’s coverage in the region is wide, with low investment in research and innovation included in the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS). Portugal, Romania, Spain, and Italy are included, either as a whole country or as specific regions.

Through INNOUNITA, the experiences and approaches developed by the partners to promote and support innovation and entrepreneurship in the staff and student community will be shared in order to set and develop a common ground for promoting entrepreneurial mindsets and strengthening the impact of higher education institutions in the innovation ecosystem. The impact of this project will be particularly important in terms of building a critical mass of new talents in the RIS regions, and filling the gap in scientific, entrepreneurial, and managerial skills, enabling students to undertake complex multidisciplinary tasks. The value added is in the nature of the opportunities that will be created through building one of the most up to date, attractive networks of innovation opportunities. The project is organised in a way that will aim to avoid the ‘one-shot’ moment, instead creating a smart, creative pipeline for young innovators, from high schools to start-ups or research and development activities, making participants aware (and possibly active users) of all the EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities’ portfolio programmes.