New opportunities for innovation and research with the EU’s largest innovation community

Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, responsible for both the JRC and the EIT, stressed that innovation and research require effective cooperation. I am very pleased to see that the EIT, Europe’s largest innovation community, and the JRC, the European Commission’s science and knowledge service, are stepping up their cooperation. By working more closely together, the EIT and the JRC will even more successfully support innovation, science and knowledge, and the sustainable economic growth they help to bring about. This agreement is a forward-looking and important step that confirms their commitment to boosting Europe’s competitiveness and its citizens’ wellbeing and skills.

Following the signing, Martin Kern, the EIT’s interim Director, said: The strengthened cooperation now on the cards between the EIT and the JRC offers exciting prospects for Europe’s innovators and entrepreneurs and is making true on our mission to bridge the gap in Europe between research and innovation. The opportunities offered by widening our cooperation with the JRC will be hugely beneficial to the EIT and its Knowledge and Innovation Communities, and unlock new potential for synergies and innovations.

The MoU streamlines the sharing of knowledge and best practice between the two organisations by exchanging and disseminating information, jointly organising policy workshops and networking events and implementing joint analytical work. It will be especially beneficial in areas of common interest, which are Smart Specialisation and the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS); education, training and skills, technology transfer, intellectual property, new financing mechanisms and knowledge management.

This is a first step for a strategic collaboration between the JRC and the EIT Community which through its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) gathers over 800 excellent partners across disciplines, countries and sectors. The next steps will include the prioritisation of complementarities in important thematic pillars such as climate change, sustainable energy, digital agenda and digital economy, resource security and health.

Imagen: Vladimir Šucha, JRC Director-General, and Martin Kern, the EIT’s interim Director sign the Memorandum of Understanding between the two organisations.
©EU, 2016