The European Parliament adopted today the Regulation establishing the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). The next steps include appointing the EIT’s Governing Board by June 2008 and establishing the first two or three Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) towards end of 2009,

To boost Europe’s innovation capacity, the EIT will operate on the basis of highly integrated partnerships known as “Knowledge and Innovation Communities”. These KICs will pool together a critical mass of the best resources from higher education institutions, research organisations, businesses and other stakeholders in the innovation process. They will be selected and coordinated by an independent Governing Board, composed of 18 renowned personalities from business, research and academia. The involvement of business at both the strategic and operational levels is the cornerstone of the whole EIT initiative. The Governing Board members will be appointed in June 2008. In January, the Commission already set up an ad-hoc Identification Committee[1] whose task is to identify and propose future members of the Board. In this capacity, the Committee has just launched an open consultation on the main criteria to be taken into account. The entire identification process is expected to take approximately four months.

The first two or three KICs will be selected within 18 months after the appointment of the Governing Board. The focus will be on strategic areas where the EU faces vital current and future challenges. These are likely to include climate change, renewable energies and the next generation of information and communication technologies.