Former Deputy Minister appointed to EIT Governing Board

Kyriacos Kokkinos, Former Deputy Minister for Research, Innovation and Digital Policy has been appointed by the European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, Iliana Ivanova, as one of the five new Members of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT). 

According to a post on EIT’s official website, EIT is Europe’s largest innovation network and an integral part of Horizon Europe (HE). Its mission is to create jobs and deliver sustainable and smart growth across the EU. The EIT Governing Board sets the strategy and the direction of the EIT in achieving its goal, ensuring that it delivers value added for Europe and contributes to the objectives of Horizon Europe. 

Kokkinos thanked Commissioner Ivanova and highlighted that it is an honour for Cyprus to be represented in the EIT Governing Board, as this signifies the country’s Innovation capacity, growing momentum and contribution to EU. 

It is worth noting that Cyprus ranks 10th on the European Innovation Scoreboard, included in the Strong Innovators category for the third year in a row.

Horizon Europe is the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation with a budget of EUR 95.5 billion. Pillar 3 of Horizon Europe is ‘Innovative Europe”. 

That’s where EIT comes in as contributor with a budget of EUR 3 billion, aimed at strengthening sustainable innovation ecosystems across Europe and fostering the development of entrepreneurial and innovation skills in a lifelong learning perspective.

It also aims at supporting EU universities in integrating more entrepreneurial education, bringing new solutions to global societal challenges to the market and creating synergies and added value within Horizon Europe.

It is also noted that EIT operates as a unique EU body in that its method for driving innovation involves bringing together organisations across business, education, and research in a knowledge triangle. The goal of these partnerships is to find and commercialise solutions to pressing global challenges. For each global challenge, there is an ecosystem of partnerships called Knowledge and Innovation Communities, offering a wide range of education courses, business creation and acceleration services, and innovation-driven research projects.

In line with the criteria for European Partnerships funded under Horizon Europe, the EIT Governing Board has a key role to play in steering the KICs to become more transparent, efficient and inclusive while reinforcing their impact and leading them towards financial sustainability, based on sound exit strategies from Framework Programme funding.

(Source: CNA)