The mission of the EIT Community Strategic Synergies (EIT CSS) is to facilitate and foster collaboration across EIT Community in key thematic areas identified in the EIT SIA 2021-207 and EU policy priorities. By bringing together and promoting cooperation across the different KICs involved, the EIT SCC elevates the EIT Community’s visibility and impact in key areas to drive a systemic change in Europe. By gathering EIT Community’s answers to strategic challenges in one cluster, the EIT CSS creates links between programs that would otherwise never meet, it increases scalability of actions and results, it improves efficiency in terms of management and implementation of processes, and attract new sources of fundings. The EIT CSS builds on the diverse expertise and knowledge of the KICs involved and, inspired by the holocaracy management framework yet aligned with EIT’s recommendations, it positions itself as unique community to address some of today’s most pressing challenges for Europe in four areas: : 1. Artificial Intelligence: by providing solutions for a human-centric implementation of AI that can best address its societal, business, environmental and regulatory challenges but also contributing to the ambitious Deep Tech Talent Initiative (DTTI) initiave; 2. New European Bauhaus (NEB)by supporting community-based capacity building initiatives and start-ups to accelerate the shift towards a more sustainable, inclusive, and beautiful Europe and contributing therefore to the Green Deal; 3. Women Entrepreneurship: by promoting a more inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem, mainstreaming business opportunities and increased the share of women-led innovation in the market; 4. Circular Economy: facilitating the shift from a linear to a circular economy model by connecting and engaging the different stakeholders of the innovation ecosystem.

The Cross-KIC Strategic Education Cluster (Edu Cluster) is an unprecedented endeavour to integrate, systematise and leverage education activities from different KICs, create joint offerings, and open new opportunities for raising EIT’s profile and market penetration. By ensuring interactions and synergies between KICs’ educational activities, the Edu Cluster creates cross-cutting opportunities, fosters peer-learning, and allows efficiency gains. As a result, EIT partners are equipped to innovate solutions to global challenges tackled by European policies, most notably the Green Deal and the Deep Tech Talent Initiative (DTTI). The different Work Packages (WPs) comprising the Edu Cluster reflect the need for transversality of EIT’s educational offer. WP2 will develop, execute, and scale the DTTI by training one million deep tech talents by 2025, therefore contributing to the new European Innovation Agenda. WP3 will build on its success with the Girls Go Circular project by expanding its educational resources and reach to all EU member states. WP4 will support the long-term sustainability of the EIT Alumni community while ensuring inclusion and diversity. WP5 will scale up the EIT Virtual Campus (VC) through upskilling or reskilling learners with competences in line with market demand. EIT VC will become the go-to educational portal to address knowledge needs in Europe and complement the resources of higher education institutions. WP6 will explore a mode of operation with the platform consortium (hereafter InnoNext)for the EU Next Generation Innovation Internship scheme and coordinate integration into the scheme with the KICs. The Edu Cluster, in synergy with other Cross-KIC Clusters and the HEI Initiative, will keep strengthening the Cross-KIC offering along the entire education value chain.

As the Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) 2021-2027 sets out, the EIT, primarily through its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) and by expanding its Regional Innovation Scheme, should aim to strengthen innovation ecosystems that tackle global challenges. Cross-KIC Strategic Regional Innovations is a horizontal project fulfilling the above requirements by providing a platform for the KICs to share best-practices and KIC initiatives and identify joint activities within those Emerging European regions that are labelled as modest and moderate innovators, specifically EIT RIS regions and countries and the Western-Balkans. Objective: Maximise the EIT Community’s impact in the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme area as well as other priority countries and regions Work Packages Proposed activities under the Work Packages address a need emerging from the local innovation ecosystem and validated by a group of experts: 1. EIT Jumpstarter and EIT Post-Jumpstarter (EIT Jumpstarter Next from 2025) – addresses the need to support entrepreneurial education and boosting entrepreneurship in our region. 2. Western-Balkans – addresses the need for a closer business-academia collaboration 3. Ukraine – addresses the needs of Upskilling/Reskilling talents into entrepreneurs and providing access to European opportunities locally to decrease brain-drain 4. Cross-KIC Hub Collaboration- addresses the need for closer collaboration of the RIS Hubs within the same country and increase the visibility of the EIT Community 5. Communication and Management – addresses the need for effective management of the project Work Packages of the project are interconnected with each other to ensure strategic alignment and de-siloing of the activities proposed.

Within Horizon Europe and included as one of the three specific objectives in the European Institute of Innovation and Technology's (EIT) Strategic Innovation Agenda (SIA) 2021-2027, the European Commission (EC) expects the EIT and the EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) to raise the bar in higher education and create systemic impact by (i) strengthening the innovation and entrepreneurial capacity of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) at institutional level, (ii) integrating HEIs in innovation ecosystems and (iii) enlarging the EIT KIC reach to engage EIT KIC partner and non-partner HEIs by launching the EIT HEI Initiative. The EIT HEI 2023-2025 proposal will operationalize the favourable decision by the EIT Governing Board to continue the HEI Initiative. It offers an overview of how the HEI Initiative will leverage progress to date in advancing its goal of enhancing innovation and entrepreneurship capacity building in European higher education and fostering institutional transformation. The proposal introduces additional activities for the 2024-2025 period, marking the expansion of the Initiative beyond its pilot phase. To realize the objectives outlined in the proposal, the document delineates the vision, structure, and implementation strategy for initiative-level coordination of the program, outlining the parameters for the participation of all EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities in terms of their involvement in Work Packages. It seeks to provide a comprehensive overview of the timeline, focus areas, budget, and anticipated impact of HEI Initiative Cohorts 2, 3 and 4 offering detailed insights into the lifecycle of individual HEI Initiative projects and their significance. Overall, the proposal underscores the substantial potential of the HEI Initiative as a significant catalyst for transforming European Higher Education Institutions into hubs of innovation.

The Cross-KIC Global Outreach programme was established in 2018 to narrow the competitive innovation gap between Europe and other leading markets around the world. It connects the EIT’s innovation ecosystem with those of strategic innovation valleys worldwide, securing the EU and EIT’s position on the global innovation map as a leading player. The EIT Global Outreach has developed and implements a unique, efficient and agile method that delivers high-impact activities in strategic outreach locations, executing the EC’s bilateral agreements in line with international priorities to create significant value for the European economy. The Global Outreach forges synergies, provides access, and generates success stories with global innovation leaders. It enables innovations to be launched on the global market, supports startups in attracting investments, facilitates cross-border consortium building and more. To date the Global Outreach cluster consistently exceeds its core KPIs, with 27 innovations launched on the market, and over €84M investments raised by supported startups and scaleups. The Global Outreach is active in the following strategic locations: Hubs: EIT Hub Silicon Valley (established 2018), EIT Hub Israel (established 2019), EIT Hub UK (established 2024) Pilot locations: US East Coast (2022, 2023, 2024), Japan (2023) Canada (2024) The Global Outreach innovation Hubs and the Global Platform, which operates pilot programmes in key locations, have developed specialized expertise in driving global impact. Their organizational knowledge spans open innovation, global market access strategies, cross-border consortium building, and more. The cluster runs a variety of results-driven programmes worldwide, each tailored to the technology development lifecycle—from ideation to global market launch. These include open innovation programmes for corporates, go-to-market programmes that help startups and scaleups enter new markets, lab-to-market education for researchers turning breakthrough technologies into startups, and consortium building for Horizon Europe open calls.