EIT Community Bolsters Innovation in EU-13 Member States

In 2014, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) launched the Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) to provide tailored capacity building support as well as widened regional outreach to what the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) designates as ‘moderate’ and ‘emerging’ innovator countries. The EIT RIS, accessible to all EU-13 Member States, is overseen by the EIT and executed by its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) through a 'place-based approach', leveraging a distinctive network of local EIT Hubs. It provides eligible innovators, such as students, researchers, entrepreneurs, Small-and-Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), universities, research laboratories, regions, NGOs, and cities, with tailored support. The overarching goal is to enhance the innovation performance of the designated areas.

Throughout its history, the EIT Community has consistently acknowledged the substantial innovation potential within the EU-13 Member States. Leveraging its full array of resources, it has made substantial investments to bolster the innovation capabilities and initiatives of local ecosystems through capacity-building activities. 

To celebrate 20^th year of the 2004 enlargement and to show how valuable these countries’ contributions to Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem are, EIT published new success stories picked one top venture from each of the EU-13 Member States: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. These case studies provide a factsheet on each of these ventures, showcasing their innovative solutions, their approaches, their successes, and how the EIT Community was part of their development.