The EIT’s eight Knowledge and Innovation Communities competed for EUR 500 million and were evaluated against their strategies and business plans for 2020, as well as their performance to date. Based on this, the EIT Governing Board decided to allocate the following grants  (in order of their selection in 2009, 2014, 2016, and 2018*):

• EIT Climate-KIC: EUR 78.4 million

• EIT Digital: EUR 66.2 million

• EIT InnoEnergy: EUR 77.8 million

• EIT Health: EUR 85.1 million

• EIT Raw Materials: EUR 81.7 million

• EIT Food: EUR 55.1 million

• EIT Manufacturing: EUR 26.8 million

• EIT Urban Mobility: EUR 28.8 million

The EIT Governing Board also decided to allocate EUR 30 million to the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme (EIT RIS) – the program that helps modest and moderate regions (according to the European Innovation Scoreboard) to fully realize their innovation potential through the sharing of good practice and experience from across the EIT Community. The EIT RIS fund will be available to all EIT Innovation Communities that include EIT RIS eligible activities in their 2020 Business Plans. The EIT Governing Board also decided to allocate EUR 12.5 million for joint activities between Knowledge and Innovation Communities, for example, in the areas of artificial intelligence and Skills 4 Future.

Investing in what works

The 2020 funding will step up activities for entrepreneurs, innovators, and students, including business creation and acceleration services, entrepreneurial educational programs and innovation-driven research projects. These activities have been shown to work, delivering a tangible impact for Europe. In 2020, the EIT Community plans to power 1000 start-ups and scale-ups and launch more than 360 new products and services to contribute to Europe’s efforts to tackling global challenges. More than 900 students are expected to graduate from EIT labeled master and doctoral programs, strengthening the pool of talented and entrepreneurially-minded change agents eager to transform their best ideas into solutions for Europe. It is foreseen that in 2020 alone, ventures supported by the EIT-Community will raise over EUR 400 million in external capital.

Since the EIT was set up in 2008, it has created Europe’s largest innovation community, with more than 1 000 partners and 50 innovation hubs. This has delivered support to more than 2 000 start-ups and scale-ups created more than 6 100 jobs and more than 900 new products and services. More than 2 200 students have graduated from EIT-labelled master and doctoral programs. To date, EIT-supported ventures have raised more than EUR 1.5 billion in external capital.