This article is part of our special report The EIT Summit 2024 – Europe’s leading innovators in conversation and celebration.
Euractiv spoke with the Head of Operations of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) Adam Rottenbacher to learn more about Europe’s largest innovation network. From trying to replicate its past successes to finding solutions to Europe’s latest challenges.
Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg – unfortunately a list of names that don’t include any of the EU-27’s citizens. After almost 20 years of EIT, have there been any big successes?
Yes, definitely. I’ll add one name to your list: Peter Carlsson, founder and CEO of Northvolt. We’re very proud of Northvolt which is now Europe’s largest battery manufacturer. They’re a decacorn valued at more than €10 billion.
Two co-founders started it around 7 years ago with nothing more than a piece of paper and a dream to create the world’s cleanest and greenest battery. EIT InnoEnergy, one of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) met them and helped them realise their idea. And today they’re massive.
They have already three factories in Europe and employ close to 5,000 people. I’m 100% sure that this wouldn’t have happened without the help and support of EIT InnoEnergy.
You have the hard task of meeting people with ideas on napkins and predicting the future. What does your crystal ball say about where we’ll be in the next five years?
In the last 14 years, we’ve built Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem and we are very proud of that. We’ve also created three self-sustainable and highly successful innovation communities. There is no other EU initiative that would even have such an ambition to create an innovation ecosystem that becomes a self-sustainable engine.
We have more than 2,000 partners and 50 hubs across Europe. Our objective for the next five years is to leverage this impact and network to increase the impact of the EIT. To support even more companies like Northvolt that solve societal challenges, to increase the impact of the KICs, and to strategically steer our network in directions where support is needed the most.
We believe we can help lessen the skills gap in Europe, we’ve also been successfully targeting Europe’s innovation divide and the lots of untapped potential.
Among the areas we have managed to tap into, is Europe leading in any of them?
Deep tech! It’s the area where the business models of the startups are built on high-tech innovation and engineering. We think this is an area where Europe can lead because we have great technical talent and research in our universities and research centres. There is unrealised potential that can still be unlocked.
We started the Deep Tech Talent Initiative because often companies’ growth is not limited by access to financing but access to talent. Northvolt for example has around 400 open positions on its website. Companies are finding it hard to recruit talented people. The deep tech initiative aims to train 1 million talents in deep tech fields in three years.
We’re just a few questions in and you already mentioned Europe’s untapped potential twice. How are we going to unlock this potential? What are we going to do to get going?
So one way is through programmes like the Deep Tech Talent Initiative to meet the needs of future industries.
Another initiative is the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme. It’s a dedicated outreach scheme, where we set up physical location hubs in countries that are moderate or emerging innovators. The aim is to raise awareness about how they can join the EIT KICs and we provide targeted support to startups and help them become competitive at the European and global level. We provide grants and also access to talent and a strong network.
Let’s jump back to the Euros a bit. You say it’s not always the biggest issue, but the EIT is seen by some as being unnecessarily complex to finance innovation. Is changing this perception something on your to-do list?
We have many stakeholders since our activities span the entire innovation journey and we listen to all of them to continuously improve our model. I wouldn’t agree with such statements that the EIT is unnecessarily complex.
The EIT has offerings for all of the stakeholders – students, professionals, startups, corporates, and universities.
We’re also the only ones who have an on-the-ground presence in every member state – it’s very important for innovators to have an office to go to for support from the EIT.
EIT Digital, EIT Climate-KIC, and EIT InnoEnergy are already getting on their own feet. Can you expect any new KICs to replace them and lead us into the future?
I wouldn’t necessarily use the word replace. But let’s say add to the richness of the EIT community. According to the seven-year strategy under Horizon Europe, we have one more KIC to set up and it is EIT Water. We haven’t yet received full confirmation from the Commission to go ahead with this KIC but we expect to get this green light in a couple of months.
Your team also has a summit coming up this month in Brussels. What’s the purpose of these kinds of events in 2024?
So we organise this summit every second year, bringing together the EIT community, which is by today, Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem. The purpose on the one hand is to showcase our results and for people to meet the EIT community.
This summit will also feature the EIT Awards, which in my opinion, is the most interesting part of the summit. Where in different categories the best of the best from the EIT community compete against each other for a monetary prize. We will also have some panel discussions where we will explain how the EIT innovation works.
What key takeaways do you want people following this year’s summit to leave the room or the live stream with?
That people following the summit will learn more about how the EIT model works. If they will find out how they can benefit from the EIT model in their particular country or region or thematic field. We also hope to bring in new organisations and people on board.
Innovation isn’t just about tech. But the EU and the rest of the world are currently heavily focused on AI. How is the EIT positioning itself in the short-term, and the long-term, to deal with how this is going to affect our societies and culture?
I fully agree that’s definitely a big challenge. So from the EIT community, EIT Digital is championing AI development and innovation but this technology clearly cuts across the sectors and what we have done is we have set up the so-called EIT AI Community. We also have a dedicated website for it: ai.eitcommunity.eu. So that’s an EIT community initiative where all KICs participate. And they have some very interesting activities.
They also create matches between corporates with an AI problem with startups that have AI solutions. And there’s definitely more to come.
Regarding your second question on culture, our latest KIC is EIT Culture & Creativity. They were set up a bit more than one year ago. Right now they’re launching their first activities and they will definitely have a key role in tackling this challenge.
It seems like you’re a unique organisation. When there isn’t a playbook or many other role models you can try to emulate, what fuels your drive and where do you get your new ideas?
I joined EIT almost 12 years ago, and I’m still fully motivated to work for the EIT so I can tell you what motivates me and I think this is probably true for most of my colleagues. And it’s the mission. The mission of the EIT is the purpose for which we exist. We’re not just supporting innovation for the sake of economic growth. We have a mission to pursue and to tackle the societal challenges for which the KICs were set up.
Here I would circle back also to the summit where we can be really proud of our community and I think that’s a great confirmation that we’re doing something important and valuable for Europe.
Over 5000 ventures helped. Eight unicorns created. What’s next for the EIT?
It links back to the previous question partially. We want to help other EIT innovation communities beyond the first three towards self-sustainability. Towards at least the same level of success.
We’re indeed unique. So we are experimenting with new initiatives. Maybe I can mention an example. We have already set up a European Battery Academy to train 800,000 people in the entire battery industry value chain and right now we have launched a second call for a similar academy which is called European Solar Academy.
And we are very much looking forward to working with other European Commission services and other programmes and with the KICs to address these skills gaps in Europe because that’s one of the major challenges.
The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. To read the full interview, please click here.
[By Christoph Schwaiger I Edited by Brian Maguire | Euractiv’s Advocacy Lab ]
