- Posted 21-Sep-2021
New EIT Community Hub in Budapest to support more innovators across Central and Eastern Europe
The EIT Community Hub in Hungary officially opened its doors today in Budapest, bringing together four Knowledge & Innovation Communities (KICs) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) under one roof.
The EIT Community Hub will intensify knowledge sharing, business creation and acceleration and innovation partnerships in healthcare, climate, urban mobility and raw materials to support more entrepreneurs and SMEs across Central and Eastern Europe.
The EIT was created by the European Union to boost Europe’s ability to innovate by bringing together business, education and research to find cutting edge solutions to pressing global challenges. It has become Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem and in recent years, its activities have played an important role in developing Hungary’s innovation ecosystem, including channeling over EUR 40 million of funding and supporting over 100 promising local start-ups. EIT Community supported ventures have gone on to further attract EUR 2.4 million of investments in Hungary.
The EIT Community Hub in Hungary located in Budapest’s Infopark will house 50 highly skilled innovation specialists representing four EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities:
- EIT Health, the largest healthcare innovation network in Europe.
- EIT Climate-KIC, working on innovative solutions to battle climate change.
- EIT Raw Materials, developing raw materials into a major strength for Europe.
- EIT Urban Mobility, researching solutions for smart, green and integrated transport.
The EIT Community Hub is coordinated by EIT Health, who has also made Budapest its regional headquarters for the Central, Eastern and Southern European region - ‘InnoStars’. Some of its key regional activities include recognised start-up competitions such as EIT Jumpstarter and InnoStars Awards.
40 organisations are partnering with the EIT Community Hub in Hungary including top companies, universities and research centres in Hungary such as Semmelweis University, University of Debrecen, MOL, GE Healthcare, Ericsson or Nokia, among others.
Source: European Institute of Innovation & Technology (https://bit.ly/2Z79p15)