At the end of July, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth – Androulla Vassiliou – appointed 12 new members in the governing board of the Budapest-based European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT). The 12 new appointees have joined, on 31 July, a team of 10 other board members. Six of the latter are from the original governing board of the institute (their mandate continuing for another four years) and four are appointed from among the administrative staff, students and doctoral candidates at EIT – the governing board comprising in total 22 persons.
The new board members include prominent business figures, professors, researchers as well as representatives of university leadership, an essential combination since the core aim of the EIT is to support the strengthening of the EU knowledge triangle – research, education and innovation. The names of the new appointees together with their current positions are presented below:
Gabor Bojar, Founder and Chairman of Graphisoft SE, Graphisoft Park SE, and Aquincum Institute of Technology (AIT)
María Garana, President of Microsoft Spain
Ulf J. Johansson, Chairman of the board of Novo A/S and Novo Nordisk Foundation
Elpida Keravnou-Papailiou, Rector of the Cyprus University of Technology
Jana Kolar, Head of research, founder and majority owner of Morana rtd, Slovenia
Marja Makarow, Vice-president for research of the Academy of Finland
Peter Olesen, Chairman of the Danish Council for Strategic Research
Patrick Prendergast, Provost/President of Trinity College Dublin
Bruno Revellin-Falcoz, President of the National Academy of Technologies, France
Gianfelice Rocca, Chairman of Techint Group, Italy
Nigel Thrift, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick, UK
Jeroen Van Der Veer, Non-executive Director of Shell Company
More concretely, the board is the
main governing body of the institute and is responsible for coordinating the implementation of EIT’s overall strategy – the Strategic Innovation Agenda – as well as for the selection, coordination and evaluation of Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). The KICs – currently three in operation, on climate change, sustainable energy and ICT – are “highly integrated, creative and excellence-driven partnerships which bring together the fields of education, technology, research, business and entrepreneurship, in order to produce new innovations and new innovation models”.
The
European Commission proposed a budget of EUR 3 billion for EIT under the new financial framework (2014-2020), which, if approved, should help the EIT consolidate its current activities and set up six new KICs.
EIT
