The European Parliament has established a budget line for a pilot project for cooperation between European institutes of technology across Europe. This call for proposals aims at addressing Europe's technology transfer capacity. Through a series of pilot projects, new teams with the knowledge triangle (research, innovation and education) will design, implement and test integrated partnerships between leading players (universities, research institutes, companies, innovation centres, etc.). In particular, the implementation and testing should focus on:

• research, education and innovation, such as doctoral teaching modules with a strong focus on innovation and entrepreneurship;
• mobility programs to support exchange of staff between business and academia;
• increasing knowledge and technology transfer capacity;
• closer integration and collaboration between the partners, such as model agreements on innovative partnerships.

The January ACA Newsletter-Education Europe presented the results of the expert group appointed by the Commission to draw recommendations on the EU research and innovation performance. The recommendations point out the importance of facilitating knowledge-sharing and technology transfer by deepening European networks in strategic interdisciplinary fields.

Please note that this call for proposals has no direct link with the Commission's proposal to establish an European Institute of Technology.

Deadline for application: 15 August 2007

Budget: 1 500 000 Euro (maximum budget)