EIT Community in the Outermost Regions

Against the backdrop of persisting regional disparities in innovation performance in Europe, the EIT launched a Regional Innovation Scheme (RIS) in 2014 to widen its regional outreach to modest / emerging and moderate innovator countries according to the European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), as well as, from 2021, the EU Outermost Regions. Through the EIT RIS, steered by the EIT and implemented by its KICs, the EIT has significantly expanded its activities across Europe and offers opportunities for EIT RIS countries and regions to engage in EIT Community activities. Today, ten years since the launch of the EIT RIS, the EIT stands proudly as one of the strongest instruments under Horizon Europe in addressing Europe’s innovation divide.

Based on its strong track record, the EIT is both evidently well-placed, as well as firmly committed to support the innovation ecosystems of the EU Outermost Regions to harness their strengths and overcome their challenges. In this context, in February 2024, the EIT has published a Strategy, outlining its vision for the EU Outermost Regions and providing steering guidance to the EIT KICs to better adapt the toolbox of existing, effective instruments to the EU Outermost Regions as well as design new, bespoke initiatives.

With the EU Outermost Regions eligible for the RIS in the 2021-2027 programming period, the EIT Communities have been enhancing its focus on those Regions and helping boost the capacity of local innovation ecosystems. The EIT Communities specifically:

• Support and boost core EIT innovation activities, such as innovation projects, skills programmes, and business support programmes
• Offer preferential conditions for Outermost Regions higher learning institutes
• Support access to scientific outcomes and strengthen technology transfer capacity in Outermost Region research institutions and universities to stimulate more marketable products and services
• Produce a tailored fundraising programme so Outermost Region start-ups can access finance
• Produce initiatives that overcome barriers to student recruitment and joint programming in the Outermost Regions while simultaneously increasing the appeal of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education (with a special focus on gender balance)
• Upskill and reskill workers with primary and secondary school education levels
• Develop ways to attract more women to tech and business, areas in which they are underrepresented

The flagship business pre-accelerator – EIT Jumpstarter – aims to significantly increase number of teams from the EU Outermost Regions trained and supported to kick-start their entrepreneurial journey. In the 2025 edition, the programme will fund a special prize for the best team from the EU Outermost Regions. Furthermore, the EIT Community will launch the EIT Infrabooster programme to the EU Outermost Regions in 2025 for the first time. The programme aims at supporting researchers and scientists to build business-orientated services out of existing research labs and facilities and serve them on the market. The programme has been successfully implemented in the Western Balkans and the neighbouring countries as well as Ukraine.

The EIT Community also aims to support an increasing number of EU Outermost Regions higher education institutes supported via its Higher Education Institution (HEI) Initiative, providing them with funding, expertise, and coaching to transform local economic activities. 

It is worth mentioning that innovators and ecosystem leaders from these regions can apply to other interesting opportunities such as those offered by the EIT Global Outreach – a platform supporting the internationalization of European start-ups and scale-ups, equipping them with robust strategies and a necessary network globally.