YERUN welcomes the opportunity to present some feedback to the open consultation on the Amendment on the Regulation on the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) and the design of the EIT Strategic Innovation Agenda 2021-2027.

Innovation capacity in higher education institutions (HEIs) relates to the ability to evolve and undertake change in order to meet demands of society. This relates to the areas of education, research and innovation, and is translated often with the ability to create spin-off companies, to foster entrepreneurship and to develop educational programs that meet the needs of the labor market, thereby contributing to an innovative and smart economic transformation. All over Europe, universities are increasingly developing innovation capacity in this sense, being stimulated or motivated by a variety of (f)actors: financial, regulatory and political, to name a few. ‘Modernization’ of HEIs is a constant process that occurs at different speeds but both across the EU, and within national and regional borders.

Under the current development of Horizon Europe another dynamic is required for the EIT, and its role should be defined with care. In particular, a proper balance should be found between on the one hand the EITs as a funding body enabling innovation capacity, and on the other hand its institutional character, composed of an integrated community of parties that are beneficiaries of European and member states’ support for innovation capacity development.