Deadline: 17-Jun-25
The European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) opens its call to build a new sustainable innovation partnership to strengthen Europe’s water, marine and maritime sectors and ecosystems.
The Call for Proposals invites consortia of organisations and industry leaders bringing together water-related education, research and business to put forward their vision and strategy for EIT Water. The EIT is an integral part of Horizon Europe, the EU’s research and innovation framework programme.
Why the water, marine and maritime fields?
- Water is essential for sustaining all life on Earth. It plays a significant role in the Earth’s climate and biodiversity. It has a crucial role for health, wellbeing and prosperity. It is also a vital source of food and renewable energy production, and a key driver of the global economy including for trade and transport.
- Freshwater and marine ecosystems have been under considerable and increasing stress due to the overuse and mismanagement of natural resources and changing land-sea uses. Global aquatic resources are significantly impacted, and biodiversity is threatened by climate change, industrial misuse and pollution.
- The new EIT KIC will develop an integrated approach across freshwater, marine and maritime sectors, supporting education and skill development, innovation projects as well as the ideation, development, deployment and commercialisation of new technologies, products and services.
What is an EIT Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC)?
- An EIT Knowledge and Innovation Community is a thriving partnership that brings together partners from businesses, research centres and higher education institutions to power innovation. The EIT has set up nine KICs, each tackling a specific global challenge, from climate change to sustainable energy and urban mobility to the digitalisation of the societies.
- The EIT Community powers:
- a new generation of trained entrepreneurs and innovators
- innovative products and services that are developed and launched on the market in green, health and deep tech
- start-ups and ventures that are formed and scaled
Challenges
- The new KIC on water, marine and maritime sectors and ecosystems – with a holistic and integrated approach – will help address the following broad challenges:
- Water scarcity, drought and floods,
- Marine and freshwater ecosystem degradation,
- The circular and sustainable blue economy.
Funding Information
- The designation of the KIC does not result in a direct award of funding. After designation, the consortium enters a start-up phase and receives a grant of 5 million EUR to set up the KIC from strategic, operation and legal perspective. The practice shows that following the start-up period, the EIT grant for the first Business Plan is between EUR 20-35 million per year.
Eligibility Criteria
- The EIT Call for Proposals is for consortia consisting of leading organisations from business, education and research. In order to apply, consortia are not required to establish a KIC legal entity or other legal forms or entities.
- Following the admissibility check, only proposals complying with the following conditions will be considered eligible for further evaluation:
- the applying consortium must contain at least three independent partner organisations established in at least three different Member States;
- at least two thirds of the partner organisations forming the consortium are established in different Member States;
- the applying consortium includes at least one higher education institution, one research institution and one private company;
- the applying consortium shall not include the following entities that are part of a KIC under Partnership Agreement or a KIC under Memorandum of Cooperation:
- KIC legal entity;
- co-location centre;
- other entities part of a KIC’s legal/corporate structure
- the proposal must be submitted by a consortium containing a maximum of 50 partners.
- NGOs are eligible to be part of the consortium
For more information, visit EIT.