KIC guidance framework published

The European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) has published its framework of guidance for the 2014 calls for the new Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs).

Following the publication of the selection criteria in December 2013, the EIT has made public a framework of guidance for this year’s 2014 call for KIC proposals. The document, intended to assist those interested in forming a KIC, sets out what the EIT is, what the KICs are and how they work, and what makes a KIC successful.

Based on the lessons learned since the establishment of the EIT and its first three KICs, the document also contains tips on starting a KIC and key information on what happens after the designation of the new KICs, including contractual relations, the EIT funding model and the EIT monitoring system.

The first two new KICs, to be established in 2014, will address the thematic fields of innovation for healthy living and active ageing, in addition to raw materials – sustainable exploration, extraction, processing, recycling and substitution.

The EIT is also publishing its financial regulation, based on the EU’s financial rules for decentralised agencies. The EIT will publish its ‘Principles for financing, monitoring and evaluating KIC activities’ by the end of January 2014, followed by the launch of calls on 14 February 2014. For more information and access to the relevant documents, please click here.

The EIT spurs innovation and entrepreneurship across the EU. To further enhance its impact and to incentivise the innovations needed to meet new societal challenges, the EIT will gradually expand its portfolio of KICs from 2014 to 2020.