Innovation Birmingham opens climate exchange scheme

Climate-KIC in the UK has announced it is seeking a record breaking 50 climate change ‘pioneers’ to join its European exchange programme.

The €400,000 programme entitled ‘Pioneers into Practice’ is managed by Innovation Birmingham, and is seeking 35 practitioners from the UK’s Midlands region along with 15 further ‘pioneers’ being sought from Ireland. The chosen applicants will undertake two four-week placements, one domestic and one European, at a Climate-KIC co-location centre to learn new ways to tackle climate change, including savings and developing new products. The scheme also includes a two-day workshop and each participant will receive €8,000 during the programme.

Katharine Fuller, Innovation Birmingham’s senior manager for European projects, said: “The Pioneers into Practice programme enables those at the forefront of climate change innovation and implementation to have the opportunity to work abroad and in innovative companies closer to home. The programme has demonstrated that being parachuted into an organisation – outside of regular comfort zones – is the best catalyst to new ways of thinking.

“The diverse mix of backgrounds and expertise is what makes this programme so successful for both the host organisations and the pioneers. They take their experience and skills up a level, which in turn delivers a more effective and creative group of climate change practitioners working across the region.”

Participants will be evaluated based on their current experience of working in the climate change sector and applications can be submitted until 23 March 2015.