IP/09/1950 Budapeste, 16 de Dezembro de 2009 Instituto Europeu de Inovação e Tecnologia (IET) lança as três primeiras Comunidades de Conhecimento e Inovação (CCI) O Instituto Europeu de Inovação e Tecnologia (IET) apresentou hoje as suas três primeiras Comunidades de Conhecimento e Inovação (CCI). As CCI são parcerias altamente integradas que reúnem excelências no domínio do ensino superior, da investigação e do mundo empresarial em torno dos temas da minimização das alterações climáticas e adaptação às mesmas (CCI «Climate»), da energia sustentável (CCI «InnoEnergy») e da futura sociedade da informação e da comunicação («EIT ICT Labs»), respectivamente. O lançamento das CCI assinala um momento crucial da criação do IET, cuja finalidade é tornar-se num modelo de promoção da inovação na Europa, contribuindo assim para os objectivos da futura estratégia UE 2020. O Presidente da Comissão Europeia, José Manuel Durão Barroso, congratulou-se com a decisão: «A selecção das primeiras Comunidades de Conhecimento e Inovação constitui mais um marco na direcção de uma Europa mais inovadora. Espero que as CCI se tornem centros de inovação que atraiam os maiores talentos, tanto da Europa como do Mundo. Devem passar a ser “o sítio a não perder” para os estudantes, investigadores e empresários que queiram trabalhar em conjunto em áreas de grande relevância para o nosso futuro comum.» Por seu lado, Maroš Šef čovič, Comissário responsável pelo pelouro da educação, formação, cultura e juventude, sublinhou: «As CCI ajudarão a colmatar as lacunas que ainda impedem com frequência uma cooperação eficaz no âmbito do triângulo do conhecimento: ensino superior, investigação e inovação. Estou certo de que o IET contribuirá para a mudança de mentalidades, facilitando a nossa preparação para a sociedade do conhecimento e criando uma atmosfera em que as novas ideias possam prosperar.» As CCI seleccionadas foram escolhidas entre 20 propostas recebidas em resposta ao primeiro convite à apresentação de propostas de CCI lançado pelo IET no início do corrente ano. O referido convite, que decorreu de 2 de Abril a 27 de Agosto de 2009, abrangia três domínios prioritários: energia sustentável, minimização das alterações climáticas e adaptação às mesmas, bem com a futura sociedade da informação e da comunicação. Cabia aos proponentes de CCI definir as respectivas áreas de actuação nestes domínios. Depois de avaliadas as candidaturas por peritos independentes, as duas melhores propostas de cada domínio prioritário foram convidadas para audições junto do Conselho Directivo hoje, 16 de Dezembro, na sequência das quais se tomou a decisão final. «Os critérios determinantes para a nossa decisão foram a liderança e a excelência. No Conselho Directivo ficámos muito impressionados pela resposta obtida ao convite à apresentação de propostas de CCI, que revelou um elevado nível de empenho de todas as partes interessadas» , declarou Martin Schuurmans, presidente do Conselho Directivo independente do IET. «As CCI constituem bancos de ensaio da inovação e queremos que tenham um impacto real, nomeadamente em termos de criação de novos negócios, de educação para o desenvolvimento do espírito empresarial e de benefícios societais. A principal tarefa do IET é agora conseguir que as CCI estejam a funcionar em pleno até meados do próximo ano.» A fim de facilitar um início rápido e sem dificuldades, o IET dotará imediatamente as CCI de uma subvenção de arranque num montante total de 3 milhões de euros. Espera-se que as CCI se tornem plenamente operacionais pouco depois da assinatura com o IET de um Acordo-Quadro de Parceria com a duração de sete anos e após confirmação das primeiras convenções anuais de subvenção, em meados de 2010. Conferir em apêndice uma breve descrição das CCI seleccionadas. Sítio Web do IET: http://eit.europa.eu Appendix: Summaries of the selected Knowledge and Innovation Communities Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Climate-KIC Concept Addressing climate change requires a huge transformation of the global economy. Climate-KIC's mission is to accelerate and stimulate the innovation for this transformation and ensure benefits for Europe. The KIC will achieve this by creating a community with world-renowned innovation capability and climate change knowledge. By 2014, it will be the natural place for companies to locate climate R&D centres, top students to look for climate education, researchers to look for inspiration and policy makers to seek advice. It will have created significant industrial value and high-skill jobs for Europe and built the critical mass to be self-sustaining. Focus Climate-KIC will initially focus on achieving excellence in four areas: assessing climate change & managing its drivers, transitioning to low-carbon resilient cities, adaptive water management and zero carbon production. These fields were selected for their mitigation-adaptation potential as well as innovation and job creation opportunities. Structural elements The four areas will form the core structural elements, each with a world-renowned lead responsible for the entire chain from education to commercialisation. Work will be embedded in five co-locations responsible for creating local innovation ecosystems to drive entrepreneurship and venture creation, whilst linking into a network of implementation sites. The core partners consist of major companies, academic institutions and regional agencies that have the strength to make the KIC a success. A joint not-for-profit entity will ensure effective governance. Co-location centres: London, Zürich, Berlin metropolitan area, Paris metropolitan area, Randstad metropolitan area Sustainable Energy KIC InnoEnergy Concept InnoEnergy is a strongly integrated alliance of reputable players from the education, research and industry sectors. It was created based on long standing links of cooperation as well as the principles of excellence and transformation. The partners have jointly developed a strategy to tackle the weaknesses of the European innovation landscape and aim to be the leading motor for innovation in the field of sustainable energy. Focus The KIC will create economical and societal value by developing ideas from mind to market. Achieving this aim entails the training of technology leaders with an entrepreneurial mindset as well as connecting key players across the innovation chain through projects, platforms and events. State-of-the-art innovation and entrepreneurial support will be offered and continuously improved. The structural and systemic concept of the partnership will pave the way to a paradigm shift in innovation networks and cooperation. The adopted technological approach covers the most challenging areas of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) and addresses the transition of the system as a whole. The IPR policy and precise support measures provide incentives for the exploitation of research results. In addition, the holistic concepts of education, innovation and technology ensure the integration of the knowledge triangle. Structural elements InnoEnergy will systematically produce innovation by creating critical mass and integrating different actors of the knowledge triangle in a sustainable and structured manner. To achieve this, InnoEnergy will be organised and managed as a business. Its installation as a European Company (SE) provides stability and creates self-reinforcing mechanisms leading to sustainability. The managerial processes and mechanisms employed will assure the development of the alliance. Strong commitment of its complementary partners reflected in the jointly developed strategy and the dedicated resources is the key to success of InnoEnergy. Co-location centres: CC Germany: Karlsruhe, CC Alps Valleys: Grenoble, CC Benelux: Eindhoven/Leuven, CC Iberia: Barcelona, CC PolandPlus: Krakow, CC Sweden: Stockholm Future Information and Communication Society EIT ICT Labs Concept EIT ICT Labs, the KIC for the future information and communication society, aims at radical transformation of Europe into a knowledge society with an unprecedented proliferation of internet-based services. It will establish a new partnership between business and academia based on trust, transparency and mobility of ideas and people. The consortium connects world leading companies, globally renowned research institutes and top-ranked universities all dedicated to speeding up innovation to address grand challenges of our society. Committed to an efficient open innovation model, EIT ICT Labs will generate faster transformation of ideas and ICT technologies into real products, services and business, boosting Europe’s future competitiveness in all sectors of society. Focus EIT ICT Labs will equip students, researchers and business people with skills and inspiration for creativity, risk taking and entrepreneurship. By re-aligning the activities in the European Higher Education Area, the European Research Area and high growth ICT companies the EIT ICT Labs will leverage regional, national, and EU level funding instruments. EIT ICT Labs will foster international top talent and involve under-utilised innovation and entrepreneurial resources such as non-core IPR, women, students, and cost-driven innovations for the next billion users. Committed to an open innovation approach, the EIT ICT Labs will catalyse the creation of strong ventures and help them to grow to become the future world leaders in the ICT arena. Structural elements EIT ICT Labs will build upon five co-location centres – Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, Paris, and Stockholm – and turn these excellent clusters and their partners into a world-class network of innovation hotspots. The consortium covers the entire value chain in the ICT sector, thereby facilitating the capture of new business opportunities in the dynamic ICT sector. Cohesion and efficiency will be achieved by combining strong CEO-type management and clear IPR policies for open innovation with the agility of bottom-up initiatives provided by an extensive network of local and international innovation partners. Co-location centres: Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, Paris and Stockholm