16 October 2019 - The European Institute of Innovation and Technology as a networked institute is an excellent example of how entrepreneurship and academic community can work together and spread the culture of innovation and business. The establishment of EIT centres is necessary for the Western Balkans and Montenegro, highlighted Montenegrin Minister of Science Sanja Damjanović, at a recent INNOVEIT conference.
As reported by the Ministry of Science, Minister Damjanović took part in the main panel discussion of the INNOVEIT conference in Budapest, which the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) organises every year.
The EIT innovation model is designed to efficiently transform the European innovation environment in a way that solves market and system deficiencies by linking all the actors in the field of innovation, regardless of which disciplines and sectors they are related to, to work together. Through the next EU programme (Horizon Europe 2021 – 2027), this institute will have an increased budget and one of its focuses will be the expansion of the regional impact, including the Western Balkans countries.
In a panel discussion about the education and the regional dimension as the basic pillars of the future of this unique institute, Minister Damjanović stated that the EIT is a powerful driver of innovation in Europe.
"Our young people, representatives of the business sector and start-ups participated in EIT schools, competitions and manifestations, which significantly affected their way of thinking and working," Minister Damjanović pointed out, hopeful that the European Commission's Directorate-General for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) will find a way to support the development of innovation centres of this institute in the Western Balkan countries. Referring to the long experience of researches and outstanding cooperation with CERN, Minister Damjanović highlighted that the EIT as a networked institute, that is, CERN as the infrastructure, are examples of how entrepreneurship and academic community can work together and spread the culture of innovation and business.
"It is exciting to see how advances in robotics, chemistry and food science, energy and ICT, data science and artificial intelligence, mechanical engineering contribute to the significant innovations the nominated innovators have developed in the EIT Venture Award category," Minister Damjanovic noted, emphasising that she comes from a small country in the Western Balkans, which has just started implementing innovation policies and developing and linking its innovation ecosystem, and that Montenegro finds great inspiration in seeing how society functions and changes for the better.
The EIT Venture award was given to the finalists whose team has been developing a unique technology that converts wave energy efficiently and sustainably. Minister Damjanović also congratulated the innovators in other categories and the EIT communities, who, by supporting such innovators, make Europe, a true innovation union.
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