Boosting knowledge sharing, business creation and innovation partnerships across Central and Eastern Europe
The EIT Community Hub in Hungary officially opened its doors today in Budapest, bringing together four Knowledge & Innovation Communities (KICs) of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) under one roof. The EIT Community Hub will intensify knowledge sharing, business creation and acceleration and innovation partnerships in healthcare, climate, urban mobility and raw materials to support more entrepreneurs and SMEs across Central and Eastern Europe.
The EIT was created by the European Union to boost Europe’s ability to innovate by bringing together business, education and research to find cutting edge solutions to pressing global challenges. It has become Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem and in recent years, its activities have played an important role in developing Hungary’s innovation ecosystem, including channeling over EUR 40 million of funding and supporting over 100 promising local start-ups. EIT Community supported ventures have gone on to further attract EUR 2.4 million of investments in Hungary.
The EIT Community Hub in Hungary exemplifies the EIT’s unique innovation model with the close cooperation of four Innovation Communities supporting innovators at all stages of their journey. Collaboration makes us stronger: students and entrepreneurs with innovative ideas will benefit from this new Hub and I look forward to seeing the results and more ground-breaking innovations emerging from Central and Eastern Europe.
Martin Kern, EIT Director
The EIT Community Hub in Hungary located in Budapest’s Infopark will house 50 highly skilled innovation specialists representing four EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities:
- EIT RawMaterials, developing raw materials into a major strength for Europe.
- EIT Health, the largest healthcare innovation network in Europe.
- EIT Climate-KIC, working on innovative solutions to battle climate change.
- EIT Urban Mobility, researching solutions for smart, green and integrated transport.
The EIT Community Hub is coordinated by EIT Health, who has also made Budapest its regional headquarters for the Central, Eastern and Southern European region – ‘InnoStars’. Some of its key regional activities include recognised start-up competitions such as EIT Jumpstarter and InnoStars Awards.
Hungary is like a gold mine of talents and early-stage start-ups which have innovative ideas. Again and again we find rising stars with a prospect to expand internationally. In this phase, no matter which industry they work in, they have similar challenges – pricing strategy, sustainable business model, well-balanced team and networking. In this phase, no matter which industry they work in, they have similar challenges – pricing strategy, sustainable business model, well-balanced team and networking. We are there to help. With four innovation communities working together we are able to address better the start-ups’ needs and we move teams to another level, where they are ready to catch the investors interest and be able to conquer the market. This is the first EIT Community Office in CEE, which indicates the strategic importance of the region.
Balázs Zoltán Fürjes, EIT Health InnoStars Director
40 organisations are partnering with the EIT Community Hub in Hungary including top companies, universities and research centres in Hungary such as Semmelweis University, University of Debrecen, MOL, GE Healthcare, Ericsson or Nokia, among others.
