The European Alliance for Innovation Mission

A Community of Innovators

The European Alliance for Innovation (EAI) was created by a community of innovation leaders from industry, research, government and non-governmental sectors to address Europe’s challenge that the European Union, federal and local governments, public and private industry, researchers and scientists in Europe are engaged in parallel, and not often, in collaboration on technology development and entrepreneurial innovation.

A Mission to Contribute, Communicate and Collaborate to Empower Grassroots Innovation

EAI’s mission is to drive innovation in emerging information and communication technology (ICT) enabled areas by decreasing fragmentation between key participants in the innovation cycle, from education to business to government institutions, by providing a bottom-up grass-roots forum for these participants to contribute knowledge, communicate views, and collaborate together with a focus of advancing their respective and Europe’s broader innovation initiatives.

True to its grassroots inception, EAI supports knowledge transfer and engagement among its member community through a combination of online tools such as Web 2.0 content uploading, feedback and online dissemination and face-to-face forums with focused activities such as technical and product presentations, innovation competitions, one-on-one innovation reviews with business, investor, legal, marketing and other experts that leverage the expertise of EAI members.

The Innovation Cycle

EAI envisions ‘innovation’ as a complete cycle going from education, to research, to business and to the multiple levels of benefit to society. Players inside the innovation cycle include people in education, research, industry, business, investors, and governmental and regulatory bodies. The cycle starts with idea-generation, then moving to prioritising and funding the ideas, followed by converting them into products. Finally, it involves diffusing those products and business practices through their launch on the market, in order for them to have a real impact on society by creating new jobs and improving living standards.

Science for Innovation, Business and Technology Councils (SIBs)

EAI provides an open, democratic format for members. Any member can organize Science for Innovation, Business and Technology Councils (SIBs), which are groups of members organized according to technology areas where ICT has the potential for significant business development and societal impact. The SIBs drive the activities of EAI in specific thematic areas, which have a strategic interest at a European level. SIBs enable members to focus their efforts on innovation that is important to them and empower members to take leadership roles in EAI by being active leaders in a SIB. For more information about leadership positions in SIBs and for a list of currently active SIBs, please visit the Science for Innovation, Business and Technology Councils (SIBs) page.

A Strong Voice for the European Innovator Community

By combining the key participants of the innovation cycle in one community, EAI also provides a voice to the European technology community. EAI aggregates members’ recommendations of advancing technology innovation from a policy perspective and combined with the strategy, goals, policy and agenda recommended by the Strategic Forum, which is composed of member organizations that form the strategic branch of EAI, communicates conclusions to local and federal European governments, the European Commission and public and private technology community.

An Opportunity for European Innovators and Technologists in All Sectors

European innovation and technology leaders in industry, research, government and non-governmental-organizations are invited to contribute, communicate and collaborate in EAI in advancing Europe’s technology and entrepreneurial innovation.

For more information about EAI and its initiatives in specific technology fields or how individual members can get involved, please visit the Science for Innovation, Business and Technology Councils (SIBs) page.

For more information about how organizations can get involved in helping set the strategy, goals, policy and agenda of EAI, please visit the Strategic Forum page.

For more information about EAI’s framework and governance, please visit the EAI Governance page.

Goals & Objectives

The EAI and partnering organisations contribute to the improvement of Europe ’s technical competitiveness by focusing on 4 specific areas: Research, Innovation, Education and Policies.

Research:

• Promote international outreach and improve research dissemination
• Resource sharing: Leverage on shared testing facilities and research infrastructures
• Facilitate access to funding opportunities
• Improve assessment of professional competences via standardised certification mechanisms
• Enhance research results by providing innovative tools for collaboration

Innovation:

• Create rewards and incentives mechanisms for fostering innovation
• Close the gap between research and standardisation
• Integrate and retain European IPR (intellectual property rights) in the European innovation cycle
• Bridge the gap between academia and industry
• Create partnerships with the active involvement of SMEs

Education:

• Outline a common European curriculum to educate student towards an entrepreneurial mindset
• Provide innovation training and education
• Contribute to a life-long learning process and ensure better accessibility to digital content for all;
• Involve industry in the educational process by contributing to curriculum and incentives

Policies:

• Establish a critical mass in strategic areas of ICT
• Provide strategic input to the setting of European ICT policies
• Improve innovation policies through a common lobbying action
• Share best practices (e.g. at the national level) at the European level