The European institute of technology and the Europe of knowledge: a research agenda

This paper explores the development and significance of the European Institute of Technology(EIT) in the period since 2005 when the European Union launched a suite of initiatives for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, including the EIT, as part of attempts to re-launch its Lisbon Strategy around a ‘Growth and Jobs’ agenda. The EIT is presented as implicated in European Commission attempts to redefine the mandates and governance of Higher Education institutions as part of a Knowledge Based Economy route to economic and social development. The production and contestation of the EIT as it was negotiated within EU institutions is shown as having been conditioned by the interactions between Commission attempts to use the EIT to disrupt the governance and financing of Higher Education and Research and national and institutional determination to constrain the EIT within extant governance and financing principles. In conclusion, the paper outlines a research agenda for the study and analysis of the EIT in the period up to 2013 which will make it possible to specify the significance of the EIT for EU integration, the development of the European Higher Education, Research and Innovation fields, the fate of EU strategies for capital accumulation and social development and the legitimacy of the EU itself