The European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT): A New Way for Promoting Innovation in Europe? Bruges Political Research Papers No. 13, May 2010

This paper examines the extent to which the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT) represents an institutional innovation in the EU landscape. This flagship initiative of the Barroso I Commission was established in March 2008 and aims at unlocking Europe‘s innovation potential by pooling together the best European students, researchers and businesses in integrated partnerships, called 'Knowledge Innovation Communities' (KICs), which should be operational by mid-2010. Using a comparative approach with a sample of leading technological universities, both EIT's nature and added value are questioned. Empirical findings lead to the conclusion that the institute can be considered as an institutional novelty, mainly because of its atypical virtual two-level structure, its independence and long-term focus and the integration of education, but that its added value - and thus its innovativeness - may be limited