Partnerships

EIT Climate KIC

EIT Climate KIC

Partnership website: https://www.climate-kic.org/

EIT Climate-KIC has the principal objective to speed up the transition to a zero-carbon economy. It is focused at developing innovative products and services, starting new companies and training a new generation of entrepreneurs in the field.

Community and Programmes overview:

The Climate-KIC community currently involves 400+ organizations from diverse sectors including businesses, universities, cities, public agencies, and NGOs. With a focus on climate action, the Climate-KIC community aims to drive breakthrough innovation and help Europe achieve its goal of a zero-carbon economy by 2050. All partners are invited to participate in four key areas:

  • Creating the carbon-neutral cities and towns of the future
  • Reducing industrial carbon emission (sustainable production)
  • Unlocking new financial models to foster the climate transition
  • Sustainable land use for agriculture, forestry and food

To effectively address the challenges in these areas, our community is structured around four integrated programs:

  • Research & Innovation Programme: This program combines knowledge from various sources, including government, academia, industry, and researchers, to develop socially accountable policies and best practices. It currently consists of:

How to get involved?

To explore opportunities and stay updated on the latest news, visit the Climate-KIC webpage and check their open calls for proposals. EIT Climate-KIC have their office in Brussels. You can reach out through ckbrussels@climate-kic.org.​

Belgian organisations and companies can also contact the Benelux hub of this Innovation Community. Details can be found on their website.

You can also attend or watch InnovEIT, the annual conference of the EIT where you can meet other members of the communities and EIT experts.

Lastly, for Climate-KIC related inquiries, you can contact the National Contact Point (NCP) for Flanders, Ria.debreucker@vlaio.be.

What are partnerships?

Partnerships group the EC and private and/or public partners, to coordinate and streamline the research & innovation initiatives and funding in some selected key domains.

How to use partnerships?

  • orientation
    Partnerships publish strategic documents, e.g. outlining the main research and innovation challenges or key focus points.
  • networking
    Partnerships often organise events, such as info days, brokerage events, etc. Meet potential partners and learn about the nuances that are not visible in the official documents.
  • ecosystem analysis
    Partnerships typically have an advisory board, and publish impact studies of previous actions. These are good sources of information to uncover the main R&D&I players in the domain.
  • steering the agenda
    Partnerships collaborate with the EC on outlining the strategy and the future funding opportunities in their domain, based on input from industry, academia, and other stakeholders.

Testimonial

image of Miricle - Mine Risk Clearance for Europe

Miricle - Mine Risk Clearance for Europe

The Miricle project, ‘Mine Risk Clearance for Europe’, obtained funding under the European Defence Industrial Development programme call ‘Underwater control contributing to resilience at sea’. The main objective of the project was to achieve a European and sovereign capacity in future mine warfare and create a path for the next generation ‘made in Europe’ countermeasure solutions. In order to realise this objective, Miricle addressed various stages: studies, design, prototyping and testing. These stages inter alia included the successful testing of an XL Unmanned Underwater Vehicle, a protototyped mine disposal system and multiple innovative systems to detect buried mines. Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ), was one of the five Belgian partners in the consortium. Within the project, VLIZ was able to forward its research on the acoustic imaging of the seabed to spatially map and visualize buried structures and objects - in this case buried mines - in the highest possible detail. VLIZ also led the work on ‘Port and Offshore Testing’, building on the expertise of the institute in the field of marine operations and technology.