About the community + Programmes

Currently it involves about 375 organizations coming from a broad spectrum (businesses, universities, cities, public agencies, NGO’s, etc

This community on climate aims to stimulate breakthrough innovation so Europe can achieve its goal of a zero-carbon economy by 2050. It is therefore focusing on 4 areas and all partners are invited to take part (business, industry, local and national public authorities, academia, think thanks, etc.)

• Creating the carbon neutral cities and towns of the future
• Reducting industrial carbon emission (sustainable production)
• Unlocking new ways of finance for fostering the climate transition
• Sustainable land use for agriculture, forestry and food

The community is built around 5 programmes to create an integrated approach to respond to the challenges in these 4 areas

• Deep demonstration projects are large scale projects where the KIC offers its expertise and system as an innovation model to test new technologies in real-life environment (e.g. living lab). This is primarily focused at mayors, government industries and community leaders who are in the driving seat to confront Europe’s climate challenges.
• The transformation capital innovation programme has the aim to start a new investment logic where you move away from a project-by-project mentality to a broader strategic blending paradigm.
• The Education programme provides learning by doing, online classes and professional development and graduate school courses.
• The section on Entrepreneurship has the main aim of supporting promising start-ups with new climate positive innovations and business models.
• The R&I programme works through the knowledge helix where different sources of knowledge (government, academia, industry, researchers) are combined to create socially accountable policies and best practices

How te get involved?

The EIT publishes regularly calls for proposals for these different programmes. You can find out the opportunities and latest news at the webpage of the KIC https://eit.europa.eu/our-communities/eit-climate-kic

Belgian organisations and companies can also contact the Benelux hub of this Innovation Community. More info is to be found on their website https://benelux.climate-kic.org/

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

Finally, you can also contact the NCP for Flanders, alfons.vanbesien@vlaio.be