Maria da Graça Carvalho hopes that this discussion will serve as "input for the Commission and the EIT board in their design of the SIA", and believes that before discussing the future of the EIT, "it is important to address the question of whether EIT is on track to achieve the objectives that it initially set itself. These include: the development of the EIT brand, the attraction of top class talents and funding from third parties, the production of research and innovation breakthroughs and so forth".
Last March, Maria da Graça Carvalho was invited by the Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, Androulla Vassiliou to co-create and chair the "Friends of EIT" group. The objective of this group is that a number of MEPs - from different political groups and different Committees - discuss the European Institute of Innovation and Technology's (EIT) future, creating a privileged interaction platform to exchange openly on the EIT and its future strategy.
In this quality, Ms Carvalho says that there are a number of questions concerning the synergy between the EIT the FP and the CIP that "remain to be clarified" and that "two problem areas stand out in particular. These are, firstly, the future areas into which the EIT is expected to expand (potential KIC themes); secondly, the inevitable, thorny question of the budget. In the EU Parliament report on the future budget - something that has already been adopted in Plenary - the Parliament called for an increased budget for the EIT".
To conclude Ms Carvalho adds that "it is of course important that all the stakeholders involved share their respective points of view and that the Commission in particular takes our points of view into consideration when formulating policy".
Featured participants include Fabrice Comptoir - Office of the Commissioner for Education, Culkture, Multilinguism and Youth; Ronald de Bruin - Acting Director of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT); Xavier Prats Monné - Deputy Director General for Education and Culture, DG Education and Culture, European Commission; Lucia Recalde Langarica - Head of Unit - European Institute of Technology, DG Education and Culture of the European Commission; Jiří Buriánek - Director, DG C II, Competitiveness, Industry, Research & Information Society; General Secretariat of the Council of the EU - Alexander Von Gabain, Chairman-elect, EIT, Chief Scientific Officer, Intercell AG; John Vassallo - Vice-President of EU Affairs, Microsoft; Karin Markides - President & CEO, Chalmers University of Technology; Elmar Dorner; Director SAP Research Karlsruhe, SAP AG; and Mary Ritter - CEO, Climate-KIC and Imperial College London.
The conference will be held from 14h00 to 17h00 in the room A3E2 of the European Parliament.