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EIT chief hits back at ‘monopoly’ criticism

February 18, 2009

The chairman of the European Institute for Innovation and Technology (EIT), Martin Schuurmans, has denied claims by a leading academic that the institute's flagship innovation projects will become "monopolies of knowledge".

Speaking at the first of six European Policy Centre debates marking the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, Bengt-Åke Lundvall, a professor at the business studies department of Aalborg University in Denmark, compared the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) to Airbus, saying the lack of competition would lead to less innovation. 

"I'm not so happy with KICs. I would like to rename them as 'competing communities'. I think what you are setting up now are two or three monopolies of knowledge. My experience is that competition is so efficient in stimulating scholars, researchers and entrepreneurs," Lundvall said. 

"I always criticise what I call Airbus Syndrome – the idea that if we put all our eggs in one basket, things go better than if we have competition. I completely disagree with this," he argued. 

Schuurmans rejected this stinging criticism, insisting that KICs would lead to more efficient use of existing research activity by bringing together a critical mass of scholars, students and industry. 

"Competition is essential. You will see this later in how we build the KICs. What I really want to ensure is that we stay away from thinly spread networks," he said, while stressing the EIT would be a catalyst for step-change in how the EU uses its innovation capacity. 

"There is enough capacity in Europe. It's about using this capacity wisely in order to have maximum impact," he said. According to the EIT chair, the KICs will be "webs of excellence" and will include bringing scientists together onto a single site. Each community will have four to six "major nodes", where staff could come to work together face-to-face. 

For each KIC, one of the participating research institutes could take the lead for a number of years and bring researchers to its campus. All universities involved in the KICs would benefit from more publications, research output and staff development. 

KICs will have a lifetime of between seven and 15 years, and will spend a total of €50 million to €100 million per year. However, Schuurmans acknowledged that the EIT budget is lower than he would have liked. 

The institute's €300 million budget is "obviously not enough," he said, but this would be enough to get it off the ground. The KICs will have to attract private funds and tap into existing public funding programmes. 

In selecting the KICs early next year, the EIT will focus on sustainable energy, climate change and the information society. Schuurmans said the EIT was also under pressure to extend its remit to include healthcare and food. 
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