Climate Action 2014-2015

CLIMATE-KIC:
HOW OPEN INNOVATION
ADDRESSES CLIMATE CHANGE
By Bertrand van Ee, Chief Executive Officer, Climate-KIC
"A sustainable and resilient
future demands innovation."
Climate-KIC is Europe’s largest publicprivate
innovation partnership focused
on climate change. Our community
consists of dynamic companies, the
best academic institutions and the
public sector working together across
disciplines to provide innovative
solutions addressing the challenge
of climate change. We are one of
the Knowledge and Innovation
Communities (KICs) created by the
European Institute of Innovation and
Technology (EIT), an EU body whose
mission is to support sustainable growth
in Europe.
OPEN INNOVATION
KICs are bold EU experiments in
open innovation. To meet the universal
challenge of climate change, new types
of collaboration across the public and
private sectors is necessary to identify
and generate opportunities for action. A
sustainable and resilient future requires
systemic integration across many areas.
It is not merely about new technologies
or inventions; it demands innovation in
design, planning, land use management,
resource efficiency, demand-supply
integration and consumer choice. It
requires policy frameworks to stimulate
innovative private-sector investment and
provide regulatory stability in the face of
current economic and political volatility.
Climate-KIC focuses on innovation
for climate change mitigation and
adaptation, to deliver green economic
growth and stimulate a green economy.
We catalyse our community and external
stakeholders to collaborate within the
three major components of change: ‘skills
and training’, ‘sociotechnical innovation’
and ‘transition engineering’.
KEY ACTIVITIES:
EDUCATION,
ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND
INNOVATION
Our three pillars – Education,
Entrepreneurship and Innovation – are
the support and driving force of our
programme and activity development. We
aim to deliver sustainable products and
services for climate change mitigation
and adaptation – with significant
socioeconomic and climate impact. Our
partners in Innovation develop new ideas
and prototypes with significant climatepotential.
Meanwhile in Entrepreneurship
they play a crucial role in scaling up and
deploying innovation onto the market.
Climate-KIC supports start-ups entering
into the market and securing significant
working capital. In Education we create
a future generation of climate innovators,
focusing on scientific, technological
excellence and entrepreneurial training:
this ranges from our graduate school to
educating leaders of the business and
public sectors.
COMMUNITY OF CHANGE
AGENTS: PEOPLE AND
PARTNERS
The Climate-KIC community is a
catalyst across geographies, sectors
and activities. Our 250 partners come
together at 12 European hubs. Climate-
KIC’s unique collaborative publicprivate
approach is a powerful tool
in overcoming the impacts of climate
change. Europe is a hotbed for climate
change innovation. I am convinced that
harnessing this creativity is essential to
mitigate and adapt to climate change,
and to shape the green economy.
www.climate-kic.org
climateactionprogramme.org 127