2018-annual-report

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annual report
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EIT Digital is a Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC) of the European Institute
of Innovation and Technology (EIT). EIT Digital (formerly known as EIT ICT Labs)
includes some of the leading educational, research, and industrial actors in the ICT
innovation ecosystem in Europe, and its mission is to foster ICT innovation on the
European scale in the following strategic areas: Digital Industry, Digital Cities, Digital
Wellbeing, Digital Tech, and Digital Finance. These areas are complemented by integrated
and innovation-driven Master and Doctoral Schools, EIT Digital acceleration
programs, and a Professional School.
In June 2013, IMDEA Software officially became an Associate Partner of EIT Digital,
becoming the first Spanish organization to enter its Pan-European network of the
then seven full national nodes (in Helsinki, Stockholm, Berlin, London, Eindhoven,
Paris, and Trento) and two associate nodes (Budapest and Madrid, the latter located
at IMDEA Software).
One of the key goals of IMDEA Software as initial Spanish Associate Member was to
promote, motivate, and organize the presence of EIT Digital in Spain, and to foster
the evolution of the Spanish Associate Partner Group (APG) towards a fully operational
EIT Digital node. The initial group additionally included Atos, Indra, Telefónica,
and the Technical University of Madrid (UPM). The status of full node, achieved
in September 2016, with the start of operations on January 1, 2017, allowed the
Madrid Node to have the same rights as the eight other nodes of EIT Digital. This
marked the completion of a mission that spanned over the years 2013 to 2016, in
which nearly e20 million were invested in Spain. The opening ceremony for the new
node was held on March 2, 2017, with the attendance of, among others, Mr. Tibor
Navracsics, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Mr. Íñigo Méndez
de Vigo, Spanish Minister for Education, Culture, and Sport, and Spokesperson of
the Government, and Mr. Willem Jonker, CEO of EIT Digital. Becoming a Full Node
enabled a faster expansion of activities, as is demonstrated by the fact that e15
million were invested in 2017 alone in Spanish Innovation & Entrepreneurship, as
well as Entrepreuneurial Education activities.
During 2017 and 2018, the Madrid node was expanded to include Ferrovial, Nokia
Spain, Ferrovial Agromán, Innovalia, Centro de Innovación de Infraestructuras Inteligentes
/ CI3. The partners at the Madrid node participated in 20 activities during
2018, of which 9 where innovation activities and the rest were either structural or
related to education and training. In total, the budget for all of these activities was
€3.4M and the budget for the innovation activities was €2.8M. That budget brought
a net contribution for the Spanish partners of €2.6M, of which €2.1M correspond
to innovation activities.
The transition of the management of the Spanish node from IMDEA Software to an
independent foundation (EIT Digital Spain) marked a change in the role of IMDEA
Software in EIT Digital. While formerly IMDEA Software was the employer of all of