Europe has a number of world-class Universities, inventive research centers, large companies and a vibrant SME fabric. However, notwithstanding long standing support to collaborative R&D by European Union institutions and Member States, evidence shows that few young leading innovators created in the last 25 years of the 20th century have European roots, a tenth of those originated in the US. Also, taking aside defense, European citizens already invest publicly per capita more than their US citizens. Consequently, not only the level of support but also established paradigm and design of top down innovation policy support mechanisms need new consideration.The ‘European Institute of Innovation and Technology’ (EIT) is a relatively new policy experiment to get the EU back on track for entrepreneurial innovation. Created in 2008, the EIT crystalizes Europe’s political will to approach innovation radically different with an increased focus on people. The EIT operates through so-called ‘Knowledge and Innovation Communities’ (KICs) which integrate excellent partners from the knowledge triangle of higher education, research and business, encompassing bottom-up ‘co-creation’ of novel innovation models and cross-border ecosystems.The workshop will discuss three unique features of the EIT, namely, 1. KICs's role as forerunners of communities-driven innovation schemes for grand challenges, 2. Steering and management approach to EIT-KIC partnerships and 3. KIC’s co-location centers as melting pots of knowledge, skills and entrepreneurial attitudes. The dissertation shows why and how EIT-KIC ‘living partnerships’ represent a novel innovation approach concluding with some implications for European innovation governance.

Keywords

Innovation policy learning, knowledge triangle integration, enterpreneurial innovation, grand challenges, multi-level innovation governance, tacit knowledge, higher education third mission.