Commission sets EIT in motion:
the "Identification Committee" starts its work

The wheels of the "European Institute of Innovation and Technology" (EIT) were set in motion this week when Jan Figel', the European Commissioner for Education and Culture, announced the composition of the committee tasked with recommending members for the EIT Governing Board.

Speaking to the European Parliament and the Council on 5 February, the Commissioner named four high-level scientists with strong private sector experience, who will now begin their work of selecting potential candidates to make up the Board of the EIT.

The members of the Identification Committee are Professor Günter Stock, Chairman, President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Professor Miklos Boda, Advisor to the Rector at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics; Cecilia Schelin Seidegård, chairwoman of the Royal University of Technology in Stockholm; and Professor Ronan Stéphan, director for industrial affairs and technology transfer of the French CNRS, and executive director of France Innovation Scientifique et Transfert.

The four will choose the 18 distinguished members of the future EIT Governing Board, drawn from the worlds of science, academia and business. Once approved, the Governing Board will begin its remit to steer the activities of the Institute. Its role will be to set the overall strategic priorities of the EIT, select the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) and evaluate and coordinate their work.

The Commission is hoping the appointment of the Board's members will take place before the summer 2008, after the adoption of the EIT regulation by the Council in March 2008. The EIT could then be established in 2008 and the first KICs could be up and running in 2009. The physical location of the EIT has yet to be decided, but this is expected within 12 months after the regulation enters into force.

The EIT will have the primary objective of contributing to the development of innovation capacity in the EU, bringing together beacons of excellence in higher education, research and competitiveness (the 'knowledge triangle'). The EIT will aim to facilitate and enhance networking and cooperation and create synergies between innovation communities in Europe.

Annex

Prof. Dr. Günter Stock was born on February 7th, 1944. He studied Medicine at the University of Heidelberg, where he also taught until 1983. He then joined the pharmaceutical company Schering AG and became Member of the Board in 1989 until 2005. Since January 2006, he is the President of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He is Member of the Board of the Schering Foundation, since 2006 Member of the Supervisory Board of the Charité – University Medicine, Berlin, and since July 2006 also Member of the Supervisory Board of the Jerini AG. Günter Stock serves as Vice-President of the Max-Planck-Society. He is member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, the Academia Europaea, member of the Medical Board of the Austrian Science Council; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Humboldt-University, Berlin, member of the Board of Trustees of the Central European University in Budapest. In January 2008 he became President of the Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities.

Prof. Miklos Boda graduated in Physics at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. In 1971 he received his PhD (old Licentiate of Philosophy) in solid state physics from the University of Uppsala. He was co-founder and president of the Swedish Neuronet Society. In 1996 he founded and until 2004 headed the R&D Division at Ericsson Hungary Ltd. He was member of the Industrial Advisory Board of the Research Center for Advanced Communications and Computing, North Carolina SU. USA, and of the Center for Telecommunications Research, Columbia University, New York, U.S.A. In 2004 he was appointed by the Prime Minister as President of the National Office for Research and Technology at a state secretary level which position he held until the 31st of December 2006. Currently he is appointed professor and advisor to the Rector at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics and the CEO of Innotech Ltd, the innovation park of the Technical University, Budapest, Hungary.

Cecilia Schelin Seidegård is a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Lund, Sweden and has worked 14 years in the pharmaceutical industry. Cecilia started 1989 as a clinical researcher in Lund and ended up 10 years later as the Head of Astra Draco, Astra´s research unit in Lund. After the merger with Zeneca 1999, Cecilia was appointed VP, Head of Global R&D Operations, AstraZeneca. In 2003, Cecilia became CEO of Huddinge University Hospital owned by the County Council in Stockholm. One year later, she became responsible for the merger between Huddinge University Hospital and Karolinska Hospital. Cecilia left the hospital last year and is today the chairman of the Royal University of Technology, the Vårdal Foundation, Qlucore AB, and BioTap A/S, and a member of the board of SNS, Arbetsförmedlingen and Karolinska Development. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences.

Prof. Ronan Stéphan studied engineering at ENSI in Caen and holds a PhD in sciences (solid state and applied physics; magnetic materials and superconductors). Between 1984 and 1997 he had worked at Thomson/Thales in several positions (underwater activities) before becoming corporate program manager responsible for electronic components research. At the same period, he was associate professor in the university of Nancy. From 1997 to 2002 he had been director of a Science Park (Technopôle Brest-Iroise). Member of the French National Committee for Scientific Research from 1995 to 2000, he has been vice-president of the research association ECRIN (French National Committee for Scientific Research). Since 2003 he has been director for industrial affairs and technology transfer of the CNRS, and executive director of France Innovation Scientifique et Transfert S.A. He is currently president of the UTC (University of Technology - Compiègne).