EIT Alumni Impact Report 2018

2018, which marks the third year of an EIT Alumni Community guided by an EIT Alumni Board, has been a period of growth and stability for our Community, as our President, Falko Döring, reaches the end of his 2nd year on the Board.

The inclusion of dedicated Cross-Community managers to the boards of the individual Alumni Communities has greatly enhanced the stabilisation process. The new role, as proposed by EIT Health Alumni and taken up by the remaining communities, entrusts one representative per community to focus solely on strengthening the bridges between networks, and to commit more time to the EIT Alumni Board.

To name a few milestones of 2018, we successfully piloted a new partner-based, challenge-solving edition of the EIT Alumni Start-up Days in March and May, we welcomed EIT RawMaterials Alumni into our Community and onto our Board in June, our Community expanded to a network of over 5000 members in September, and we have taken steps towards forging our own path in Europe by organising our annual event – EIT Alumni CONNECT – independently from the EIT’s INNOVEIT in October.

In terms of highlights, our President was invited to speak at the European Youth Event at the European Parliament in June, Swati Pandey, an alumna of EIT Climate-KIC was called upon to sit on the opening panel discussion at INNOVEIT 2018 alongside EU Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport – Tibor Navracsics, and we are proud to have supported the first Women@ EIT leadership Intensive, an initiative that aims at the increased participation of women in entrepreneurial activities across Europe.

It is evident that with stability comes progress. EIT Alumni CONNECT 2018 was a particular high point for our community. Bringing together over 150 participants of 40 different nationalities, this event was a great opportunity to showcase the diversity of our community and to prove to the rest of the EIT Community the potential of the EIT Alumni as drivers of cross-sectoral collaboration.