EIT Alumni Impact Report 2020
The EIT Alumni Community celebrated its fifth year of existence in 2020. Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, this year saw the community broaden its outreach, impact and swiftly respond to societal challenges.
The EIT Alumni Board composition also changed, welcoming new representatives from EIT RawMaterials Alumni, EIT Climate-KIC Alumni, CommUnity by EIT InnoEnergy and EIT.
An external observer, Peter Olesen, previously Chair of the EIT Governing Board, continued to provide his advisory support to the functioning of the EIT Alumni Board.
In terms of highlights the Community amplified experimentations towards “challenge solver” concept by the organisation of the first EIT Alumni Challenge: Covid-19 Map Act and as a result of collaboration with European Food Safety Authority, launching a hackathon on Artificial Intelligence solution to detect fake news.
The Community also amplified the efforts of Women@EIT, the community that brings together women students and alumni, in their first event of the Female Leadership series, Becoming a leader: EIT Alumni Stories. EIT female alumni discussed what it means to be a leader, their development journey, and how they approach decision-making and negotiation.
Another novelty this year was the annual EIT Alumni CONNECT going fully virtual. The event tackled Responsible Consumption and Production, welcoming EIT KICs Alumni including the representatives of the emerging EIT Food Alumni community. For the third year, its organisation was managed by the EIT Alumni members and supported by the EIT.
Major collaborations were strengthened illustrated by the organisation of joint sessions with Marie Curie Alumni Association and the Erasmus Mundus Students & Alumni Association on career development during European Research and Innovation Days.
Furthermore, the EIT Alumni Board continued working on adapting its governance and operational structure, to ensure the alignment with the management of the growing various individual EIT KIC Alumni communities and the integration of future ones that is EIT Food, EIT Manufacturing and EIT Urban Mobility.
Looking back on 2020, our community, now over 14 000 members strong, has achieved a lot and we are pleased to tell you about the hi-lights and lessons learnt in this report.