Europäisches Institut für Innovation e. V.

Allgemeine Informationen

The European Institute for Innovation (EIfI) is an applied science organisation supporting the adaptions of regions to respond to the fast pace of development, thus making them more competitive. The EIfI through its national regional and transnational work acts as a stimulator for economic activity with the purpose of creating new employment and business opportunities that meet the demands and desires of communities and its people.
The EifI operational team manages the delivery of project work programmes working in partnership with national/EU agencies, learning institutions, the private sector and people – the so called “Quadruple Helix”
Since 2008 the European Institute for Innovation (EIfI) have successfully worked on numerous European funded projects, as well as with national projects, our experienced staff includes researchers, educationalists, industrialists and IT specialists. Our activities are mainly concentrated in the following directions,
The thematic areas of expertise within the Institution are as follows:
• Education
Facilitating the validation of non-formal and informal learning and its integration with formal education pathways. Our organisation works to promote professional development of staff and students in ICT methodologies. EIfI promotes entrepreneurship education in order to develop active citizenship, employability and new business creation and we see education as a key economic driver that can really make change to Europe’s productivity and competitiveness.
Development and implementation of new pedagogies are areas we have expertise in. Participation in peer learning and mutual learning activities through thematic working groups is core to our business. In our projects we have been working to create new learning opportunities through the development and practical application of entrepreneurial skills. We are also working on raising awareness campaigns promoting the benefits of learning at a local, regional, national and EU levels.
• ICT
Infrastructure
The construction of modern technical infrastructure such as broadband requires specific planning processes and the involvement of a variety of actors and stakeholders. The EIfI has in a variety of dimensions many years of experience in projects of this kind. We see broadband being a solution to many of the challenges faced by our urban and rural areas, making them more attractive to inward investment and as such more competitive.
Software
Through its work the EIfI has developed expertise in creating dynamic rich media resources particularly e-learning and e-assessment material for a range of projects in the thematic areas of climate change, energy saving and carbon reduction, resource efficiency, enterprise, business and employment skills.
The EIfI has vast experience in the development of “gamification” of educational practices which has become increasingly popular with practitioners across Europe with many resources being developed as “serious games”.
These resources which include augmented reality are not the panacea but are intended to improve learner engagement and facilitate experiential learning and are evidence since 2008. There is no doubt that it supports the learning process and indeed can be used effectively at professionally level also for development and competence measurement.
• Energy
The EIfI are dynamic across the spectrum of energy sectors and are particularly concerned with activity in applied research, feasibility, testing, development, demonstration and supporting deployment.
The EIfi has vast experience in energy projects extending across many sectors such as passivehaus technology in the construction industry, innovation in the mining industry, policy recommendations for offshore wind, hydrogen techniques and feasibilities in the transportation sector and much more.
Much of the EIfI work on energy has dealt with specific problems of communities, municipalities and regions which required support to implement measures to increase the use of renewable energies and raise the energy efficiency targets regarding the goals of the European Agenda 2020. The EIfI are excited with future challenges and enjoy working in collaboration with partners during the transition from fossil dependency to a Europe that leads the globe in energy conversion.
• Spatial Planning
Regions are in competition with each other – regarding residents and businesses as well as investors and tourists. The importance about the image of the region is the generation of their profile and concentration on their main objectives, to create unique selling points. Thus, it is often easier to develop such a profile with an objective view of the potentials and problems. However is important to involve all stakeholders – therefore the EIfI offers participatory approaches to achieve the most promising outcome. The EIfI has gained extensive experience in the design and implementation of spatial planning at both national and transnational networked projects.
• Resource Efficiency
The EIfI recognises that key to achieving resource efficiency is not always through technological advances but through an understanding of the impact that individuals as well as public, private sectors can make by changing their behaviour, consumption and lifestyles. A change in consumption patterns has the largest potential for decreasing the use of finite resources.
The transportation sector as an example for behavioural change
Depleting mineral oil supplies and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions combine a re-thinking of the concept of transportation and mobility based on infrastructure development and new propulsion technologies stimulating a decline of the various negative environmental impacts associated with traditional fossil fuel-based transportation.
The EIfI would suggest from its experience in sustainable transportation projects that focus remains too much on technology, which will not solve the problems of congestion or space consumption for transport. There is however potential for organising mobility more efficiently which requires further investigation. Future societal mobility services will play a vital role in delivering alternatives to the private car which in turn will reduce our dependency on finite resources such as fuel and land.