Cultural innovation network planned to ‘help EU soft power’

New European Institute of Innovation and Technology network intended to boost cultural and creative exports

Martin Kern, the director of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, has said that a proposed EIT Knowledge and Innovation Community on Cultural and Creative Industries would serve the EU’s geopolitical agenda, increase Europe’s soft power and make the union “more competitive globally”.

The EIT is the EU’s organisation for supporting knowledge exchange between research, innovation and higher education organisations. It used its annual innovation awards ceremony and conference, this year held in Budapest on 15 October, to promote the plans for the cultural network, which the European Commission proposed in July should launch in 2020.