UNIC secures EIT Higher Education Initiative funding to boost innovation across 10 cities in post-industrial transition

UNIC’s project, BLENDS (Boosting Learning in Entrepreneurship through New and Deepening alliance Synergies), was selected among the funded projects from a record-breaking 138 applications submitted across Europe. UNIC has been awarded the maximum amount of €2m over a two-year-period to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurship capacity across the alliance. 

Through BLENDS, UNIC will strengthen entrepreneurship education, deepen collaboration between universities and regional innovation ecosystems, and create new pathways for students, researchers, founders, startups, and scale-ups to turn knowledge into lasting impact across 10 cities in post-industrial transition. The initiative aims to strengthen knowledge and technology transfer capacity within universities and their wider ecosystems. It focuses on enhancing education, supporting place-based city transformation, and improving the ability of universities and their partners to translate knowledge and innovation into real-world impact. In addition, specific attention is given to building alliance-wide capacity in impact measurement, ensuring that all activities are effectively contributing to meaningful and measurable outcomes. 

The EIT HEI Initiative supports projects that build stronger synergies between European Universities alliances and the EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). It also contributes to Europe’s wider ambitions around competitiveness, resilience, and strategic autonomy.

Bringing together universities, entrepreneurship and innovation

The UNIC consortium brings together the 10 universities and two key partners: the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship, a leading international centre for entrepreneurship education and research, and the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP), a state-run organisation supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to grow, innovate, and compete. 

BLENDS will also collaborate with three KICs: Climate-KIC, 28Digital, and EIT Health, including partners aligned with digital transformation, health, climate resilience, and sustainable urban transition. Together, these partners will connect entrepreneurial education, knowledge transfer, city-based experimentation, and regional innovation support, using an established collaboration infrastructure, expertise, and methodology provided by the UNIC Centre for City Futures. 

By combining UNIC’s expertise in entrepreneurial teaching, transdisciplinary collaboration, urban engagement, and international cooperation with the complementary strengths of its partners, BLENDS will broaden UNIC’s impact, create stronger pathways between universities, cities, businesses, and society. 

Amplifying our regional and global impact

BLENDS will build on UNIC’s existing expertise in entrepreneurial teaching, taking advantage of the alliance’s international outlook and the existing transdisciplinary collaboration between universities and urban partners.  

Participation in the UNIC BLENDS project is an opportunity for UNIC to strengthen the links between education, research, entrepreneurship, and urban transformation through concrete action. Building on initiatives such as the Centre for City Futures and CityLabs, students, researchers, public authorities, and companies work together on real challenges, from housing and social inclusion to climate adaptation. BLENDS will help turn these collaborations into scalable solutions, equipping students and researchers with entrepreneurial skills while supporting cities in developing innovative and sustainable responses to local needs. 

BLENDS will pursue four interconnected objectives that support students, researchers, staff, city authorities, and businesses across the UNIC alliance: 

• Co-create entrepreneurship and innovation competencies with EIT KICs through shared training frameworks and learning pathways for students and staff. 
• Embed entrepreneurship in urban transformation through CityLabs, enabling students, researchers, companies, and public authorities to develop and test solutions to real city challenges. 
• Strengthen knowledge exchange and technology transfer by improving collaboration between KTOs, TTOs, EIT KICs, and regional innovation partners to accelerate the uptake of research and innovation. 
• Measure and scale impact through a common evaluation framework that tracks learning outcomes, innovation activities, and regional impact across the alliance.

Key deliverables include a shared entrepreneurship competence framework, joint training programmes, CityLab innovation pilots, strengthened knowledge-transfer networks, and a common impact measurement framework to support long-term scaling and sustainability. 

Together with the EIT Higher Education Initiative, Climate-KIC, 28Digital, EIT Health, and all project partners, UNIC will co-develop, test, and scale new approaches to entrepreneurship, innovation, and urban transformation, creating opportunities for students, researchers, businesses, and cities to address societal challenges and contribute to a more connected, resilient, and future-ready Europe.