Maria da Graça Carvalho was invited by Prof. Gunnar Landgren, Node Director of the EIT ICT Labs Stockholm and Mr. Kenneth Johansson, CEO of the KIC InnoEnergy Stockholm, to integrate the high-level visit to Stockholm Co-location Centres of KIC InnoEnergy and EIT ICT Labs with EU Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou, and Swedish Minister for Enterprise Annie Lööf.
Through a unique approach of integrating education, research and business in Europe, EIT ICT Labs and KIC-InnoEnergy aim at producing breakthrough innovations, and to breed top entrepreneurial talent via the transformation of higher education and the promotion of creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.
Sustainable energy supply, intelligent traffic management, and quality of life are just some of the challenges that society, industry and politics will face in the future. How can we generate world-class business, broader and faster industrialization of research results? What are the challenges faced by industry? What's driving innovation in existing companies and how to create spin offs?
These were some of the challenging questions discussed and debated at KTH, Stockholm at a special Round Table - Panel discussion with EU Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou and Swedish Minister for Enterprise Annie Lööf. The Panel Discussion was followed by visits to KIC-InnoEnergy and EIT ICT Labs premises.
In the quality of Rapporteur for Horizon 2020 - Specific Programme, Maria da Graça Carvalho participated as a speaker in the topic EIT in Horizon 2020 - Opportunities and Challenges.