Europe’s Largest Innovation Network Comes to the Canary Islands
EIT’EIT Days Canarias: Promoting Innovation in the Canary Islands’ opened today, launching two days of events in Gran Canaria and Tenerife to showcase EU programmes for Outermost regions.
The initiative, led by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), aims to connect the Canary Islands’ businesses, universities, and research centres with Europe’s largest innovation network. In Spain, the EIT has already provided more than €285 million in funding, supported 913 companies, and backed 185 innovations over the past four years.
Building on Global Partnerships
Through its Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs), the EIT links companies, research labs, and universities to address challenges such as climate change, health, digitalisation, and sustainable energy. Some programmes specifically target outermost regions, and this event is an opportunity for the Canary Islands’ innovators to participate in Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem.
The EIT is committed to unlocking the full potential of innovators in the Canary Islands. The region has unique strenghts that match well with the focus areas of our Knowledge and Innovation Communities. Through dedicated initiatives and our Community Hub in Spain, we want to seize this potential and to help address the challenges the region faces. We have already seen inspiring success stories in the Canary Islands and we want to go further - scaling up activities, fostering stronger local ecosystems, and ensuring lasting impact.
Martin Kern, EIT Director
The event brought together about 80 representatives from European, Spanish, and Canarian institutions. Kern also highlighted the launch of the EIT Community Hub Spain, created this year to connect local innovation players with the wider European ecosystem.
The work of the EIT Community Hub Spain, together with events like today’s, strengthens our mission to promote innovation where it is needed most – connecting regions such as the Canary Islands with the resources, expertise, and opportunities of Europe’s largest innovation ecosystem.
Martin Kern, EIT Director
Laura Ovies, the new head of the EIT Community Hub Spain, highlighted the value of this office, established in 2025.
The EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities have been working with the Canary Islands for years, but through our recently created hub, which acts as an umbrella for all of them, we want to give a strong boost to our collaboration in the region. Events like today's allow us to make ourselves known and showcase the opportunities we offer to entrepreneurs, universities, companies, and research centres, among others.
Laura Ovies, Head of the EIT Community Hub Spain
Local and European voices
The event is organised by the EIT Community Hub Spain in collaboration with the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation, and the Information Society.
Speakers included Germán Esteban, Deputy Head of the European Commission’s Outermost Regions Unit, alongside representatives from the EU Intellectual Property Office and the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office.
Funding and Success Stories
A round table titled ‘European funding, closer than you think’ featured EIT KICs, and success stories from Canarian institutions and EIT training programmes were also presented. These included contributions from the University of Las Palmas (selected by the EIT Higher Education Initiative), the InnoEnergy Skills Institute, the Deep Tech Talent Initiative, Girls Go Circular, and EIT Campus.
Innovation Made in the Canary Islands
Local innovators showcased projects in sectors including gaming, with the Canary Islands Video Game Development Association, Daydream Software, and Sparkling Tech Solutions; agri-food, with the Canary Islands Agrotech Cluster and the Canary Islands Institute of Agricultural Research; and health, with the Canary Islands Health Innovation Cluster.
MEP Gabriel Mato joined the closing session remotely. The event continues tomorrow in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
Share this page
