EIT Water reveals Co-Location Centres across Europe

The new Knowledge and Innovation Community EIT Water, headquartered in Denmark, will operate through a network of regional Co-Location Centres (CLCs). These centres bring together partners, expertise and innovation ecosystems across Europe. Now, nine hosts of these locations are revealed.

Each regional location will focus on different segments of the water, marine and maritime system. In 2026 the CLCs will be hosted by Marine Cluster Bulgaria for CLC Black Sea, SUBMARINER for CLC Central & Baltic, BOKU University and TU Vienna for CLC Central & Danube, Innova IRV for CLC Iberian Peninsula, Water Valley Denmark for CLC North, DIH Innovamare for CLC South in Croatia, University of Leeds for CLC UK & Ireland and Blue Cluster for CLC West in Belgium. 

Strategic Agenda

EIT Water, part of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, is currently preparing its first Strategic Agenda. The new Knowledge and Innovation Community (KIC), with a start-up grant of €5 million, is bringing together partners from across sectors to collaborate on Europe’s water challenges by connecting expertise, amplifying solutions and building coordinated, place-based innovation ecosystems.

Securing new insights

EIT Water, headquartered at Denmark´s Aarhus University, is led by the Allwaters consortium, which consists of 50 partners from 24 countries, including leading industry partners and is supported by the Grundfos Foundation. “EIT Water will be a tremendous boost in bringing existing knowledge into play and securing new insights in areas where we are lagging behind. That’s crucial if we as a society want to achieve our ambitions,” said Kim Nøhr Skibsted, Executive Director of the Grundfos Foundation.

Creating business

The KIC, located in the House of Water at Aarhus University, will officially launch in 2027 and will deliver impact across three key streams of activity: Entrepreneurial Skills; Business Creation; and Scaling Innovation. New programmes will be created to train professionals, students and workers with the entrepreneurial skills needed for a sustainable blue economy. Business creation will be aided with accelerator support, scaleup programmes, investment readiness and market access to help entrepreneurs start, grow and finance impact-driven water ventures. While the Scaling Innovation stream will provide funding and support for pilot projects, demonstration sites and mission-driven challenges to scale breakthrough solutions.

EIT Funds

Over its 15-year funding period, EIT Water is expected to raise several hundred million euros in EIT funds and attract companies, investors, stakeholders and international talent within the water sector. This is in addition to external funds that the new Knowledge and Innovation Community will secure.

More information

EIT Water Project Manager Signe Pedersen told Water News Europe that interested organisations can contact eitwater@au.dk for more information and to understand the options for engaging with EIT Water. There is also a LinkedIn page at @eit-water and a new EIT Water website will be launching soon.