The European Investment Bank has decided to channel most of its institutional relations with universities through an EIB-Universities Research Initiative made up of three different programmes:
1. EIBURS (EIB University Research Sponsorship), a program that will grant non-reimbursable grants to university research centers dedicated to specialties and topics of priority interest to the Bank.
The EIB grants, of up to EUR 100,000 per year for a period of three years, will be awarded through a competitive procedure to university research departments or research centers linked to universities (from EU Member States, acceding countries or acceding countries) with well-established expertise in areas of direct interest to the Bank, in order to enable them to develop their activities in those areas.
For the 2021/2022 academic year, the EIBURS program has selected four lines of research: Clean technologies in European industry, the EU Green Deal, the future of schooling: harnessing the potential of digital educational technology and capital needs of SMEs.
2. STAREBEI (STAges de REcherche BEI), a program aimed at financing young researchers dedicated to joint EIB-University projects. The STAREBEI program will promote the common interests of university centers and EIB services by funding training stages for junior researchers interested in carrying out research projects proposed by the Bank under the joint supervision of a university tutor and an EIB tutor.
3. EIB University Networks, a mechanism designed to sponsor university networks that have characteristics that are particularly suitable for pursuing the objectives of the EIB Group. These networks must be cooperative associations oriented towards educational, research and development activities with a specific purpose. They will be used by the EIB as preferred vehicles to publicize the other two programs and to provide information on other research requests made by the Bank's services. In appropriate cases, such networks will be entitled to use the BEI brand in their promotion.
