The EIB Institute was set up within the EIB Group (European Investment Bank and European Investment Fund) to promote and support social, cultural, and academic initiatives with European stakeholders and the public at large. It is a key pillar of the EIB Group’s community and citizenship engagement. This includes reducing inequalities, enhancing knowledge, innovation and competitiveness and ensuring cohesion throughout Europe.
They offer advice, finance research and knowledge transfer, and provide grants that support EU social cohesion goals via partnerships with local non-governmental organisations (NGOs), universities and academic networks, foundations, research institutes, corporate organisations and governmental bodies.
The EIB Institute supports social innovation and entrepreneurs who target social, ethical or environmental goals or seek to create and sustain social value. This is typically related to unemployment, equal opportunities, the marginalisation of disadvantaged groups and access to education and other basic social services. A flagship initiative, the Social Innovation Tournament, seeks to promote innovative ideas as well as to identify and reward opportunities promising substantial societal benefits or demonstrating best practices with tangible, scalable outcomes.
In the area of microfinance, the Institute complements the actions of the EIB Group through both its Social and Knowledge activities – mainly through grants and sponsorships – by organising conferences and other initiatives and supporting higher education and research enabling the development of microfinance in Europe and beyond.
Financial education is one of the cornerstones of the EIBI’s strategy for reducing inequalities. We believe that effective promotion of financial education contributes to social and economic development and are actively expanding our activities in this area.