The European Young Innovators Forum (EYIF www.eyif.eu), is an independent, non-profit, pan-European, bottom-up association dedicated to promoting youth innovation. EYIF has rapidly become the leading foundation for youth innovation in Europe reaching in excess of 350,000 participants across all EU member states, giving voice to a community of young innovators and experts who believe in taking risks, changing mindsets for innovation and the value of shared ideas and professional mentorship.

Vision and Mission

EYIF's vision is to fundamentally change the mindset for innovation in Europe because we believe Europe’s growth and renewal depends on it.

EYIF’s mission is to achieve this change of mindset for innovation in Europe by encouraging Young Europeans to take more risks for innovation and entrepreneurship, and equally, encouraging governments, businesses, society and individuals to support and reward such risk-taking.

EYIF believes that in defiance of the deepening economic and financial crisis, of lagging innovation, and of record youth unemployment in Europe, together, using this shared-risk approach, we can empower European youth to play a transformative role in Europe’s future by  offering them the inspiration, resources and mentorship to help them turn their talents, energy, enthusiasm, and innovative early-stage ideas into successful projects and businesses that will stimulate the economy and generate new employment.

EYIF at-a-glance

The European Young Innovators Forum was launched at a joint European Parliament, European Commission and Council of Europe event in 2010. Since then, EYIF has rapidly become the leading foundation for youth innovation in Europe reaching in excess of 350,000 participants across Europe, giving voice to a community of young innovators and experts who believe in taking risks, changing mindsets for innovation and the value of shared ideas and professional mentorship. The EYIF ecosystem equally includes opinion makers, policy makers, business leaders and political decision makers, and is the natural next step to years of ad hoc collaboration amongst young innovators, experts, industry and government across the EU.

Headquartered in Brussels, EYIF consults and cooperates regularly with the European Parliament, European Commission, United States State Department and other institutions like the OECD. EYIF has already built and is now expanding an international network of organisations (NGOs, foundations, companies, associations, universities, research centers, incubators, and informal groups), which actively support innovation, entrepreneurship and/or youth issues at national, regional and local levels. The community constituents are active as both independent innovators in several industrial sectors and also as actors in pan-European and International collaborative studies, projects and clusters in academia, research institutes, SMEs and Industry Innovation labs all across Europe.