The EIB University Research Sponsorship Programme (EIBURS) is part of the EIB-Universities Research Action, through which the EIB aims to foster its institutional relations with universities. EIBURS provides grants to university research centres working on research topics and themes of major interest to the Bank. EIB bursaries, of up to EUR 100 000 per year for a period of three years, are awarded through a competitive process to interested university departments or research centres associated with universities in the EU, Accession or Acceding Countries, with recognised expertise in areas of direct interest to the Bank. The scholarship seeks to enable the chosen centres to expand their activities in these areas.
For the 2008-2011 period, the EIBURS programme has selected two lines of research:
The EIB has received 20 formal proposals for the 2 EIBURS sponsorships proposed for the 2008-2011 period. The following table indicates the distribution of the applicants by country and theme:
| EIBURS 2008 | TOTAL | AT | FR | DE | EL | NL | IT | CY | ES | SI | UK |
| I: Financing Young Innovative Firms in Europe | 14 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||
| II: Infrastructure Funds | 6 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| TOTAL | 20 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
The EIB-Universities Committee decided, on 22 October 2008, to award the EIBURS on the line of research "Financing Young Innovative Firms in Europe" to the Tilburg University and on the line of research "Infrastructure Funds" to the Technischen Universität München. The programme of activities envisaged by the 2 EIBURS will be published on this website once the contract with the Universities has been signed.
All applicants have been directly informed of these results.
The next round of EIBURS is expected to be launched early next year. The themes to be proposed will be announced with the launch.
For more extensive information on EIBURS and on the other programmes and mechanisms of the EIB-Universities Research Action, STAREBEI (STAges de REcherche BEI) and EIB University Networks, please visit the EIB-University Research Action homepage.