The governing board of a new European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) is holding its inaugural meeting in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
The European Union is providing initial funding of more than 300m euros (Ј238m) for the institute, aimed at generating more European technological advances.
The EIT hopes to pool the expertise of universities, research bodies and businesses in new partnerships.
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The EIT is part of an overall EU strategy to promote jobs, growth and competitiveness in the EU.
"Until now, higher education has notoriously been the absent member of innovation partnerships," the European Commission says.
The EIT is to involve universities in new public-private partnerships called "Knowledge and Innovation Communities" (KICs), to create new commercial opportunities by bringing researchers and business entrepreneurs together.
European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso described business involvement in the EIT as "crucial, because the lack of business-funded R&D [research and development] explains almost 85% of the gap between the EU and the USA, for example".
Speaking at the EIT's opening ceremony in Budapest, he said the institute would "focus on its mission without any political or bureaucratic interference" and "to do this, we have handed it an unprecedented level of autonomy".
He said the governing board must now work to get funding from the private sector and attract "the most innovative businesses and the best research organisations".
The EIT should respond to the EU's energy priorities, he said, pointing to the need for "a fresh approach to take us into a truly low-carbon Europe".
(BBC)
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