The programme has strong partnerships with internationally renowned businesses, smaller companies and a network of start-ups, who actively participate in the programme to ensure it remains current and relevant to their needs – and to yours.

Partners are involved in curriculum design, internships, support for Master’s theses, and job opportunities. Experts from the private sector, municipalities and other government bodies also give guest lectures and even participate as jury members to assess students' entrepreneurial initiatives.

Year 1

For the first year of the Master's Energy for Smart Cities programme, you can choose to attend either KU Leuven in Belgium or KTH: Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.

In your first year, you will combine electrical and mechanical engineering courses with energy-related socio-economic subjects. Students choosing KU Leuven for their first year will have a more in-depth focus on electrical engineering topics. Therefore, a solid background in the field is recommended. 

Year 2

In the second year, you choose to attend one of the following institutions:

• KU Leuven in Belgium
• KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden
• INP: Grenoble Institute of Technology in France
• UPC: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Spain

You will have the opportunity to take general and option-specific elective courses that enable you to specialise in areas that interest you most ranging from power electronics to energy efficiency in buildings, electrical machines, strategies, city networks, automation for energy efficiency, lighting systems, aerodynamics, electromobility and more. 

The choice of courses in the second year will determine which university you attend.

The Master's in Energy for Smart Cities provides a complete overview on how energy systems can grow into innovate ideas and even new ventures that favour urban planning.  The Innovation & Entrepreneurship Journey is delivered in some of Europe's smartest cities, in cooperation with government officials, industry players, start-up accelerators and more.

Curious? Get a glimpse of this journey:

Scroll down for more details. 

During your second year, you will also undertake a research project on electrical or thermo-mechanical energy, or on one of energy’s technical-economic aspects for your Master’s thesis. During your thesis you will learn to integrate and apply the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the programme.

Each year, the programme team and the directors of EIT InnoEnergy Benelux award a prize for the best thesis on innovation and the best on entrepreneurship.

EIT InnoEnergy continually strives to improve the quality, structure and content of our Master’s School programmes. Therefore, some changes may occur as part of our quality control process.

During the programme, all students have the opportunity to visit Smart Cities events, energy companies and research institutes. In addition, all students engage with EIT InnoEnergy-supported start-ups, government officials and programme graduates amongst others. 

Check out the programme of some of our latest editions of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Journey:

2019 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Journey Year 1

2019 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Journey Year 2

In Year 1, you will spend a week in Barcelona analysing and selecting one of the challenges issued by our partners. Here you explore the basics in innovation methodology – from rapid prototyping to effective communication to investigating future trends in energy for smart cities – before presenting your proposal.

In Year 2, coinciding again with the Smart City Expo World Congress. Here you will have the chance to present your idea to real-world stakeholders, to validate your theories and assumptions, test the market conditions and spark potential interest in your initiative. 

In Year 1, you will take part in the BizBootcamp Week, in Antwerp, Belgium. You will build your business model using creativity and brainstorming techniques, market research, modelling methodologies and Intellectual Property (IP) tools. Your innovation prototype and model is then presented to a jury of experts in innovation, IP and digital prototyping.

in Year 2, using Bill Aulet’s Disciplined Entrepreneurship methodology, you upgrade your startup proposal, focusing on things like market segmentation, value proposition and business model.

In Year 1, you will apply the finishing touches to your final prototype. You will use effective communication tools from storytelling to elevator pitch techniques to present your work to the Innovation Competition Jury – Smart City experts drawn from academia, enterprise, startups and the public sector.

In Year 2, you will identify and validate key assumptions, finalise your pitch deck template and present your final product plan to an external jury.

Demand for skilled engineers with know-how on technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity is at all time high.  Students of the Master's in Energy for Smart Cities are offer an optional Deep Tech Expert Journey. 

This track starts with an overview of machine learning applied to energy systems. The journey continues with training on cybersecurity in the energy sector, offered in cooperation with Fraunhofer Academy. During this course, students learn how to prevent ICS OT vulnerabilities and build proactive and reactive cybersecurity strategies.

Next is a course on blockchain in the energy sector. Students learn from the experience of blockchain in the financial sector and how this can be applied to the new energy paradigm. The track concludes with an in-depth course on how to manage energy data and real-life cases that require the use of data science skills.

Energy for Smart Cities students who pursue their second year of studies at Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya have the possibility to develop an innovative project in cooperation with FAB LAB Barcelona.

The course uses project-based learning as it takes students on a creative journey using Agile project management and emphasis on multiple prototyping. Students examine and identify future long-term challenges in the energy industry, investigate state-of-the-art technologies, design possible solutions, build and test prototypes, apply Agile methodology to manage the project, foster quick communication and involve everyone through all steps of the collaboration.

Finally, you can put the entrepreneurial mindset you acquire during the programme in practice.  The Battle of Green Talent is an online entrepreneurship competition designed for all EIT InnoEnergy students.

During 6 monhts, you transform your bright ideas into promising business while competing with peers, interacting with virtual investors from top business schools around the world and get advice from experienced business creation professionals.

The best team of entrepreneurs and talents wins a package with a cash prize of €10,000.- and a voucher worth €5,000.- to benefit from start-up incubation services from EIT InnoEnergy.

Next to the activities organised as part of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Journey of the programme, you will also have access to:

• Career Centre: a dedicated team of career experts at EIT InnoEnergy that support your ambitions through our Career Impact Programme and Career Impact Challenges; coaching, mentoring and industry exposure opportunities exclusive to our students.
• Industry challenges: we work with leading companies in the energy sector such as EDPR, AEInnova, Seaborg Technologies and more so that students can put their skills to practice during their studies.
• CommUnity: a unique platform of EIT InnoEnergy students and alumni where you can connect, interact, join events and even take advantage of an exclusive job board. 

After successfully completing the MSc Energy for Smart Cities programme, you will receive a degree from each of your chosen universities.

• KU Leuven: Master of Engineering: Energy
• KTH: Master of Science
• INP: International Master of Science in Electrical Engineering for Smart Grids and Buildings
• UPC: Master of Energy Engineering

The EIT Label is a quality seal awarded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) to a KIC educational programme that has been assessed positively by the EIT on the implementation of the EIT Quality Assurance and Learning Enhancement (EIT QALE) system and the application of specific quality criteria with focus on the EIT Overarching Learning Outcomes (EIT OLOs), robust entrepreneurship education, highly integrated, innovative ‘learning-by-doing’ curricula, international mobility and outreach. For more information please check here.

Before applying, make sure you can meet all the general admissions criteria:

• A completed Bachelor’s degree (worth a minimum of 180 ECTS credits)
• English language proficiency
• Programme-specific requirements
  
  

If you are in your final year of undergraduate education, you can also apply and receive a conditional offer.

You can also read more about our application process  here.

• A completed Bachelor’s degree worth 180 ECTS credits or equivalent in engineering – for example mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering – or science.
  
  
  
• The courses covered in your Bachelor’s degree must have covered the fundamentals of electrical and mechanical engineering:
  • Basics of thermodynamics and heat transfer
  • Basics of electrical energy systems and electrical machines
  • Basics of systems and control