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.

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.

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

You also receive the EIT Label Certificate. 

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.

EIT InnoEnergy organizes Innovation & Entrepreneurship Journey activities for students of all programmes to benefit throughout the duration of their studies, including:

Battle of Green Talent

The Battle of Green Talent is a 6-month online entrepreneurship competition to 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 wins a cash prize of €10,000.- and the support of EIT InnoEnergy start-up incubation services to further develop their venture.

Digitalisation for energy engineers

Interested in complementing your energy engineering degree with the latest digital tools? We offer complimentary training through courses like Data Science for Energy Engineers, Business Decision Making & Data Analyses and Digital Business & Venturing for Energy Engineers.  These courses prepare students to enable change in the digital energy industry and land promising careers as energy analysts in large consultancy firms or digital innovators in start-ups or large corporations.

Career Growth.

We offer a set of activities that prepare you to hit the labour ground running. These include dedicated support from our Career Centre, a mentoring-focused Career Impact Programme, industrial challenges and numerous events like the annual Master School Connect.

You will also join our CommUnity, a unique platform of EIT InnoEnergy students and alumni where you can connect, interact, join events, clubs and even take advantage of a job board with exclusive internship and employment opportunities from our network of 500+ partners. 

The Master's in Energy for Smart Cities allows you to ideate, experiment and innovate in some of Europe’s smartest and greenest cities: Barcelona, Antwerp and Amsterdam. You will have the opportunity to visit events, meet energy companies, interact with city officials and more. 

Barcelona: Smart Cities Week
 

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.

Antwerp: BIZBootcamp Week

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.

Amsterdam: Entrepreneurship School

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. Get a glimpse of previous editions.

Moonshot Project

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

This breakthrough methodology 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, foster quick communication and involve everyone through all steps of the collaboration.

Deep Tech Expert Journey

Students of the Master's in Energy for Smart Cities are offer an optional online 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. 

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.

Download the courses & syllabus of the Master's in Energy for Smart Cities for more information about the different components of the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Journey. 

EIT InnoEnergy continually strives to improve the quality, structure and content of our Master School programmes. Therefore, some changes may occur in the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Journey as part of our quality control process. 

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

Ready to launch a career in smart cities? Start your application today.