The EIT ICT Labs builds upon Nodes (Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, Paris, Stockholm and Trento), leading in ICT, and their partners representing global companies, leading research centres, and top universities.

The role of the Nodes is to execute the strategy of the EIT ICT Labs, focusing on excellence in education, research, and innovation and based on co-location of the best academic and industry researchers, turning already excellent regional clusters into world-class innovation hotspots.

Each Node has its unique profile within EIT ICT Labs but encompasses all aspects of the knowledge triangle. The inter-nodal activities are based on selected Thematic Action Lines, each featuring a specific focus including groups and activities from several Nodes.

Each Node operates a physical Co-location Centre where most of the KIC activities are carried out.
The five Nodes are organized by three to ten Core Partners together with additional Affiliate Partners.

There are also two Associated Partners outside the Node countries, that have a direct mission from central EIT ICT Labs management, though they are also connected through the Nodes and, of course, expected to contribute significantly to co-location activities.

Initial examples of such missions are outreach programmes to enhance ICT competence (ELTE) and monitoring the performance of EIT ICT Labs from a business school perspective (Imperial College).”