How innovative is your higher education institution?
Is your Higher Education Institution prepared for future challenges?
Is your Higher Education Institution promoting the development of an entrepreneurial culture?
HEInnovate is a self-assessment tool for Higher Education Institutions who wish to explore their innovative potential. It guides you through a process of identification, prioritisation and action planning in eight key areas. HEInnovate also diagnoses areas of strengths and weaknesses, opens up discussion and debate on the entrepreneurial / innovative nature of your institution and it allows you to compare and contrast evolution over time. You can have instant access to your results, learning materials and a pool of experts.
The European Commission and the OECD have joined forces in the development of HEInnovate. It is free, confidential and open to anyone to use. HEInnovate can be used by all types of higher education institutions. This website offers more than just an interactive tool; it also contains case studies, user stories and supporting material to help you to design solutions tailored to your needs. Read more
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Is your institution entrepreneurial in its leadership?
This section of HEInnovate explores those factors which relate to the leadership and governance of a Higher Education Institution. In order to develop an entrepreneurial culture in an institution, strong leadership and good governance are crucial.
Many Higher Education Institutions include the words "enterprise" and "entrepreneurship" in their mission statements but this needs to be more than a reference. This section highlights some of the important factors a Higher Education Institution may consider in order to strengthen their entrepreneurial agenda.
Leadership and Governance -
Does your institution recognise and reward entrepreneurial behaviour?
Higher Education Institutions can be constrained by their own organisational structures and approaches, making it more difficult to carry out the types of entrepreneurial activities which support their strategic objectives.
This section highlights some of the key areas a Higher Education Institution may look at if it wishes to minimise the organisational constraints to fulfilling its entrepreneurial agenda. This includes the financial strategy, attracting and retaining the right people and incentivising entrepreneurial behaviour in individuals.
Organisational Capacity: Funding, People and Incentives -
Can your institution improve its approach to stimulating an entrepreneurial mind-set?
Higher Education Institutions are expanding their entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial education offer to the organisation as a whole, including all staff and students.
This section of the framework highlights a number of areas in which entrepreneurial development can take place, reflecting the need for the organisational structure to support entrepreneurial development as well as provide the right tools to deliver education and training opportunities both internally and via the external environment.
Entrepreneurial Teaching and Learning -
Is supporting entrepreneurs and start-ups a priority for your institution?
The decision to commit to entrepreneurship is not a single act but a process. For Higher Education Institutions to be entrepreneurial they need to support the pathways taken by would-be entrepreneurs (staff and students) from ideas to market growth or into employment. This is not just a process internal to the institution but one where a pluralistic approach in necessary providing access to internal and external opportunities and expertise.
This section of the framework gives statements for HEI's who wish to support "intrapreneurs" in their career development or enterprising individuals on their pathway to becoming an entrepreneur.
Preparing and Supporting Entrepreneurs -
Are your staff and students ready to harness the opportunities offered by digital transformation?
Digital transformation and capabilities are enablers of entrepreneurialism and innovation, and affect all areas of a modern Higher Education Institution. They influence organisational capacities, teaching and learning, the assessment of knowledge, the international activities of an institution as well as its knowledge exchange with partners.
This section of HEInnovate looks at key areas that a Higher Education Institution may wish to consider to maximise its ability to make the most of the opportunities offered by digital technologies. The topics for assessment include the fostering of a positive digital organisational culture and a clear vision for digital learning, the establishment and maintenance of a fit-for-purpose and up-to-date digital infrastructure, and the development of high level digital competences among staff and students.
Digital Transformation and Capability -
Does your institution enable knowledge exchange and collaboration opportunities?
Active involvement of a range of stakeholders has been shown to be a contributing factor in successful Entrepreneurial Higher Education Institutions. Building and sustaining relationships with key partners and collaborators is essential in achieving the full potential of a Higher Education Institution, in entrepreneurship, in research, teaching and in other third mission activities.
There are several components to the external environment including relationships with the public sector, regions, businesses, alumni, professional bodies etc. The motivation for this commitment is to create value for the Higher Education Institution and society.
Knowledge Exchange and Collaboration -
Are there barriers to internationalising your institution?
An international perspective at all levels has been identified as one of the characteristics of an Entrepreneurial Higher Education Institution. As internationalisation is increasingly integrated into strategic processes, it becomes essential for HEI's to be able to make informed decisions on institutional direction, as well as assess and enhance performance according to different objectives over a wide range of international activities.
It is not possible for a Higher Education Institution to be entrepreneurial without being international but the HEI can be international without being entrepreneurial. This section of the self assessment provides a number of statements which reflect the influence of the international environment on the entrepreneurial aspects of teaching, research, talent development, new opportunities and culture.
The Internationalised Institution -
Does your institution measure the impact of its entrepreneurial activities?
Underlying the drive to create a more entrepreneurial Higher Education Institution is the need to understand the impact of the changes which are made. There are many different types of impact a Higher Education Institution may seek ranging from the local to the global. The impacts affect internal stakeholders (students/graduates, staff) and also external stakeholders (local businesses, organisations and whole communities).
Impact measurement in HEIs is underdeveloped. The majority of the measurements found in the literature relate to spin-offs, IP and research outcomes rather than graduate entrepreneurship, retaining talent, local economic development or the impacts of the broader entrepreneurial strategy. Therefore this section identifies the areas where a Higher Education Institution might want to measure rather than what to measure.
Measuring Impact
Members of the expert team
The Scottish Institute for Enterprise (SIE) is a national organisation that supports enterprise education and student entrepreneurship in all of Scotland's universities and colleges. Fiona’s role at SIE is both strategic and operational. She advises... Read more
Ana has a Phd in Business and Economics, with a thesis about Operational risk in banking and focussed on internal and audit control for years. She moved on to the entrepreneurship world when she started to be part of the Global Entrepreneurship... Read more
Maciej has specialism in developing entrepreneurial strategies for higher education institutions, and he is currently finishing PhD on the entrepreneurial transformation of higher education institutions. He has been a member of the HEInnovate Expert... Read more
Since 2013 Steve is manager of the student-entrepreneurship centre DO! (Durf Ondernemen) at Ghent University. Where he is active both as business coach for student-entrepreneurs and as challenger of entrepreneurial thinking within Ghent University... Read more
Klaus is passionate about entrepreneurship and believes that an entrepreneurial society will create a better world. As Universities play a key role in educating young people to think more entrepreneurial, HEInnovate is a fantastic tool for all... Read more
Oto Hudec has a background in statistical and evaluation methods and has almost 20 years of experience in the management of education and development at the Faculty of Economics. At the same time, he also works as a head of the Institute of Regional... Read more
Mikkel Trym is currently leading the Climate-KIC start-up program for the Nordic countries being the largest green-business initiative in Europe, with more than 250 partner institutions and a portfolio of more than 1.000 cleantech start-ups across... Read more
An enthusiastic user of HEInnovate, Barbara Gabriel implemented it already twice in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Aveiro with two distinct target groups. HEInnovate is the catalyst for change and for several actions... Read more
Istvan is a member of the HEInnovate expert group and he contributed as the national expert to the HEInnovate Hungary review. Istvan has been working on the development of the entrepreneurial culture of higher education institutions (HEIs) for years... Read more
Strategist, innovation and science manager, teacher, researcher, mentor and entrepreneur. He is the Executive Director of the Center for Business Innovation at Porto Business School, University of Porto and Professor of Entrepreneurship and... Read more
Ester Bernadó is committed to higher education and life-long learning. She has held several positions in the university such as International Coordinator, Director of Bachelor’s Programs, Director of a Research Group in Data Mining, and Coordinator... Read more
Annmarie is the Programme Director and a Business Studies Lecturer at the Dundalk Institute of Technology, Ireland. She is a member of the EU HEInnovate Expert Facilitators Group and has broad experience with using HEInnovate. She implemented the... Read more
Adina first attended an HEInnovate workshop and training in August 2015, given the initial interest of Babeș-Bolyai University in assessing and subsequently developing internationalisation. Adina since became a member of the HEInnovate expert group... Read more
Paul has been engaged with HEInnovate since its conception and has supported its growth and development including the development of the training materials during the past five years. He has undertaken institutional reviews using the HEInnovate... Read more
Pedro has significant experience in Innovation and Entrepreneurship, including teaching and management roles played at the University of Coimbra, after having completed his PhD at MIT. He has participated in several HEInnovate Expert Meetings,... Read more
Nadine is the founder of BCS Consultancy Services, a consultancy company specialising in advice and expertise on EU policies and EU programmes in higher education. Nadine advises on higher education strategic developments, leadership and governance... Read more
Paul is the Director of the Entrepreneurial Mindset Network. He works throughout the Eurozone and worldwide, supporting universities that have made a strategic commitment to becoming more entrepreneurial. He is a member of the EU HEInnovate... Read more
Jakob is currently a Senior Project Manager at Climate-KIC, EU’s largest public-private partnership addressing climate change through innovation to build a low carbon economy. They educate the next generation of climate entrepreneurs and change... Read more
I have been involved in HEInnovate from the very beginning, and now I have used it in my university for more than three years. Since 2014, I have been working as leader of action plan for LUT Entrepreneurship Strategy. My doctoral thesis was about... Read more
Testimonials
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I found this could be a very interesting tool to use when making a systematic approach to the challenging topicDirector of Research, University of Stavanger, Norway
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The HEInnovate workshop facilitator was very insightful.Head of Research and Liaison with Business, University of Cyprus