Fostering Entrepreneurship for the Bioeconomy (FOEBE): Insights from a course at the European Bioeconomy University

The European Bioeconomy University (EBU) is an alliance of eight higher education institutions (HEIs) with a dedicated focus on the bioeconomy. The institutions are from different European countries: Austria, France, Germany, Finland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Sweden. The bioeconomy is that part of the economy that is concerned with the production and manufacturing of biological resources or with providing related services. In the project Fostering Entrepreneurship for the Bioeconomy (FOEBE) from 2020 to 2023, the EBU trained Master students from bioeconomy study programmes in entrepreneurship. FOEBE designed a special entrepreneurship course in which two cohorts of students have already taken part. Teaching methods are blended, both online and in presence. In the first two cohorts, FOEBE found that the course significantly increased students’ knowledge and skills in entrepreneurship, while their entrepreneurial orientation – which was already high at the beginning – remained unchanged. Student feedback revealed that a thoughtful composition of teaching methods is important, focusing on interactive methods and providing many practical examples in case studies and field visits. FOEBE will deepen its practices and insights in an extension project until 2026. As few bioeconomy educators have their own experiences with entrepreneurship, FOEBE+ will arrange a collaboration with start-ups and established businesses to make them more confident in teaching.

Category:
  • Case studies
Submitted on:
16 Jan 2025