What do a jar of honey, a pile of dead trees and crunchy chips made of crickets have in common? They all represent elements of nature-based start-ups and projects developed through the Knowledge Alliance (KA) ECOSTAR. As so often, all began with someone thinking outside of the box with the wish to change. Alessandro Leonardi, ECOSTAR’s project...

The second webinar of the HEInnovate series will take place on April 22nd 2021 at 5pm CEST . To celebrate Earth Day , we will present initiatives based on knowledge exchange that have contributed towards a Green transition in Higher Education, with a specific focus on the importance of collaborations between universities and enterprises. The...

The first webinar in the 2021 HEInnovate series focused on the plans, tools and strategies in place that help HEIs build digital ecosystems. The discussion was moderated by Rebecca Allinson, Managing Partner at Technopolis Group , and engaged four contributors. A short summary of the presentations and discussion are included in this article, while...

On 24 March, the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) launched the HEI Initiative: Innovation Capacity Building for Higher Education − a new initiative to boost innovation and entrepreneurship at institutional level in higher education institutions. As part of this initiative, today the EIT announced a Pilot Call for Proposals...

On the 25th March we launch a new series of the HEInnovate webinars. The series consists of seven webinars planned for 2021, usually taking place at 5pm CET on the last Thursday of the month. The webinars will engage invited speakers in discussions and experience sharing around topics of relevance to the current discourse in the field of higher...

The University of Turku considers itself an Entrepreneurial University that fosters entrepreneurship in many ways, based on a three-pillared concept: People (developing entrepreneurial competences), Collaboration (with businesses), and Outputs (creating new businesses). With regards to People, at the heart of the University’s entrepreneurial...

The University College of Christian Churches for Teacher Education Vienna/Krems (KPH) educates preservice and in-service teachers for primary and secondary schools. The University has a Centre for Entrepreneurship Education and value-based Business Didactics, which aims to empower pupils to shape society and the economy in a responsible way...

In recent years, Vilnius University ( https://www.vu.lt/en ) has joined the Arqus European University Alliance ( https://www.arqus-alliance.eu/ ), which aims to stimulate an entrepreneurial mindset and creativity, reinforce regional engagement, and build on complementary strengths and cross-sectoral collaborations. To help with action planning for...

The final HEInnovate webinar in our 2020 Autumn series hosted a panel discussion on the process of internationalisation in Higher Education Institutions, with a specific focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. Contributors shared reflections on internationalisation strategy and implementation, and on effective university-SMEs collaborations. The...

The University of Applied Arts Vienna (‘the Angewandte’) has developed a bachelor’s and a master’s programme on socially responsibility, (in terms of the UN Agenda 2030) entrepreneurship education and complexity. The experience of the Angewandte is relevant to the HEInnovate community for at least three main reasons. First, it illustrates that...

This webinar kicked off the next generation of the University-Business Cooperation (UBC) network which the Commission has been running for more than ten years. The webinar brought together representatives from academia and the business world all over Europe to discuss key challenges and opportunities for UBC. Over 50 participants, including...

The penultimate webinar in the Autumn series explored innovation and entrepreneurship from a student perspective. We invited students as well as representatives of HEIs and international organisations to discuss how to best connect students with real life situations, how to develop their entrepreneurial skills, and how to make teaching more...

Unleashing the power of educational data In the framework of Action 10 (‘Artificial Intelligence & Analytics’) of the 2018 Digital Education Action Plan , the European Commission started exploring the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and learning analytics in education to help to predict skills shortages and support education systems to respond...

The last HEInnovate webinar in our Autumn series will host a panel discussion and it will explore different aspects of how internationalisation of a Higher Education Institution can boost innovation and entrepreneurship. The contributors will discuss their experiences with devising internationalisation strategies and subsequently implementatiing...

In this HEInnovate webinar, representatives of Higher Education institutions and micro and small businesses met to share their experiences and discuss different ideas about how best to provide support to micro and small enterprises. The debate revolved around how the notion and mentality of starting micro and small business and ensuring continuity...