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Activities / results |
Description |
Partners |
Deliverable |
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WP1 - General project management |
EADTU coordinates the project and coaches the participants towards the stated deliverables. EADTU is responsible for the coordination and the monitoring of CBVI on a day-to-day basis concerning all activities to be carried out. This workpackage will ensure that deadlines are met and deliverables are produced in accordance with the contract, the project timetable, the quality framework and the budget limitations. All partners will be involved in a substantial way in the different workpackages. For each workpackage, a workpackage leader is appointed. EADTU will stimulate all partners to take up their own role, and will foster collaboration among partners and will be the place to turn to, for partners, should they encounter any problems (conflict management). The project consortium with the different partners, will meet on a regular basis to guarantee correct fulfilment of the CBVI project tasks and objectives. In between, the project consortium will also communicate electronically, in regular intervals. Communication & collaboration are supported by various (conferencing) tools (discussion forums, project support tools, audio, video & computer conferencing). The management workpackage will contribute to the timely delivery of expected results. After agreement on concrete terms of tasks and timing during the kick-off meeting, each partner will sign the Partner Agreement with the coordinator, detailing ones project commitment, responsibilities and contractual obligations including IPR organisation, and specifying under which conditions the grant share is paid. EADTU will also take care of the relations with and the reporting to the European Commission with regard to this project. EADTU will also organise and chair the all-partners meetings, and takes care of the general management of other meetings.
Administratively, EADTU ensures the general project management with regard to financial administration, monitoring & reporting.
UTIU Role: UTIU manages the participation in project meetings, monitoring of ones own tasks, deliverables and budget, establishing the contracts and tasks within ones own institute, and ensuring the quality of the results. |
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WP2 - Cross-analysis of entrepreneurship and incubator models |
A cross-analysis of entrepreneurship & incubator models is performed. Selective models from country & regions are described such as the UK-Wales region, the ضresund Science Region, the Miskolc Hungary & Timisoara region, the ELAt region of Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany, the Austria Graz region, the Spanish IRE region Madrid, the Estonian IRE region of Tallinn, das Bergisches Dreieck (Remscheid-Solingen-Wuppertal), the Lublin regional area, and the Rome innovation area. Literature, survey questionnaires, expert interviews, and local consultation seminars, are the predominant ways of working in charting the different initiatives for comparison. Based on the different country reports and the profiles of the different universities participating within the partnership, recommendations are formulated on improving the practice of incubatorship for that university. Differences will emerge where different educational systems are compared: educational-based universities focus on personal entrepreneurship and regional economic development, whereas research-based universities focus on transferring research-based knowledge to innovation, and onto the market. Privately organised for-profit seed capital incubators tend to assist tenants with financing issues with the aim to capitalise on investment opportunities (collaboration & networking as essential asset), whereas science incubators aim to transform research findings into new products, interested in the area of development as an end in itself, as opposed to nurturing & developing personal entrepreneurial talent. Confronting these education and research-based approaches will be a new experience in itself, and along with the possibilities of flexible technology infusion, leading to the formulation of new and/or blended solutions. A SWOT of different approaches is intended, acknowledging the multi-facetted nature of entrepreneurship, which is often variously rooted in family, education, student hobbies, research, et cetera.
UTIU Role: UTIU is involved in collecting information on its notable approaches in the region/country, i.e., the partner collection of practices of entrepreneurship & incubator models. |
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WP3 - Organisation of the learner-centric entrepreneurship environment |
This workpackage gathers and deploys a (networked) virtual learning environment: a social and technological hub, which delivers entrepreneurship services and takes full advantage of Web 2.0 technologies. The environment is both learner & entrepreneurship-centred, and infuses the classic entrepreneurship cycle with new generation social technologies. With roots in social capital and network theories, the environment valorises social networking as a prime driver in entrepreneurial success. By virtue of configured open services, incubants can utilise virtual office space, communication facilities, collaboration tools, project planning tools, access to entrepreneurship modules, a community of tenants, access to external social and professional partners, business finance & investment, and types of social-entrepreneurial support. A social/professional dashboard is created on which university and professional services are stratified to complexity & user group: simple services for the elderly non-traditional cohorts & ICT illiterates, and more complex services for youthful digital natives. The cooperation between incubants, SMEs and multipliers, and the recording of ones case experiences, contributes to the growth of social and intellectual capital of entrepreneurship on each new venture, and the accumulation
of an advisory system for young SMEs. The environment levers social media & networking as an instructional method, but also intends to demonstrate that start-ups can actually utilise the vast capital of open and free services in actual enterprise realisation and decrease start-up costs. The (networked) entrepreneurship-centric environment is multi-layered: (open) learning management system, (open) course-cycle support tools, (open) entrepreneurship-cycle tools, (open) lightweight social & professional services, and more sophisticated (semiopen) professional & premium services. Its concept was first illustrated on the EC 2010 University-Business Forum in Brno, Czech.
UTIU Role: Like all partners in this WP, UTIU contributes to the development of the networked entrepreneurshipcentric (learning) environment, by allowing for either development or usage of platform, services and/or learning resources. |
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WP4 - First pilot series: Networked virtual business planning |
This workpackage is designed as an education-based pre-pilot to the coaching of students. This package runs virtual business planning pilots with students. Pilots are locally run and complimented by pedagogically-rich resources from the partners. They infuse additional entrepreneurship-cycle content, tools or services, such as strategic, navigational, assessment, financial or innovation management resources, which act as facultative ‘service modules’ and are exemplary for the co-innovation approach in the development of the virtual environment and the business pilots. The multilingual e-Masterclass entrepreneurship in English, Hungarian, Estonia, Italian, and Spanish is such an example. This high-quality e-learning module is developed in the successful CBVE ‘university-enterprise’ project, and deploys flexible, didactically-innovative and pedagogicallyrich learning approaches. The partners can infuse these resources into their pilot's instructional format, and/or
use it as an extra-curricular service to promote regional entrepreneurship. Moreover, as an introduction to the building of (more) stakeholder cohesion between university, students, multipliers, and SMEs, this workpackage commences the involvement of (external) parties on the platform. Parties discuss and confirm their involvement in the pilots, and are granted access to the networked business planning environment. The external parties act as role models, coaching support, professional assessment panels, or future mentors of high-end business proposals. High-potentials are selected and matched to a (next) virtual business incubation pilot. The workpackage (also) functions as an emerging validation of the lightweight tools & services, meant to functionally support the social-collaborative environment. Finally, all experiences and evaluations of business planning with students, academia, and external professionals are submitted into experience-based Wikis, for accumulation of entrepreneurship knowledge.
UTIU Role: UNINETTUNO is strong in learning content delivery and student tracking. Entrepreneurship Masterclasses are available and delivered from the UTIU platform to service the partners' pilots. UNINETTUNO will infuse the entrepreneurship cycle with course services, content and tools. |
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WP5 - Second pilot series: Versatile field coaching of new entrepreneurs |
This workpackage provides methodologically different pilots on coaching new entrepreneurs. It implements a real & authentic experience of enterprise management, valorising the networked virtual incubator as one logical hub of entrepreneurship resources, lightweight & sophisticated services, and extensive social & professional contacts. Although the pilots are different in emphasis, they share one common objective on which results are assessed: flexibly facilitating competence development in enterprise management & start-up, through knowledge sharing between young entrepreneurs and experienced organisations, multipliers and academia. The entrepreneurship-centric environment is the main spring board for social networking & experience logging. The pilots are versatile. A first pilot-type aims to coach new entrepreneurs in constellation with seed-capital/ investment and business-service organisations. A second pilot-type implements a real and authentic experience of enterprise management for young entrepreneurs, infusing a virtual enterprise, which interfaces with real external clients and genuine market demand. A third pilot-type, in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce, focuses on the special target group of family-based SMEs, benefiting from mixed generation entrepreneurs i.e., the older generation experienced in professional business, and the young family members with new ICT competences and language skills. A fourth pilot-type coaches young entrepreneurs through physical/virtual entrepreneurship internship. A fifth pilot-type gears towards more intensive student-entrepreneur involvement, meeting & working with successful entrepreneurs, and aspects of social entrepreneurship. And, a sixth pilot-type trains undergraduates to solve real business problems by twinning with dynamo role models. Finally, all pilots have the objective to facilitate knowledge sharing and relationship building to improve the chances of new entrepreneurs starting-up. |
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WP6 - Optimising the entrepreneurship ecosystem regional and cross-regional |
This workpackage draws on the lessons learned from the entrepreneurship-centred environment, the business planning exercises and the versatile field-coaching pilots. Activities performed in the project, are assessed on their impact to the regional and cross-regional entrepreneurship ecosystem. In addition, the role of universities and organisational multipliers in the acceleration process, is evaluated. It is explicated what issues and processes have hindered and/or promoted the knowledge transfer process between (or inside) different parties, and what solutions can be formulated, or opportunities taken advantage of, to improve the situation. Important recommendations to improve the organisational interfaces are formulated, and appropriate motivation and reward mechanisms for academia and accelerators are suggested. An ideal entrepreneurship value chain for the region is formulated which levers the strengths of the universities, whether they are research-based universities linking research to innovation and market exploitation, or education-based universities linking motivated students to entrepreneurship and regional development, or a mix for that matter. In transcending a regional perspective, recommendations to link (experimental, emerging or good) practices of regions, will be exploited.
As regards the motivation of new entrepreneurs, it is researched how the ecosystem contributed to this in a systematic way, and what role social and technological connectivity has played. The final product of this workpackage charts the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities and threats of the regional ecosystem along with its contextual framework (regulatory, market conditions, access to finance, R&D technology, entrepreneurial capabilities and culture), and conceptualises a ‘to-be’ regional ecosystem, based on the lessons lesson learned from the pilots, the potential of flexible learning technologies, and the cross-regional knowledge transfer between partners.
UTIU Role: UTIU contributes its perspective on the knowlegde & experiences within the project & the specific pilots, and forwards recommendations to improve observed local or general situations. |
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WP7 - Dissemination |
To obtain early receptiveness, the partnership will immediately start disseminating project start-up, progress and end-results, to regional stakeholders, including public, professional and entrepreneurial networks and policy advisors. A promotional Board inside the project is established to devise and manage the dissemination strategy. The SMEs, regional agencies, and academia, (already) on board of CBVI, are requested to valorise their network channels & contacts, including EADTU's multi-country member base.
Information will generally be spread through project websites, newsletters, mailing lists, press releases, news announcements, local university press clippings, news by the Chamber's of Commerce, newsgroups, local fairs, professional workshops and educational events, professional networks (local, regional, European), Web2.0 media outlets, professional communities, conference abstracts, (reviewed) papers submissions, project references in scientific papers, Bachelor, Master and Dissertation studies, popular articles, technical reports, editorials and book chapters, professional promotional materials, glossy folders, leaflets and/or brochures, university-business forums, regional seminars, and European networks and conferences.
The dissemination target groups are: (1) University staff and academic professionals, (2) SMEs with experienced entrepreneurs willing to provide systematic support in university-business cooperation, (3) Regional multipliers & accelerators, such as Chambers of Commerce, business incubators, seed capitalists, providers of enterprise services, (4) Students & adult learners/workers including new entrepreneurs (youngsters and adults), eager minded, ready to venture and compete, (4) Other regional inhabitants notably interested in founding a new businesses, (5) Public, semi-public and regulatory bodies, shaping a more benign climate for entrepreneurship, and (6) Entrepreneurship course & instructional designers.
UTIU Role: UTIU contributes to input dissemination practices to the dissemination plan. |
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WP8 - Exploitation of results |
An all-inclusive 'valorisation and exploitation' plan is developed by the partners, enabling receptiveness of the community and early project involvement. Inclusive strategies are formulated for involvement of associates, observers or professional participants, increasing the impact of spill-over and post-project valorisation.
UTIU Role: UTIU is strong in valorising project results. UTIU manages the drafting of the valorisation plan in conjunction with the input of the other partners. It keeps track of the progress and the input of new elements and strategies along the way.
Professionals, already part of CBVI, will valorise their contacts with: academia & new entrepreneurs (youngsters and adults), experienced entrepreneurs, multipliers (chambers), accelerators (incubators, seed capitalist, business services), regional population, public & intermediary bodies, and instructional/course designers.
To target new entrepreneurs in HE, deliverables of the project are valorised inside existing programmes and curricula, in an effort to make an educational imprint. This goes for the (networked educational resources, such as the virtual Masterclass entrepreneurship, as well as the social & professional communities and places of the virtual incubator, which will have accumulated valuable experiences of new entrepreneurs. It works in favour of sustainability, as it can be infused in next term's curriculum to again train new entrepreneurs. Post-project valorisation of resources could also include trainings & workshops for regional individuals, extra curricular, which are notably interested in starting up a business.
Finally, the management, usage and extension of (entrepreneurship) applications, content & services is quite flexible for all partners, in terms of financial sustainability, as only part of it is exploited locally on the university platforms as part of a local curriculum, while other resides "in the clouds", making the management, usage and extension of these applications, content & services not dependent on local exploitation, but quite flexible for all partners, in terms of financial sustainability. The feasibility of all post-project valorisation opportunities will assessed with a final exploitation event.
UTIU Role: UTIU is strong in valorising project results. UTIU manages the drafting of the valorisation plan in conjunction with the input of the other partners. It keeps track of the progress and the input of new elements and strategies along the way. |
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WP9: Quality Assurance |
The Quality Board is a subset of project members. It convenes to prepare the evaluation procedure and set-up the indicators, for preparing the interim report, and for discussing the final evaluation report. The activities of the Quality Board consist of devising the quality assurance manual, (ongoing) quality management, monitoring and control, updating the quality assurance manual, and intermediate & final evaluation. The quality management manual is to ensure that monitoring of the project is performed adequately and accurately. It identifies procedures, criteria and resources for monitoring the project. It also deals with the evaluation of the progress of the project, associated risk, change and issue management, and with internal and/or external evaluation of the deliverables. The Quality Board ensures that the project remains on track with scheduled deliverables, and remains within budget. Project status reports are generated to display progress and generate recommendations.
UTIU Role: UTIU contributes to the drafting of the quality plan and the criteria to be implemented for project quality monitoring. |
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