Two hectic days – 3 great events took a place on 21st and 22nd November 2023

/0 Comments/in /by

  • Skill2Scale Digital Policy Forum
  • Skill2Scale Capacity Building on Start Up programmes for HEIs
  • Skill2Scale Transnational Brokerage Event

Three great events full of information took place during November 21 and 22.

First digital policy forum held on November 21st aimed to synergize efforts in deep tech and beyond 5G technologies with the regional innovation strategies outlined in RIS3. Key stakeholders from the HEIs, KICs, and relevant government agencies were brought together and discussed after an opening Keyone speech by Dimitris Dimitriadis.

Capacity Building on Startup programmes took place digitally on November 22nd. The goal of this event was to demonstrate how universities can develop internal mechanisms that will help students transform their ideas into innovative and viable startups, with a specific focus on incubator services. Best practices from universities were showcased.

Co-organised together with the Startup Europe Regions Network this Brokerage Event: Forging Collaborative Fronties was held again on November 22nd. The aim of this digital event was to encourage and enable effective partnerships that lead to successful collaborative projects in the field of Beyond 5G technology. The brokerage services helped to identify potential partners, facilitate introductions, and provide support for the development of partnerships.

It looks like a busy end od November, but there were even other events – follow our Library to browse through all of them.

Final Pitch Deck: Students from three faculties join forces to tackle 5G/digital health challenges

/0 Comments/in /by

Author: Jana Simanova

It all started on 6th October with an Ideathon. During the three-hour event, representatives from T-Mobile, Linet and the Regional Hospital in Liberec presented their innovative challenges to thirty students from the Faculty of Mechatronics, the Faculty of Health Studies and the Faculty of Economics. During the Ideathon, the students questioned the challengers and expert mentors about the details of the problems and known solutions. In the end, they formed 4 teams with representatives from all three faculties and defined the goals of their joint projects and initial proposals for innovative solutions.

Over the next two months, the students worked on the solutions in their faculty courses and developed them according to their expertise – from a technical, economic and future user point of view. The work of the interdisciplinary teams culminated on 23rd November. In front of a panel of experts, the students presented their solution and business plan.The panel of experts included representatives from innovative technology companies and experts in the field of digitalisation and healthcare.

The winner of the first year of the 5G Interdisciplinary Innovation Lab was a team of students who designed a new solution for the paramedic team to share information about patients and the course of interventions between dispatch, hospitals and field teams in dealing with mass disasters.

For the full text of this article, click this link.

Final Pitch Deck@TUL: Students from three faculties join forces to tackle 5G/digital health challenges

/3 Comments/in /by

Author: Jana Simanova

“Entrepreneurship is a key skill for success in the job market or for developing your own business. Every modern university should develop it for its students. However, such a skill cannot simply be developed in the classroom,” explains Jana Simanová, Vice Dean of Faculty of Economics at TUL. “That is why this winter semester we organised a unique educational experiment at TUL, which brought together students from three faculties – the Faculty of Economics, the Faculty of Mechatronics and the Faculty of Health Studies – to solve interesting projects.”

“We started on 6th October with an Ideathon. During the three-hour event, representatives from T-Mobile, Linet and the Regional Hospital in Liberec presented their innovative challenges to thirty students from the Faculty of Mechatronics, the Faculty of Health Studies and the Faculty of Economics. During the Ideathon, the students questioned the challengers and expert mentors about the details of the problems and known solutions. In the end, they formed 4 teams with representatives from all three faculties and defined the goals of their joint projects and initial proposals for innovative solutions,” says Jana Vitvarová, author of the concept of the 5G Interdisciplinary Innovation Lab at TUL and lecturer of students from the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Over the next two months, the students worked on the solutions in their faculty courses and developed them according to their expertise – from a technical, economic and future user point of view. The work included visits to startup companies or paramedic services, consultations with expert mentors and a one-day hackathon for mechatronics students to come up with a technical concept.

“The biggest challenge for the students was communication within the teams. They didn’t know each other before the course started, they study different disciplines with different timetables and they had to synchronise their work. I think it was a useful lesson for everyone that it is important to respect other professionals and try to understand the perspectives of other disciplines,” says Lenka Koskova Triskova, a lecturer of the students from the Smart Technologies specialisation at Faculty of Mechatronics.

The work of the interdisciplinary teams culminated on 23rd November. In front of a panel of experts, the students presented their solution and business plan.The panel of experts included representatives from innovative technology companies and experts in the field of digitalisation and healthcare. Specifically, the teams tackled issues such as the localisation and online tracking of hospital equipment, communication and messaging between paramedic teams and hospitals, and the monitoring of elderly people with neurodegenerative diseases.

The winner of the first year of the 5G Interdisciplinary Innovation Lab was a team of students who designed a new solution for the paramedic team to share information about patients and the course of interventions between dispatch, hospitals and field teams in dealing with mass disasters. “The most interesting part of the whole work for us was that we were in close contact with paramedics and professional mentors. We knew that we were working to solve a real problem and that we could really make a difference,” says Filip Tichacek, a student at the Faculty of Mechatronics and a member of the winning team. His colleague Antonin Sahula adds: “I told myself that I would study some economics because it is important and as a technician I need to be able to get along with economists if I want to run a company one day. So far I haven’t been interested in it at all”.

“For us, the organisers, the most important thing now is the retrospective and the feedback from the students, so that we can continue to improve in preparing similar forms of teaching,” says Jana Vitvarová, summing up her impressions on behalf of the organisers. “We definitely want to repeat and develop the concept. We all enjoyed connecting students from different faculties – the students and us. For example, the area of smart solutions for cities and a whole range of other ideas are on offer”.

“The whole event could not have taken place without the active participation of the practitioner challengers and expert mentors. We are very grateful to Vit Karvay, Technical Director of the global company LINET, Head of the Science and Research Centre of the Regional Hospital in Liberec Vendula Macháčková, Lukáš Abazid from T-Mobile, Jakub Recek, paramedic, Lenka Horakova, geriatric specialist and Pavel Hübner from Hardwario for their helpful suggestions and excellent cooperation.” concludes Jana Simanová, Vice Dean for Conception and Development of the EF TUL and adding that she hopes the students will continue to develop and improve their projects. A great opportunity is, for example, the participation in the EIT Health Open Innovation Call.

Skill2Scale Transnational Brokerage Event: Forging Collaborative Frontiers

/1 Comment/in /by

Author: Michael Mandamadiotis

On the 22nd of November, in the frameworks of the Skills2Scale project the Transnational Brokerage Event: “Forging Collaborative Frontiers” was co-organised with the Startup Europe Regions Network. The aim of this digital event was to encourage and enable effective partnerships that lead to successful collaborative projects in the field of Beyond 5G technology. The brokerage services helped to identify potential partners, facilitate introductions, and provide support for the development of partnerships.

During the event, Marios Roides, Innovation Consultant in Enterprise Europe Network made a very insightful presentation on Horizon Europe Cluster 4 “Digital, Industry and Space”. The focus was on collaborative opportunities, funding prospects, and guidelines for application under Horizon Europe’s Cluster 4.

Additionally, Patricia Tejada, EU Project Manager at Finnovaregio provided her knowledge and expertise on the Erasmus+ programme. Her approach was around  an introduction to Erasmus+ engagements, benefits for HEIs, success stories and case studies.

The reason why we chose these two programmes to project is that it is easy for HEIs to apply for, since they combine educational material with research and innovation.

At the second part of the event, the audience was divided into three breakout rooms. The participants chose a break-out room during their registration:

  • Room 1: Horizon Europe Cluster 4 Projects
  • Room 2: Erasmus+ Collaborative Projects
  • Room 3: RAISE – Building a Unified EU Startup Ecosystem: Fostering Growth and Collaboration Across Europe

Skill2Scale Digital Policy Forum: Fostering Deep Tech and Beyond 5G Synergies within RIS3

/1 Comment/in /by

Author: Michael Mandamadiotis

On the 21st of November, 13:00 CET, Skills2Scale organized its first digital policy forum aimed to synergize efforts in deep tech and beyond 5G technologies with the regional innovation strategies outlined in RIS3. Our event brought together key stakeholders from the HEIs, KICs, and relevant government agencies and provided a great opportunity for dialogue and collaboration, resulting in concrete conclusions and recommendations. After an opening Keynote speech by Dimitris Dimitriadis, a discreet futurist of the European ecosystem, about the future of innovation in the deep tech field, a fireside chat took place between the event’s moderator and Business Development & Operations Manager at Envolve Entrepreneurship, Kostas Kissas, and Fofy Setaki, principal scientist and researcher in Cosmote. The content of the first two slots were new trends, advancements, implications of infrastructure, industry, today’s workforce and the role of universities in fostering deep tech ecosystems.

After these introductory sessions, the first panel discussion, with topic “Deep Tech & Beyond 5G: Challenges and Regional Opportunities” took place. The members of the panel were Vasileios Gongolidis, Head of Innovation Planning Division at the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation, Harilaos Koumaras, Head of Future Communications Networks Research Group (FRONT) and Researcher at the National Center for Scientific Research Demokritos, Akos Wetters, Co-founder of Kimitisik and discreet startup coach and mentor and Zoltan Palotai, Head of EU Projects at the Hungarian Innovation Agency. They all contributed to a very productive discussion which has a common narrative: transnational collaboration is crucial not only for successful research, but also for productive policy making.

Following, the next panel with topic: “Strategies for Integrating Deep Tech in RIS3” hosted Elli Diakanastasi, from Elevate Greece, Christina Skoubridou from Envolve Entrepreneurship and Ales Kocourek, Dean of the Faculty of Economics at the Technical University of Liberec. They conducted a very insightful discussion, leading to the common bond that policy making and education institutes must be adjusted to the market needs.

Last, but not least, Dimitris Mallas, a discreet journalist in the 5G field, with knowledge and connections with the entire European 5G ecosystem made his comments on the situation of Beyond 5G technologies, and how deep tech must be better instituted through policy making.

Overall, this policy forum was a great beginning in our Skills2Scale effort to influence policy making in the Deep Tech field, enhance collaborations, and to shape actionable policy recommendations in a concise and focused setting. The participation of people from various pillars of the ecosystem made the forum very interesting, since things from multiple dimensions and perspectives were heard.

Skill2Scale Capacity building on start up  programmes for HEIs: “Catalyzing Startup Success in HEIs”

/1 Comment/in /by

Author: Michael Mandamadiotis

On November the 22nd, at 15:00 CET the 1st Capacity Building on Startup programmes took place digitally. Participants were academic and non-academic staff, faculty members, administrative personnel, students, PHD candidates, other actors of the academia from European universities and potential startuppers.. The goal of this event was to demonstrate how universities can develop internal mechanisms that will help students transform their ideas into innovative and viable startups, with a specific focus on incubator services. Best practices from universities were showcased.

Speakers from spanish Higher Education Institutes (UPV) spoke about their long journey in supporting startups, while greek stakeholders (Unifund, Ideas Forward) also narrated how they provide supporting services in the respective universities (Aristotle  University of Macedonia and Athens University of Business and Economics). Additionally, a success story of a greek Startup was showcased and how it managed to be founded by great doctors who, until the creation of it, were solely focused on their academic research.

First, Israel Barres Grios from UPV. with his role as Technical Superior and Manager at STARTUPV talked about the complex, multilevel ecosystem that UPV has created for the purpose of supporting student led startups.  STARTUPV is the UPV entrepreneurship ecosystem created in 2012 that has incubated more than 200 startups. It has cultivated a lot of bright ideas and transformed them into successful startups with global presence and recognition, with a highlight of winning an award in the SpaceX competition, having to compete with teams from MIT, and beating them. Israel’s credibility made a great start for the event and raised the standard for the next speakers.

The next slot was covered by Dimitrios Kourtesis, co-founder of Ideas Forward, a technology venture studio in Thessaloniki, where they “build and back ventures and transform cutting-edge ICT into market innovation”. Having been involved in lots of initiatives that began from scratch, he has seen a lot of initiatives that succeed and did not succeed. Due to vast experience, his input was extremely valuable for our participants.

Following, Katerina Pramatari from UniFund and Professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business shared her experience in supporting the growth of successful ventures that address emerging market needs and leverage the hidden potential that exists in the Greek Universities, R&D and Tech Space. Uni.Fund focuses on people and team development, enhancement of key strengths and implementation of successful go-to-market strategies. We believe that this approach was very remarkable and we wanted to highlight that in HEIs, having a mechanism that can connect the incubated startup with the real market can be a significant asset.

A highlight of this event was the input of Dimitris Makris, Managing Director of RTSafe. RTSafe is a medical technology company that has developed a unique approach to quality assurance that significantly enhances the safety and accuracy of radiotherapy for cancer and other medical conditions. Born in the University of West Attica by a group of professors and phd students, RTSafe is a brilliant example of what can be achieved if entrepreneurship is combined with academia.

The “Catalyzing Startup Success in HEIs” event has been quite successful. We managed to gather a significant number of 28 people that are academic and non-academic staff of European HEIs and can now take inspiration from the best practices they got familiar with through this capacity building programme and incorporate them in the universities they work. This webinar, complemented with a second webinar, focused on acceleration of startups  in HEIs that will take place in the second phase of the project, is a very aimful tool that the SKills2Scale utilised to achieve its objective, to transform universities into catalysts of innovation.

Skills2Scale MOOC on 5G & B5G Technology & Business Innovation Potential

/0 Comments/in /by

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) of the Skills2Scale project, focused on innovation and entrepreneurship in the realm of Beyond 5G technology, is now accessible on the UPVx platform through this link. The course welcomes enrollment from any Higher Education Institution (HEI) student, regardless of their home institution or location, and it is free of charge.

This course is designed to provide HEI students with a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals of 5G & B5G, highlighting the vast potential for innovation of these technologies and encouraging students to leverage it for the creation of new services and businesses, promoting entrepreneurship upon these emerging opportunities.

The MOOC is composed of four modules:

👉 5G Knowledge Essentials

👉 5G&B Potential for Innovation

👉 Entrepreneurship and Innovation leveraging 5G&B

👉 Best Practices in HEIs for 5G&B Education & Entrepreneurship

Skills2Scale MOOC on 5G & B5G Technology & Business Innovation Potential

/0 Comments/in /by

The Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) of the Skills2Scale project, focused on innovation and entrepreneurship in the realm of Beyond 5G technology, is now accessible on the UPVx platform through this link. The course welcomes enrollment from any Higher Education Institution (HEI) student, regardless of their home institution or location, and it is free of charge.

This course is designed to provide HEI students with a comprehensive understanding of the fundamentals of 5G & B5G, highlighting the vast potential for innovation of these technologies and encouraging students to leverage it for the creation of new services and businesses, promoting entrepreneurship upon these emerging opportunities.

The MOOC is composed of four modules:

👉 5G Knowledge Essentials

👉 5G&B Potential for Innovation

👉 Entrepreneurship and Innovation leveraging 5G&B

👉 Best Practices in HEIs for 5G&B Education & Entrepreneurship

Hackathon 5G/Digital Health at the Technical University of Liberec, the Czech Republic

/0 Comments/in /by

🌐On Friday, 10 November 2023, almost 20 students from the Faculty of Mechatronics studying smart technologies gathered at the TUL FabLab to participate in the 5G/Digital Health Hackathon as part of the EIT HEI Skills2Scale project.

The students are working on technical solutions to three 5G Health challenges – they are developing new solutions that could help paramedics in the future (the excursion to the dispatch centre in Liberec was inspiring, thank you!), as well as caregivers of Alzheimer’s patients or hospitals in tracking the movement of mobile devices.

During the Hackathon, students had the opportunity to discuss their solutions with a 5G expert from the national operator T-Mobile. The business and technical aspects of the projects were supported by people trained within the Skills2Scale project – Webinar on Beyond 5G Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship project. Many thanks to Pavel Hübner from IOT startup Hardwario and Lukas Abazid from T-Mobile!

But watch out❗ – this 8-hour Hackathon was just the continuation of the 5GIIL project at TUL – the students are working on their projects throughout the semester and will present their final pitch deck on 23 November.

UzhNU Startup Center

/0 Comments/in /by

Authors: Tetiana Babuka, Kateryna Skubenych (Uzhhorod National University)

The Uzhhorod National University hosts the “UzhNU Startup Center,” which actively fosters the development of economic thinking, communication and leadership skills, management abilities, and entrepreneurial activities among its students, postgraduates, and young scholars. Annually, the “UzhNU Startup Center” organizes the “UzhNU Startup Innovation Ideas Competition,” in which participants from various university faculties actively engage. Students, postgraduates, and young scholars have the opportunity to develop innovative startup projects under the guidance of highly qualified experts and receive professional support and guidance at various stages of startup project development.

The UzhNU Startup Center facilitates the comprehensive development of students, postgraduates, and young researchers by equipping them with advanced knowledge on launching their innovative businesses. They gain skills in managing startup projects through successful case studies, acquire in-depth professional insights into startup market marketing, and have the opportunity to acquire the necessary knowledge and practical skills when preparing project presentations (pitches and presentations). Additionally, they learn to assess startup projects and create business plans. The “UzhNU Startup Center” offers qualified assistance in patenting scientific and technical achievements and aids authors in registering inventions, utility models, and industrial designs. This accelerates the development of innovations and the commercialization of scientific and technical developments in the region.

The primary tasks and functions of the “UzhNU Startup Center” include:

  • Engaging university experts, faculty members, business representatives, and influential civic organizations in implementing initiatives that foster intellectual and creative collaboration among students and researchers in the development of innovative startup projects utilizing modern information technologies.
  • Identifying opportunities for establishing partnerships with organizations, scientific-methodological and information centers, offering consultations, and facilitating cooperation regarding access to educational materials, software, and developments.
  • Creating a conductive environment for experimental research.
  • Providing technical and programmatic information technology resources for collaborative work among startup teams, fostering the formation and development of business skills.
  • Organizing regular training sessions, off-site conferences, seminars, and scientific picnics to showcase practical applications of developments.
  • Offering informational and legal support during the execution of the strategic activities at the relevant levels.
  • Organizing and conducting an annual “UzhNU Startup Competition” for students, postgraduates, and researchers to showcase innovative ideas.