Tag Archive for: digital policy forum

Policy Forum – Lessons Learned from Skills2Scale project

by Jana Simanova & Ales Kocourek & Pavel Pelech,  Technical University of Liberec

On 17th May, the digital Policy Forum of the Skills2Scale project was held to discuss the project’s achievements and share the valuable lessons learned. Project partners representatives presented and discussed the project’s outcomes and best practices/good experiences among HEIs and KICs. 

After doing the self-evaluation at the start of the project, we asked the same questions again to show how the institutions had “moved on ” after one year. The greatest progress was noted in the areas of ‘understanding and expertise’, ‘collaboration with industry partners’, ‘access to necessary R&D equipment’, ‘courses, training/innovation and e-business support programmes’ – all related to Beyond 5G technology. 

Le’ts have a look what great things have been done so far:

The digital conference on 19th June:  𝘽𝙚𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙙 𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙚𝙙: 𝙐𝙩𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙁𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙋𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙤𝙛 𝟱𝙂, under the auspices of the Uzhhorod National University, is going to be „the icing on the S2S cake“ in the last month of the project!

The great news of the last few days is that the Czech startup OPMET Labs (powered by Skills2Scale DTAP)  has achieved great success in the national competition! OPMET Labs will receive financial support 392,000 €  from the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic in the next 3 years. Congratulations!

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

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.