Tag Archive for: EIT HEI

EIT HEI Initiative Alumni

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The Skills2Scale Consortium is pleased to share with its community the possibility of joining the EIT HEI Initiative Alumni:
👉 https://lnkd.in/d9xecUSk

The EIT HEI Initiative Alumni is a community that aims to connect students, academic and non-academic staff, and start-up founders who have received training and support through the EIT HEI Initiative. Through the EIT HEI Initiative Alumni, members can meet like-minded individuals, continue to build on their skills and knowledge in the area of innovation, entrepreneurship and deep tech and can exchange good practices, form partnerships and stay informed about the latest developments of the EIT community.

3rd Peer Learning Event of Skills2Scale project in Liberec

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by Jana Šimanová

On the 23rd and 24th of April 2024, the Technical University of Liberec hosted our partners from the Skills2Scale project (we wrote about the project here). We were thrilled to share our experience in innovations and education for entrepreneurship with our esteemed guests from Universitat Politècnica de València (🇪🇸), Uzhorod National University (🇺🇦), University of Lapland (🇫🇮), NCSRD Demokritos, Fogus Innovations and Services and Envolve (🇬🇷).

The objective of the event was:

  • to share experience and the best practices in the fields of education, research, and innovation,
  • to ignite inspiration among Higher Education Institution staff to explore new pathways and opportunities to foster students’ entrepreneurship and innovation,
  • to stimulate the development of the innovation ecosystem in our home region and inspire the local, regional, and national stakeholders.

Detailed information can be found in our article in the Library.

Innovation Hub East at the Technical University of Liberec

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by Jana Šimanová

On Friday, 1st March 2024, Deans Jaromír Moravec and Aleš Kocourek and CxI Director Miroslav Černík welcomed guests from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Urban Mobility – Innovation Hub East at the Technical University of Liberec. Since May last year, TUL has been part of the European Innovation Network within the Skills2Scale project (we wrote about it here). The guests from EIT were mainly interested in projects related to sustainable transport, autonomous mobility, energetics, and renewable energy sources. During the meeting, dr. Traian Urban presented all the activities of the EIT Urban Mobility – Innovation Hub East. Dean Aleš Kocourek introduced the EIT representatives to the structure of TUL and the research focus of its divisions. Dr. Josef Břoušek presented research and development in autonomous mobility and Dr. Lukáš Hubka in the field of energetics and renewable energy sources. Later, the guests visited several research laboratories and attended demonstrations of prototypes of single- and two-track electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles. Many other topics were discussed throughout the visit, including the possibilities of coordinating activities for developing international cooperation of TUL in research, development, and innovation, as well as technology transfer and support for startups and spinoffs.   

Innovation Hub East was established in January 2020 and covers the geographical area of the eastern part of Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Israel. As of August 2020, the main office is located in the center of Prague, Czech Republic. Innovation Hub East works with partners from top universities, research centers, cities and municipalities, industrial corporations, and small and medium-sized enterprises. The partners are active in many projects covering the topics of functional mobility, micro-mobility, shared mobility, traffic monitoring through artificial intelligence, smart parking, building and monitoring innovative urban transport ecosystems, as well as projects related to the prevention of the spread of infectious diseases. Innovation Hub East is actively expanding its family of partners across Europe and facilitating the collaboration of international consortia and teams to build sustainable urban spaces that provide a qualitatively higher standard of living for citizens. Innovation Hub East is also active in organizing acceleration and scale-up programs. 

Innovation Hub East at the Technical University of Liberec

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by Jana Šimanová

We are proud to announce that on Friday, 1st March 2024, Deans Jaromír Moravec and Aleš Kocourek and CxI Director Miroslav Černík welcomed guests from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) Urban Mobility – Innovation Hub East at the Technical University of Liberec. The guests from EIT were mainly interested in projects related to sustainable transport, autonomous mobility, energetics, and renewable energy sources. During the meeting, dr. Traian Urban presented all the activities of the EIT Urban Mobility – Innovation Hub East. Dean Aleš Kocourek introduced the EIT representatives to the structure of TUL and the research focus of its divisions.

Dr. Josef Břoušek presented research and development in autonomous mobility and Dr. Lukáš Hubka in the field of energetics and renewable energy sources. Later, the guests visited several research laboratories and attended demonstrations of prototypes of single- and two-track electric vehicles and autonomous vehicles. Many other topics were discussed throughout the visit, including the possibilities of coordinating activities for developing international cooperation of TUL in research, development, and innovation, as well as technology transfer and support for startups and spinoffs.   

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

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

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

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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”

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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.

Promotion of innovation and the establishment of startups involving Beyond 5G technology (@UzhNU)

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The Startup Center of Uzhhorod National University (UzhNU), a State Higher Educational Institution, efficiently conducts initiatives to promote innovative education among its students and researchers, as well as government and business representatives, contributing to the development of the university’s and the Zakarpattia region’s overall innovation potential. The primary objectives of the center encompass the comprehensive development of its target audience by providing advanced knowledge in organizing innovative businesses and managing startup projects, offering qualified assistance in intellectual property rights protection, invention registration, utility models, and industrial designs, while also facilitating the commercialization of scientific developments.

The UzhNU Startup Center played a pivotal role as one of the organizers of a workshop held on Wednesday, September 27, 2023, for government, education, science, and business stakeholders. The event was aimed at introducing cutting-edge technological solutions, promoting partnerships between the university and external collaborators to advance innovations in Beyond 5G technology, accelerating the development and commercialization of innovations and student-led businesses, and enhancing the quality of innovation and entrepreneurial education.

In October 2023, the Startup Center of Uzhhorod National University, a State Higher Educational Institution, is organizing a startup project competition (https://www.uzhnu.edu.ua/en/news/Invitation-to-participate-in-the-competition-Startup—UzhNU-Inn.htm) with the aim of fostering innovation and entrepreneurial activity among students and young researchers. The competition also seeks to establish informational, organizational, educational, and technical support for students, postgraduates, and young scholars who aspire to implement their innovative ideas in production by effectively leveraging modern IT technologies. Additionally, it aims to implement networks and programs beyond 5G in various fields to contribute to Ukraine’s future economic development.

Source: https://www.uzhnu.edu.ua/uk/news/obgovor-real-proyekt-rozshirennya-mozhlivostej-visokih-tehnologij.htm

5G Interdisciplinary Innovation Lab bringing together students of technology, natural sciences and economics

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Authors: Jana Vitvarova, Lenka Koskova Triskova (Technical University in Liberec)

5G Interdisciplinary Innovation Lab (5GIIL) fosters collaboration among students across diverse fields including economics, technical disciplines, and application domains with a strong emphasize in eHealth. These students come together in teams to collectively create and prepare market-driven solutions that embrace innovation in the 5G and beyond. This best practice draws inspiration from hackathons. However, unlike hackathons, the activities take place over a longer period of time so that students have more time to think about the solution, and it is possible to integrate 5GIIL for eHealth into their regular courses.

In the preparation phase, once suitable courses and students from different disciplines have been selected, there are two main activities:

a) obtain application domain specific challenges from stakeholders from the eHealth sector,
b) form a team of expert mentors from both academia and industry/business who possess the necessary expertise to guide students across all three aspects of their work: domain knowledge, technical skills, and economic and entrepreneurial understanding. 

In the realisation phase, the 5GIIL for eHealth follows the steps below. The activities alternate between instructor-led workshops providing the necessary context for the current step and subsequent independent teamwork. Teams maintain regular contact with mentors and can consult with them about their work at each step.

These steps are

1st Challenges. Presentation of challenges to students and facilitation of teams’ formations. Teams assignment: Choose a challenge and form a multidisciplinary team. 

2nd Ideation. Workshop on ideation techniques. Teams assignment: Suggest possible solutions. 

3rd Prototyping. Workshop on prototyping methods. Team assignment: Develop a prototype solution.

4th Validation. Workshop on validation methods. Teams assignment: Validate the proposed solution.

5th Pitch (to investors). Workshop on how to make a pitch. Teams assignment: Make the best pitch.

6th Retrospective/Feedback. Workshop on retrospective methods. Teams assignment: Make the retrospective and get feedback on your work/pitch.

The 5GIIL for eHealth is meant to be an integral part of specific student’s courses, so it is advisable to reward students for participating in the lab by earning part of the credits from their course. Working in the 5GIIL for eHealth, students develop entrepreneurial and project management skills and strengthen interdisciplinary links that are otherwise difficult to acquire during their studies. They learn by sharing their knowledge. Engineering students bring knowledge of technology, development and production methods. Domain students bring knowledge of the details and needs of the eHealth industry. Economics students bring knowledge of business and marketing principles. Project-based approach, real-life challenges and expert mentorship allow students to work directly with the eHealth industry, gain practical experience and think about the impact their work can have in real-world contexts.

The application of 5G may catalyse the convergence of other modern technologies like AI, IoT, blockchain, virtual reality, and edge computing. By integrating these technologies with 5G, innovators can create ground-breaking solutions with enhanced capabilities and transformative potential.

The pilot 5GIIL for 5G/Digital Health took place in 2023 at the Technical University of Liberec with the support of the EIT HEI Initiative and the Skills2Scale project.