Background

With the recently-developed Higher Education Transformation Agenda, which involves both European Research and European Education Areas, the European Commission aims to foster research and innovation. The Transformation Agenda strengthens Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) in their roles as drivers of regional and European ecosystems change and supports them in their efforts to bring their activities and services better in alignment with societal goals.

Project Content and Aims

Through education, research and engagement Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can have a strong positive impact on regional and Europe-wide social and economic development. To fully realize their potential they need support that is targeted, methodological and experienced. The current project responds to these needs and advances HEI institutional transformation through the development and testing of acceleration services. This includes the following steps and aims:

• A robust, comprehensive methodology is developed that not only pushes forward on the transformation of HEIs but also makes sure that the regions, where they are located, benefit from these changes.
• An acceleration support system is set up that uses the status quo as a starting point to develop a connected vision and a set of activities. These activities are framed by expert coaching, trainings and peer learning in a network that will last beyond the project’s duration.
• The methodology is developed, evaluated, and monitored by proven, globally-recognised experts who put great emphasis on entrepreneurship, innovation and engagement and who are specialised in implementing acceleration services at HEIs.
• A pilot program is launched that takes into account the context and the specific requirements of the 14 partners involved in the projects.

Methods

The methodology to develop acceleration services is based on core concepts and frameworks that have been employed and tested in HEIs over the last ten years. Although HEIs across the European Research Areas (ERA) struggle with similar problems, the developed methodology is not an inflexible one-size-fits-all solution. It can be adjusted to the specific situation of each HEI. In other words, not only common challenges are identified but also specific key challenges of each testing partner individually. Gap-analyses are performed to determine the current state of all HEIs.

Coaching, capacity building, trainings and an active knowledge exchange ensure that the necessary skills for bringing about a sustainable transformation are acquired. A key-focus of the project is developing entrepreneurial and innovation-oriented mindsets (and activities) that allow Leaders, Academics/Researchers, Professional/Administrative Staff and Students to shape the future and thrive in a rapidly changing landscape.

Organisational mechanisms are to be adapted to make transformation goals attainable. This includes – to give a few examples – new research and innovation strategies, mechanisms that facilitate collaboration and sharing of knowledge, new career assessment tools and incentive policies. The roles of the HEIs within its regional ecosystems, the HEIs’ abilities to measure their impacts on the ecosystems, their abilities to co-operate with surrounding R&I ecosystem actors and to engages citizens in solving societal challenges are also major issues of the project.

Results

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are knowledge and innovation ecosystems with a great potential to foster regional and Europe-wide social and economic development through education, research and engagement. In accordance with the Higher Education Transformation Agenda of the European Union, the present project helps HEIs to unfold their potential as drivers for innovation and entrepreneurial thinking by applying a holistic, standardized but adjustable methodology that kickstarts transformation processes. To ensure that the transformation process is not only taking place inside the walls of the universities, the project  places significance on a active interchange between the universities and their regions.