Collaborating with 7 institutions from 6 different European countries, ACEEU has secured funding from the European Institute of Innovation & Technology (EIT) for its latest project entitled: Responsible Innovation-Led Entrepreneurial University Transformation Centres (Ecosystem Integration Labs) – RiEcoLab.
RiEcoLab was submitted as a response to the Pilot Call of the HEI Initiative: Innovation Capacity Building for Higher Education, an initiative supported by EIT's Knowledge and Innovation Communities under Horizon Europe.
The project brings experienced partners together to develop a novel way of performing research and development in universities to ensure immediate commercialization (spin-offs) and involvement of a large number of internal stakeholders (academic and non-academic staff and students).
The partnership was composed strategically to facilitate capacity building and mutual learning. Other than ACEEU, other experienced partners of RiEcoLab project include: University of Łódź (Poland) as a lead partner, European Business Angels Network (Belgium), Helixconnect Europe (Romania), National School of Political and Administrative Studies (Romania), University College Dublin (Ireland), Wageningen Economic Research (The Netherlands) and Yaşar University (Turkey).
Due to its unique experience and profound knowledge in promoting, evaluating, and celebrating entrepreneurial and engaging aspects and activities driven in and through HEIs, in this project, ACEEU will be in charge of:
1. Post-Pilot Capacity Building: working with the involved HEIs and engage them in assessing their competencies in entrepreneurialism and innovation and ensuring the long-term innovativeness and entrepreneurialism delivered via the Innovation Vision Action Plans (IVAPs);
2. Pilot implementation which includes Impact Measuring Stage;
3. Communication infrastructure and tools.
Additionally, ACEEU will also actively contribute to Work Package 1 (WP1): Framework and Training Material development. This WP entails the creation of toolkits that are purposefully created to empower HEIs to implement their Innovative Vision Action Plans (IVAPs).
ACEEU is looking forward to finally ‘Kicking-Off’ the project and producing an impact on making universities leaders in sustainable regional growth via enterprising start-ups and impact investment. Stay tuned!
Read more about the project HERE.
Learn more about the EIT HEI Initiative as well as all selected projects in this Pilot Call HERE.