The project EUCA-INVEST - Investing in Entrepreneurial Universities in Caucasus and Central Asia falls under this category and counts on a consortium of 15 higher education institutions (HEIs) from 8 countries. Launched in October 2015 and lasting 3 years, the project aims essentially at strengthening the culture of entrepreneurship and creativity within higher education in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan, as well as strengthening the role of higher education institutions as an active interested party in socio-economic development and strengthening the cooperation of the corporate University and the academic level of the industry in these countries.
The idea is to create or improve existing structures in the scope of technological transfer offices (TTO) and business idea laboratories in 4 universities in Georgia and 4 universities in Kyrgyzstan, entitled "CreaLABs".
"The project partners considered that the UMinho had a broad experience in designing and implementing this kind of actions to promote business ideas, mostly due to several existing programmes and initiatives supporting creation and development of technological based business ideas", Paulo Afonso, professor at the Department of Production and Systems (DPS) of the EEUM and one of the researchers in charge of the project at UMinho, refers. Under the coordination of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, in Germany, the UMinho takes part in the project as partner through the DPS of the EEUM, namely counting on the collaboration of professor Paulo Afonso, Manuel Lopes Nunes and Fernando Barbosa.
At a first level, Belgian researchers provided an overview of the state-of-the art functional models CreaLabs, legal and economic environment with regard to entrepreneurial incubation, and prepared recommendations based on the institutional knowledge provided by Georgian and Kyrgyz partners. Then, trainings on introductory themes related to entrepreneurship were designed and implemented onto curricular plans at the target universities, which was carried out by the Lithuanian partner. The partner from Czech Republic was responsible for deliver trainings in commercialisation of products, IPRs, licenses, patents, etc, whilst the UMinho was in charge of coordinating and delivering the training sessions in the scope of CreaLABs. UMinho's professors travelled already to Georgia and Kyrgyzstan to provide training modules to participants from partner universities in these countries: "For a week, we presented a base model for CreaLABs, grounded on four idea validation stages – technical validation, market validation, business model and financial component… we also made training materials available, among other content". In September 2017, the coordinator of each partner institution visited the UMinho, in Guimarães, and participated in a series of workshop sessions which counted on the participation of several local partners such as CVR, IE Minho, TecMinho, Liftoff, ESTIEM Student Group, StartupBraga, Celoplás, Skills Lab, Design Institute and VIMA Angels. In May 2018, a new workshop will take place, this time with students from partner universities participating in CreaLABs. The Scottish university is responsible for sharing knowledge on best practices on cooperation enterprise-university and plays also a special role in extending a network towards social innovation in beneficiary countries.
Main results of EUCA-INVEST will include the creation 8 CreaLABs and their networks in the 2 aforementioned countries, contributing to supporting added-value ideas which will in turn boost local and regional economies. The project will also impact human resource training dealing with idea laboratories' development and support, whilst encouraging entrepreneurial skills and creative thinking in higher education students from the partner countries. "We certainly expect that this project may act as a starting point to future collaborations with the consortium universities, as for instance Erasmus mobility agreements or other European projects. Furthermore, we had the opportunity to test a training model which will serve as catalyst for the creation of a Summer School starting in 2018", Paulo Afonso concludes.
+ info: http://www.euca-invest.eu/
