Periodic Reporting for period 1 - E3UDRES2 Ent-r-e-novators (E3UDRES2 Ent-r-e-novators: Cooperating for excellence and impact in research and innovation)
Reporting period: 2022-10-01 to 2023-12-31
According to the E³UDRES European University alliance’s own lexical framework, Ent-r-e-novators stands for Learners, Educators, Researchers and Innovators/Entrepreneurs, a community formed by problem-solving, entrepreneurial and inquisitive-minded individuals who have a deep sense of social and societal responsibility and put their energy and efforts into serving the best interests of the wider community.
The E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators project aims to co-create a more specific joint research and innovation strategy and a common agenda to accelerate the transformation into a European multi-institutional Research and Innovation Hub for Smart and Sustainable Regions.
E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators includes, interacts and collaborates with a diverse variety of smart and ambitious people, academic institutions, regional authorities, companies, European R&I networks and regional innovation ecosystems.
E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators is committed to scientific excellence and research integrity within its cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral key R&I networks and promotes (future) R&I competences, skills, resources, methods, training, services and management for collaborative research and open innovation for smart and sustainable regions.
By the end of the project, the following objectives are expected to be achieved:
• Objective 1: Co-create a common strategy and agenda that unlocks our potential for excellence in Research and Innovation, to accelerate the transformation into a multi-institutional European Research and Innovation Centre for Smart and Sustainable Regions
• Objective 2: Develop best practices and a strategy for pooling research infrastructures, expertise, data and resources and for collaborating with/getting access to other strategic research infrastructures
• Objective 3: Develop structured support programmes aimed at empowering our scientific communities to fully embrace Open Science, Open Innovation, Open Education, Engaged Science and Engaged Education
• Objective 4: Work to achieve a level playing field in terms of institutional strategies and policies for Human Resources for Research, from which we will be able to address bigger challenges, such as brain mobility, new career assessments and joint recruitment strategies
• Objective 5: Develop a structured and integrated framework to seamlessly link all our R&I ecosystems and the E³UDRES² alliance’s knowledge triangle of education, research and innovation
• Objective 6: Along our pathway to build a common R&I agenda, be connected and dialogue with peer Alliances and HEIs, HEI associations and advocacy groups, and policy-makers with a view to contribute with evidence based results to the co-creation of future EEA/ERA work programmes and to inform better policies
The E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators project aims to co-create a more specific joint research and innovation strategy and a common agenda to accelerate the transformation into a European multi-institutional Research and Innovation Hub for Smart and Sustainable Regions.
E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators includes, interacts and collaborates with a diverse variety of smart and ambitious people, academic institutions, regional authorities, companies, European R&I networks and regional innovation ecosystems.
E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators is committed to scientific excellence and research integrity within its cross-disciplinary and cross-sectoral key R&I networks and promotes (future) R&I competences, skills, resources, methods, training, services and management for collaborative research and open innovation for smart and sustainable regions.
By the end of the project, the following objectives are expected to be achieved:
• Objective 1: Co-create a common strategy and agenda that unlocks our potential for excellence in Research and Innovation, to accelerate the transformation into a multi-institutional European Research and Innovation Centre for Smart and Sustainable Regions
• Objective 2: Develop best practices and a strategy for pooling research infrastructures, expertise, data and resources and for collaborating with/getting access to other strategic research infrastructures
• Objective 3: Develop structured support programmes aimed at empowering our scientific communities to fully embrace Open Science, Open Innovation, Open Education, Engaged Science and Engaged Education
• Objective 4: Work to achieve a level playing field in terms of institutional strategies and policies for Human Resources for Research, from which we will be able to address bigger challenges, such as brain mobility, new career assessments and joint recruitment strategies
• Objective 5: Develop a structured and integrated framework to seamlessly link all our R&I ecosystems and the E³UDRES² alliance’s knowledge triangle of education, research and innovation
• Objective 6: Along our pathway to build a common R&I agenda, be connected and dialogue with peer Alliances and HEIs, HEI associations and advocacy groups, and policy-makers with a view to contribute with evidence based results to the co-creation of future EEA/ERA work programmes and to inform better policies
An analysis of the R&D&I landscape of the alliance has been conducted which allowed to conclude that E³UDRES² offers a wide range of opportunity for collaboration and it is addressing the major topics identified in relevant EU policy and UN SDG document. It shows also that expertise within the alliance is very diverse, covering all relevant research disciplines, even though there is a potential to increase the number of participating researchers in the alliance's activities.
Given one of the objectives of E³UDRES² Ent-r-e- novators is to co-create a common strategy and agenda for Research and Innovation, a survey was distributed to the internal communities of the project's partners, addressing researchers, academic staff and technical staff supporting research and innovation activities. This survey showed that there is still great potential to engage the target groups in the E³UDRES² activities and the lack of information was identified as one of the barriers to participate in those activities.
As to empower the project's partners to fully embrace Open Science (OS), Open Innovation (OI), Open Education (OE), an assessment of the current situation across the alliance was performed, to identify the specific needs, the challenges and the opportunities. Some important conclusions are that there is a mixed level of awareness and the level of implementation, even though OS, OI and OE are recognised by all partners as strategic.
To improve researcher's capacity of engaging society in their research, a practical guide on the engagement of citizens and researchers in Citizen Science has been produced.
As a stepping stone into accomplishing the objective of achieving a level playing field in terms of institutional strategies and policies for Human Resources for Research, a study has been performed to explores the research and innovation capacity of the higher education institutions within the E³UDRES² alliance. This allowed to observe some disparities in terms of academic staff distribution, gender equality and international collaboration exist across the alliance. It was emphasised the importance of addressing well-being of the academic staff and the need of pursuing some strategic measures that include supporting women in leadership, promoting international cooperation, and standardizing recruiting processes.
A project website, www.entrenovators.eu was launched serving the purpose of disseminating all relevant information about the project and the project is also present in the major social media platforms.
Given one of the objectives of E³UDRES² Ent-r-e- novators is to co-create a common strategy and agenda for Research and Innovation, a survey was distributed to the internal communities of the project's partners, addressing researchers, academic staff and technical staff supporting research and innovation activities. This survey showed that there is still great potential to engage the target groups in the E³UDRES² activities and the lack of information was identified as one of the barriers to participate in those activities.
As to empower the project's partners to fully embrace Open Science (OS), Open Innovation (OI), Open Education (OE), an assessment of the current situation across the alliance was performed, to identify the specific needs, the challenges and the opportunities. Some important conclusions are that there is a mixed level of awareness and the level of implementation, even though OS, OI and OE are recognised by all partners as strategic.
To improve researcher's capacity of engaging society in their research, a practical guide on the engagement of citizens and researchers in Citizen Science has been produced.
As a stepping stone into accomplishing the objective of achieving a level playing field in terms of institutional strategies and policies for Human Resources for Research, a study has been performed to explores the research and innovation capacity of the higher education institutions within the E³UDRES² alliance. This allowed to observe some disparities in terms of academic staff distribution, gender equality and international collaboration exist across the alliance. It was emphasised the importance of addressing well-being of the academic staff and the need of pursuing some strategic measures that include supporting women in leadership, promoting international cooperation, and standardizing recruiting processes.
A project website, www.entrenovators.eu was launched serving the purpose of disseminating all relevant information about the project and the project is also present in the major social media platforms.
The desired outcome of the project is a transformation of the regional communities into the human-centred smart and sustainable regions with strong awareness of and involvement in R&I processes.
The project foresees:
› an Increasing in the number and level of scientific/technological specialization of the services provided to regional companies and organizations;
› making industry more aware of the opportunities the partner institutions can offer to improve their operations;
› more cost-effectiveness of institutional, national and European investments in our RDI activities due to the gains in critical mass within the alliance and avoidance of duplication of efforts
› an increasing the digitalisation level of regional SMEs and public organisations, strengthening the competitiveness and contributing to the growth of regional SMEs
› fostering the economic growth of our regions through the launching and incubation of new spin-offs and startups which are likely create solutions with potential for commercial exploitations
› the creation of new jobs in the regions of influence of the partner institutions, either directly or indirectly
› contribution to the development of smarter and more sustainable regions by increasing the general awareness of: (i) the current societal problems; (ii) how we rely on science to solve those problems; and (iii) the urgency to change some deeply rooted non-sustainable practices and habits
› the inclusion of citizens as active participants in the research and innovation processes
The project foresees:
› an Increasing in the number and level of scientific/technological specialization of the services provided to regional companies and organizations;
› making industry more aware of the opportunities the partner institutions can offer to improve their operations;
› more cost-effectiveness of institutional, national and European investments in our RDI activities due to the gains in critical mass within the alliance and avoidance of duplication of efforts
› an increasing the digitalisation level of regional SMEs and public organisations, strengthening the competitiveness and contributing to the growth of regional SMEs
› fostering the economic growth of our regions through the launching and incubation of new spin-offs and startups which are likely create solutions with potential for commercial exploitations
› the creation of new jobs in the regions of influence of the partner institutions, either directly or indirectly
› contribution to the development of smarter and more sustainable regions by increasing the general awareness of: (i) the current societal problems; (ii) how we rely on science to solve those problems; and (iii) the urgency to change some deeply rooted non-sustainable practices and habits
› the inclusion of citizens as active participants in the research and innovation processes