Engaging entrepreneurial ecosystems for the youth

Project Information

Ecosys4you

Grant agreement ID: 101100432

DOI

10.3030/101100432

Project closed

EC signature date 26 May 2023

Start date 1 June 2023

End date 31 May 2026

Funded under

• European innovation ecosystems

Total cost

No data

EU contribution

€ 899 658,75

Coordinated by

WESTFALISCHE HOCHSCHULE GELSENKIRCHEN, BOCHOLT, RECKLINGHAUSEN
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Ecosys4you (Engaging entrepreneurial ecosystems for the youth)

Reporting period: 2023-06-01 to 2024-11-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Inspired by successful founders and vibrant ecosystems, young people are venturing into entrepreneurial careers and launching their own start-ups. However, this inspiration is unevenly distributed across different regions, and entrepreneurial models are less accessible outside start-up strongholds. To overcome these challenges, Ecosys4you is developing an education programme that views ecosystems and their entrepreneurs as collective educational actors essential to nurturing successful start-ups. The EU-funded project offers a cross-country educational programme tailored for young entrepreneurs, utilizing resources across four key dimensions: education, networking, market expansion, and people. The project involves collaboration among private, public, and academic stakeholders from three entrepreneurial ecosystems: Ruhr (Germany), Varna (Bulgaria), and Maribor (Slovenia). They develop activities for future entrepreneurs, including joint classes, mentoring, real-world challenges, and start-up internships. Target participants are students, young alumni, and graduates aiming to explore and enhance their entrepreneurial potential.

Ecosys4you seeks to elevate entrepreneurship education by providing first-hand practical knowledge and experience. It emphasizes co-creation, integrating private actors with higher education institutions (HEIs) and other ecosystem participants. This approach mirrors Germany's dual vocational education system, which combines school-based and company-based learning. The project aims to dissolve the gap between entrepreneurship education within HEIs and the wider ecosystem, recognizing students as valuable entrepreneurial knowledge providers.

Ecosys4you's main objectives are:

Enhancing the flow of innovation resources among the Ruhr, Varna, and Maribor ecosystems, with private sector experts contributing to increased innovation and sustained resource exchange.

Strengthening these ecosystems' innovation potential by encouraging youth entrepreneurship and boosting the flow of skilled employees to start-ups. Emphasis is on improving digital competencies, particularly cyber security, as a cornerstone of modern business development.

Fostering entrepreneurial thinking and practical knowledge by connecting HEIs, entrepreneurs, and intermediaries within and across ecosystems, empowering students to become active participants as entrepreneurs.

The project is coordinated by the Institute for Work and Technology, Westphalian University of Applied Sciences. Project partners are AWARE7 GmbH, the Regional Agency for Entrepreneurship and Innovations Varna, and DOBA Business School. More information: www.ecosys4you.eu

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Scientific Aspects:

To lay ground for networking and resource flow enabling scaling activities, Ecosys4you examines the cross-ecosystem potential of further entrepreneurial education and support activities. To this end we compare the “real-life” entrepreneurial perspective with the educational activities of the ecosystems to figure out how educational supply meets the entrepreneurial demand.

The methodological approach for data collection and analysis involved (1) literature review; (2) conducting 45 semi-structured expert interviews with representatives from support institutions like municipalities (e.g. local economic development agencies), accelerators, incubators, and private ecosystem actors; and (3) conducting 15 “venture biographies” of individuals’ (founders) within the three entrepreneurial ecosystems. Furthermore, we performed a cross-ecosystem comparative analysis involving the key components and characteristics of the different entrepreneurial ecosystems to identify similarities, differences, strengths, and weaknesses.

The analytical work was followed by four co-creation workshops with relevant stakeholders (e.g. with international offices of HEIs) leading to a better development and organisation of educational activities complementing the existing formats. Furthermore, the empirical data was utilised in a first draft for publication (paper under review).

Practical aspects:

The co-creation workshops set the stage for four main project activities: joint classes, mentoring, internships, and co-ideation challenges. In the first 1,5 years, the consortium launched a pilot round of internships in Ruhr start-ups, hosting four interns (2 from Bulgaria and 2 from Slovenia) in Ruhr start-ups from August to October 2024. Evaluation showed a successful exchange of insights and skills in international settings for both interns and companies.

The first internship round concluded with the “Mind Mining Ruhr” Hackathon, organized with start-ups and the Gelsenkirchen business development agency during the RuhrStartupWeek, engaging the local entrepreneurial ecosystem. In the second project year, joint classes, mentoring programmes, and a new batch of internships were initiated. Between August and October, 23 mentors and 18 mentees applied for the Ecosys4you cross-ecosystem Mentoring programme, whose matchmaking and launch are planned for December 2024. Concurrently, a three-module online course, “Entrepreneurial Mind in Action,” was developed, scheduled for March 2025 and launched in collaboration with HEIs and start-ups.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The initial evaluation of our first piloted activities in the Ruhr – internships and co-ideation challenges – show mutual benefits for all stakeholders involved. The interns and participants at the co-ideation event could gain more practical insight into the structures, workload and challenges faced by start-ups, while the companies could network and get inspired by the young people engaged in their daily work or developing of solutions. We recommend English speaking events in the Ruhr as we see a lot of international students and migrants in the Region, which also need a support infrastructure.

Furthermore, we encounter that fostering ERASMUS+-internships requires intermediary actors in between HEIs and Business Development Agencies or other ecosystem supporting organisations.

A specific result with a potentially wider impact is our finding of an ‘outward causation’ of entrepreneurial ecosystems in lagging regions. Entrepreneurial ecosystems in the three project regions have impacts beyond start-ups and economic growth and support regional development in broader terms (e.g. quality of life, etc.). With this (conceptual) finding, we want to contribute to the scholarly debate on entrepreneurial ecosystems and, specifically, their ‘upward’ and ‘downward’ causation. Further publications on nurturing entrepreneurship in lagging regions and the internationalisation of entrepreneurial ecosystems will be developed during 2025.