PROJECT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The project IDEAL aims to enhance the entrepreneurial and innovation capacity of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) by strengthening institutional frameworks, fostering partnerships, and equipping students and staff with the skills necessary to thrive in creative and cultural industries (CCIS). Based on the expertise brought by five partners – 4 HEIs and one private sector representative -, the project embodies innovation-driven practices into educational structures, with a view to establishing a long-term impact in entrepreneurship related fields. HEIs will act as catalysts for innovation by developing adequate entrepreneurship-support structures, engaging with stakeholders, and improving curricula. Ideal embeds an Innovation Vision Action Plan (IVAP), which serves as a reference Plan for systemic change, targeting several domains, thereby including: fostering institutional engagement, strengthening partnerships, supporting innovation and business development, enhancing entrepreneurial education, and sharing knowledge and success stories.
Key activities include upgrading HEI curricula with creative and entrepreneurial training programs, delivering mentoring, and supporting start-ups in high-impact areas of fashion, digital design, and media. These efforts will be complemented by establishing robust networks that connect HEIs with industry, research organizations, and societal stakeholders to promote knowledge exchange and cross-sector collaboration.
The project will deliver measurable results through a two-Phase approach, accordingly with the contents of the IVAP, also for the future activities to ensure its future impact. In Phase 1, it will focus on developing foundational tools setting up of operational Committees, training programs, and initial partnerships. Phase 2 will scale these efforts, increasing the number of trained participants, enhanced curricula, and supported start-ups. By the project’s end, the consortium will have, inter alia, supported 15 start-ups, trained over 800 participants, and established 20 long-term cooperation partnerships, ensuring alignment with EIT Knowledge Triangle Integration and regional priorities. After project completion, long-term impact will be also largely ensured by IVAP, which is designed to sustain specific accretive detailed actions building on the achievement of the project’s results. This will be achieved by embedding innovation and entrepreneurship into HEIs’ strategic frameworks, thus contributing to development of hubs of creativity and knowledge, fostering resilience and growth within CCIS.

PROJECT RESULTS

Expected results contribute directly to the achievement of the above specific objectives. Achievement of expected results will be sought through the project Phases (1, 2a and 2b) as detailed in Section 2.1.6. Ideal’s project results are:

R1. Strengthened HEIs institutional support services sustaining innovation transfer and enabling an entrepreneurship environment.

• An IVAP adopted by 4 HEIs for activities implementation aimed at improving 6 (2 in Phase 1, 4 in Phase 2) structures and related mechanisms in enabling an entrepreneurship environment.

R2. Educational improvement measure is piloted targeting students, academic and non-academic staff.

• 2 curricula improvement training programmes developed and delivered, with focus on high impact areas of digital design and media targeting 350 students in Phase 1 and 455 students in Phase 2. Following the training, mentoring is also envisaged for 35 students in Phase 1 and 46 students in Phase 2.
• 2 training programs focused on Knowledge Triangle shill enhancement for 60 academic and 60 non-academic staff in Phase1 and 80 academic, 80 non-academic staff in Phase 2. Following the training to these two target groups additional mentoring is envisaged for 18 academic and 18 non-academic staff in Phase 1, and 24 academic, 24 non-academic staff in Phase 2.

R3. Entrepreneurship support programme implemented, including direct support and industry research-driven paths.

• 15 start-ups supported and established (5 in Ph. 1 and 10 in Ph. 2) through an incubation path through entrepreneurship training, mentorship, and access to industry & innovation networks.
• 2 industry and research-driven start-ups supported including filing of 2 applications.
• 1 innovation for start-up with 10.000 Eur turnover supported in Phase 2.

R4. Enhanced integration of educational institutions (HEIs) into regional innovation ecosystems.

• Enhanced collaboration by establishing 20 partnerships (5 in Ph. 1 and 15 in Ph. 2) between HEIs and other R&I organisation, KIC partners, innovation hubs, and CCIS industry, through exchange and cooperation agreements. Out of these, respectively 1 partnership in Ph.1 for and 4 partnerships in Ph.2 will be established with subjects and organisations participating in other KIC-related activities.

WPs AND INTERRELATION

Ideal’s overall WPs relationship is a visual representation provided in a relational format to emphasize the holistic approach applicable, where all WPs are strictly interrelated. Management and coordination (WP1) provide for steering and inputs to any other WP implementation. WP2 and WP6 are conceived as cross WPs. WP3 is functional to other WPs as it embeds IVAP’s implementation and institutionalisation measures, which, in turn, effectively allow for implementation of WP4 and WP5. On the left, the visual display.