PROJECTS

Acceleration Services in support of the institutional transformation of Higher Education Institutions - Accelerate Future HEI

Accelerate future hei

Higher education institution (HEIs) are crucial drivers of knowledge ecosystems, and increasingly also of innovation ecosystems possessing the potential to impact through education, research and regional development. Through Erasmus+ and Horizon Europe funding, the European Commission has been active in supporting HEIs to increase the engagement and impact in the context of their region, by fostering innovation and entrepreneurship activities. The new European Research Area is expected to strengthen the Research and Innovation dimension of HEIs through a comprehensive institutional Higher Education Transformation Agenda in synergy with the European Education Area, reinforcing their role as drivers of change, fostering their recovery, enabling shared objectives between the EU and Member States’ initiatives to support higher education institutions in their efforts to transform on their education, research, innovation and service to society missions. Given that that impact is achieved through active engagement of the knowledge and digitally-driven HEI with its environment, understanding the context in which the HEI exists and aims to impact is vitally important. Initiatives such as the EC’s Smart Specialisation recognise the symbiosis between the HEI and its region, whilst the existence of ecosystems in both university-business cooperation and entrepreneurship are recognised. To engender transformation within HEIs to create better impact pathways, is an exercise in change management and processes. To drive change then, a comprehensive series of sequential and parallel activities need to occur that raise Awareness, Desire, Knowledge that lead to Action, which then needs to be measured to enable the new behaviour to be Reinforced. This can be achieved through a focussed support system that builds on the status quo, develops a vision and activities described in a roadmap and then executed in application projects supported with coaching, training and international exchange.

Objectives:

1. To identify the status quo of the HEI and their ecosystem with regards to entrepreneurial and innovative activities through a comprehensive Scanning and Scoping phase

2. To develop an acceleration development roadmap that incorporates a vision, realistic activities to be executed through a transformation acceleration project within the Developing phase

3. To test and implement acceleration services that help institutions implement a transformation strategy and roadmap, by creating a shared knowledge base, coaching service and virtual meeting place for HEIs to connect with peers and external stakeholders such as other ecosystem actors, investors and public funders. The acceleration services will provide: access to coaches, mentors, expertise and facilitated discussion from academia or outside academia, with different profiles that match with the areas from the transformation agenda. These individuals should provide support for

i. strategy development,

ii. roadmap development, and

iii. implementation of the above roadmap (through institutional transformation acceleration projects and mapping the required support resources), as well as provide

iv. detailed advice on access to funding from EU, national, and regional sources to allow the HEIs to deliver on the transformations. This advice should enable HEIs to formulate standard methodologies to develop specific investment agendas that consist of different funding and financial instrument branches, aligned with the priorities and areas of the common transformation agenda.

4. To include an evaluation mechanism that enables partners to assess the strategies from HEIs

supervised by an ‘acceleration board’ of independent experts. The evaluation mechanism will monitor

progress of the HEIs in the implementation of the chosen areas from the transformation agenda.

5. To generate policy feedback to the European Commission and Member States, as well as to provide

widespread dissemination of the pilot results to other target groups

Implementation period: 01.01.2023. – 31.12.2026.

Funding/ programme: Horizon Europe programme, the EU’s key funding programme for research and innovation. /European Research Executive Agency

Aim: Together, we aim to develop and pilot test a methodology for acceleration services to support HEI institutional transformation

Leading partner: Coordinator: UNIVERSITY INDUSTRY INNOVATION NETWORK BV (UIIN

Cooperation partners:

TUM International (TUMint)

Momentum Consulting (MMS)

Instituto Superior Técnico (IST)

Université de La Reunion (UR)

Universidad Europea de Canarias (UEC)

Universidade da Madeira (UMa)

St. Pölten University of Applied Science (STPUAS)

UC Leuven-Limburg University of Applied Sciences (UCLL)

Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE)

Politehnica University Timișoara (UPT)

Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA)

Project funding: 3 197 063.75 (for ViA 208 750.00) Project manager (e-mail): Iveta Putniņa (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Involved staff: Agita Šmitiņa, Vera Grāvīte-Lapere 

More information: Home - Accelerate Future HEI

News

1. Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences launches new project to accelerate the future potential of Higher Education institutions in Europe. Read here

2. Testing partner ViA explores best practices in university transformation during its international week. Read here

E3UDRES2 Ent-r-e-novators. Cooperating for Excellence and Impact in Research & Innovation

Ent-r-e-novators

Ent-r-e-novators: entrepreneurs-researchers-educators-innovators - an ambition where we drop the either-or-thinking pattern and advocate a strong interconnection between education, research, innovation and entrepreneurship. E3UDRES2 Ent-r-e-novators address the region’s needs in a variety of approaches: futuring workshops, hackathons, I living labs or citizen science research projects. Ent-r-e-novators bridge the know-do gap and move from a me to a we-culture.

E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators enhances the research capacity of the European University alliance E³UDRES², the Engaged and Entrepreneurial European University as Driver for European Smart and Sustainable Regions and aims to co-create a specific joint research strategy for the alliance.

E3UDRES2 aims to nurture the potential in every researcher, educator and learner to become a “Ent-r-e-novator”. According to E3UDRES2 own lexical framework, we define Learners, Educators, Researchers and Innovators/Entrepreneurs (the “LERIE” community) as 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. Among these actors, Ent-r-e-novators have a leading role in the renovation and transformation of our education and research institutions into open and inclusive ecosystems – the I-living labs. In the spirit of inclusiveness and interdisciplinarity demanded by the holistic nature of the challenges we face nowadays, any student or worker, inside or outside our institutions, and regardless of age, career level and background, can be a LERIE or an Ent-r-e-novator making use of the tools and resources at their disposal (which depend on how they are positioned inside the knowledge triangle: education, research and innovation) to strive for excellence and impact in advancing E3UDRES2 mission and vision for building smart and sustainable regions.

We expect to jointly achieve the following objectives:

  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;
  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;
  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;
  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;
  5. Develop a structured and integrated framework to seamlessly link all our R&I ecosystems and the E3UDRES2 knowledge triangle of education, research and innovation;
  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.

Partnership:

St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (Austrija)
Polytecnic Institute of Setubal (Portugāle)
Polytechnical University Timisoara (Rumānija)
Szent Istvan University (Ungārija)
UC Leuven-Limburg (Beļģija)
Vidzemes Augstskola (Latvija)

Project coordinator: St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences (Austrija)

Project coordinator at ViA: Oskars Java

Project team at ViA: Oskars Java, Gatis Krūmiņš, Iveta Putniņa, Agnese Dāvidsone, Linda Veliverronena, Vineta Silkāne, Kapsars Osis, Katrīne Kūkoja

Project duration: 01.10.2022 - 30.09.2025

Total funding: 1 905 934.34 EUR

Project funding: European Union

PROJECT NEWS

1. Report E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novadores project meets in Austria to work on joint research strategies ENG (14.03.2023.)

2. Report E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators projekts tiekas Austrijā, lai strādātu pie kopīgām pētniecības stratēģijām LV (14.03.2023.)

3. Report Izsludināta pieteikšanās ViA starptautiskajai zinātniskajai konferencei "SABIEDRĪBA. TEHNOLOĢIJAS. RISINĀJUMI" LV (15.03.2024.)

4. Report Aizvadīts starptautisks seminārs par atvērto zinātni un izglītību LV (25.06.2024.)

5. Report E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novators organizes international conference about open science and open education ENG (25.06.2024.)

6. Report Projekta E³UDRES² Entr-e-novators jaunumi LV (25.09.2024.)

7. Report News of the E³UDRES² Entr-e-novators project (02.10.2024.)

 

Scientific school culture for sustainable society (ZIKS)

LZPFLPP 

The Aim of this interdisciplinary research project is to study scientific culture at secondary schools in Latvia as one of the most crucial driving forces for science literate society, generate knowledge basis for scholarly discourse and policy recommendations, and to develop and test a model of theoretically and empirically grounded criteria for evaluating scientific school culture in the post pandemic future.

Implementation period:  03.01.2022. - 30.12.2024.

Project Nr.:  lzp-2021/1-0135

Funding/ programme: Fundamentālo un lietišķo pētījumu programma

HESPI role: Project implementer

Cooperation partners: University of Latvia

Project funding: 299 996.40 EUR

Project scientific manager (e-mail): Agnese Dāvidsone (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Involved staff: HESPI research staff Agnese Dāvidsone, Vineta Silkāne, Gatis Krūmiņš.  Master's students - guest research assistants Gita Dukure, Lelde Āre. Guest researcher Anželika Krastiņa. LU research staff Zanda Rubene, Linda Daniela. 

 

Visitor Monitoring and Management in Protected and Recreational Areas: New Challenges, Novel Solutions for the Anthropocene (VIMAS)

Recreation in the outdoors provides large benefits to individuals and societies, but with increased participation also follows challenges with sustainable management of nature areas. Nature-based recreation has transformed in several ways; besides the increase in volume of visitors, the behaviour of visitors has diversified; visitors partake in a wider set of activities, visit more remote places, take more diversified trips in nature, have different motivations for visitation as well as levels of experience and skills.

New monitoring and management tools honed for the Anthropocene must address the cumulative social and ecological impacts from increased tourism and recreation while striking a balance with ethics, privacy, and equal opportunities.

VIMAS’ primary objective is to develop more efficient governance of nature areas for tourism and recreation, in the best way possible for biodiversity, people’s quality of life and business development. This will be achieved through research about smarter monitoring methods, improved visitor management and more inclusive governance.

VIMAS Strategic objectives are:

• Train the next generation of multidisciplinary scientists that will be equipped with the skills to secure sustainable, knowledge-based visitor management through recruitment of 10 international Doctoral Candidates (DCs) to be assigned to a specific PhD curriculum, to be monitored and supervised in their career development by the multidisciplinary expertise network of the VIMAS consortium.

• Strengthen European geo-digital businesses, public administration, and academia with a cohort of talented, well-connected researchers with the qualities to become leading European professionals in visitor management and planning.

The innovations of VIMAS are to realise potential from new knowledge developed in the intersection between quantitative and qualitative social sciences, ecology, and geo-informatics technology based on inclusive approaches for non-agency stakeholders and citizens.

Implementation period: 01.11.2023.-31.12.2027.

Funding/ programme: Horizon Europe MSCA DN (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Doctoral Networks) 

HESPI role: Project partner

Cooperation partners: NMBU - The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (coordinator), Mid-Sweden University (Sweden), University of Copenhagen (Denmark), University of Eastern Finland (Finland), University of Helsinki (Finland), University of Iceland (Iceland)

Project funding: 2892644 EUR

Project scientific manager (e-mail): Agita Līviņa (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

More informationhttps://www.nmbu.no/en/research/projects/vimas

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Assessment of Resources and Processes for Implementing Circularity and the Green Deal in the Tourism System (CirToS)

The aim of this interdisciplinary research project is to carry out an assessment of circularity opportunities in tourism sector organisations and identify a conceptual assessment of the resources and processes for implementing the Green Deal (GD) conditions, to develop proposals based on the results of the study for introducing circularity and implementing the requirements of the Green Deal at the level of tourism sector and tourism companies in order to promote the competitiveness of the sector in export markets.

Implementation period: 01.01.2024.-31.12.2026.

Project Nr.: lzp-2023/1-0478

Funding/ programme: Fundamental and Applied Research Programme

HESPI role: Project implementer

Cooperation partners: BA School of Business and Finance

Project funding: 300 000 EUR

Project scientific manager (e-mail): Agita Līviņa (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)

Involved staff: HESPI Lead Researcher  Sarmīte Rozentāle, HESPI guest research assistants, PhD students Māra Grīnberga-Šilaua, Gaļina Bukovska, BA research staff Dzintra Atstāja, Didzis Rūtītis

 
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Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences

Cēsu street 4, Tērbatas street 10, Valmiera, LV-4201, Latvija

Company reg. Nr. LV90001342592

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