University of Brighton, Brighton, United Kingdom, www.brighton.ac.uk The University of Brighton is a community of over 23,000 students and 2,600 staff based on five campuses in the South-East of England in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. We have one of the best teaching quality ratings in the UK and a strong research record, factors which contribute to our reputation as a leading post-1992 university. The university has cemented productive partnerships with the public service and local authorities, with business and industry, and with academic institutions regionally and internationally. The university has a strong commitment to professional formation and to civic engagement. It seeks to meet new challenges, especially of lifelong learning, of social inclusion, and of knowledge exchange in an information-rich age. The university has key strengths in cooperating with businesses, in vocational education and training, technology transfer and innovation, all of which contribute to the local region.Based on its collective knowledge and experience the University of Brighton, as leader of DEV1, is in a strong position to:
- Review and analyze EU and international good practices, including both external and internal models, building on first-hand experience of models in the UK including the lessons learned in growing the volume and quality of business cooperation, technology transfer and vocational education and training.
- Contribute to the development of sustainable university innovation platforms which are fit for purpose within the target region, including the management of these and benchmarking them against best practise.
- Developing training opportunities for capacity building within staff and effective management of innovation to be implemented within the target universities.
Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria, www.fth.tugraz.at, Graz University of Technology with 2,200 staff and 11.000 students stands for top-class basic research, applied research and research-oriented teaching. It is positioning itself in the Central European research area as a trendsetter. Its excellent contacts with industry and the business world are a key asset, reflected in the high income from contractual R&D: 50 Mio.€ p.a., a third of its overall budget.The service unit Research & Technology House (R&T House) offers TU Graz scientists and innovative businesses a wide portfolio of services for R&D projects and manages all ways of modern technology and knowledge transfer: It provides information in the field of research funding programs and scientific international mobility. It is TU Graz’ interface for companies’ innovation needs (including entrepreneurs) and delivers career and recruiting services. It provides a competence centre for the commercialization of IPR, making it Austrias´s most successful university in this field.
Based on TU Graz’ research information systems a number of regional schemes have been established by R&T House over the last 10 years to promote proactive Knowledge and Technology (KTT) in particular to regional SMEs, putting the "Knowledge Triangle" into practice.
According to its experience and expertise, TUG will be task leader of D1.1 - Collecting and analysis of EU good practices and D3.2 - Elaboration of Regional Development strategy. TUG will also take an active part in the following activities:
- collecting and analysis of EU good practices
- design/development of UIP for WBC universities
- benchmarking assessment of existing university structures/service
- capacity building trainings for university staff, BI/STP staff
- regional networking and internationalization of BI/STP
- development of Methodology for innovation management and Sustainability strategy
- internal monitoring and local management
- participation at Final Conference, Workshops and SC meetings
Centre for Social Innovation, Wien, Austria, www.zsi.at, The experts of the ZSI unit Research Policy&Development (F&E) develop and realize projects on the interface between research and application. The projects of F&E are based on cooperation and networking with partners in the EU, enlargement and third countries, with specific focus on South East Europe. Many of them are financed by the Framework Programmes (FP6, FP7).Key aspects of our activities, relevant for WBCInno are:
- Coordination and realization of European initiatives in research and technology policy in the SEE region (SEE-ERA.NET (PLUS), WBC-INCO.NET, Austrian Science and Research Liaison Offices)
- Coordination and participation in EU initiatives in the region of SEE/WBC (WINS-ICT, SCORE, IS2WEB, SEE-INNOVATION, IS2WEB)
- Coordination and implementation of national/international initiatives, consulting and foresight in the area of internationalization of R&D and related policies, evaluation and accompanying monitoring of projects, networking and dissemination of information.
In WBCInno, the Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI) will be responsible for the Work package 5 - Quality assurance process (QPLN1), as work package leader and also it will be the task leader for 4.1 Development of Methodology for innovation management at WBC universities and for 5.1 Development of quality control and monitoring strategy.
ZSI will actively participate in the following activities: collecting EU good practices, design/development of Regional UIP, benchmarking of existing university structures and services in the areas of knowledge transfer and innovation, capacity building trainings for university and BI/STP staff, elaboration of Development strategy, regional networking/internationalisation of BIs/STPs, Monitoring and tuning UIP, Reporting of innovation metrics within DEV4, monitoring and ongoing support to innovation community, dissemination and local management. Members of ZSI team will also participate in planned Workshops, Final Conference and SC meetings.
University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain, Comunidad Valenciana, www.ua.es, UA is dynamic public university with a system of innovation support measures: Research promotion and TT Office, international projects office & innovation unit. UAli has vast experience in coordinating EC funded projects (Tempus, Alfa, Edulink, FP 5-7) and Tempus experience in the Eastern Neibouring Area, incl. Ukraine and has lead several projects on topics directly related to innovation and research and technology transfer. Transfer of know-how in building TT structures in HEIs, based on sound planning and sustainability measures in different contexts. UA will be expertise provider on topics such as protection and valorization of University knowledge (including IPR management and protection -UAli is implementing the EC funded IPR-Helpdesk), interantional research cooperation, fundraising, University structrues for knwoledge transfer, building links with stakeholders etc.UA will be expertise provider on topics such as protection and valorization of University knowledge (including IPR management and protection -UA is implementing the EC funded IPR-Helpdesk), international research cooperation, fundraising, University structures for knowledge transfer, building links with stakeholders etc.
It will be the workpackage leader for EXP1 - Sustainability and exploitation results and task leader for Regional networking and internationalization of BIs/STPs (3.6) and Development of Sustainability strategy (7.1). Besides, it will take an active role in activities related to good practices, development of UIP, benchmarking assessment of WBC universities, capacity building trainings for university staff, elaboration of Development strategy and Methodology for innovation management, internal monitoring, dissemination activities and local management.
Hamburg University of Technology, Hamburg, Germany, www.tu-harburg.de, TUHH is a technical university, founded in 1978 in Hamburg, Germany. It currently has a staff consisting of 100 professors, 500 research assistants, and almost 6000 students. TUHH is especially focused on engineering sciences; it offers 14 Bachelor and 16 Master of Science study programs in German, in addition to 15 Master of Science study programs in English. TUHH is a global player, and every fifth student comes from abroad. Excellence in teaching and research are the university’s prior objectives. In 2009, more than one third of the total budget comes from external funds, especially from research projects conducted with industry. TUHH has many programs to educate people who look for additional qualifications. For instance, within the scope of the cooperation between TUHH and Northern Institute of Technology, there are MBA programs, which target professionals from industry.At the interface of engineering and economics, TUHH carries on application-oriented research and teaching in the areas of logistics, supply chain management and business management. Their goal is to develop scientifically founded and practically realizable concepts through interdisciplinary research cooperation, as well as through intense collaboration and networking with manufacturing enterprises and service providers. In that sense, they role in the project will be very significant. They will participate in activities such as:
- collecting EU good practices and assistance in development of regional WBC UIP
- benchmarking assessment (as task leader) and provision of capacity building training
- networking and internationalization of BI/STP
- elaboration of regional Development strategy
- development of methodology for innovation management at WBC universities
- internal monitoring and local mngt at HT level
- participation at Final Conference and Workshops
- coordination of act.8.3