European Drivers for Regional Innovation

Promoted by the European Commission, the European Drivers for a Regional Innovation Platform aims to improve cooperation between universities, the private sector and regional governments at a time when universities are called to play a role central to the new society and knowledge economy.

The initiative, which began in the fall of 2009, was part of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission and lasted three years (ended in 2012). The new project partners, coordinated by the organization ESMU-DEAN, institutions are linked to professional associations, European associations, higher education institutions and regional networks of universities, such as the Catalan Association of Public Universities. In particular the European Society for Engineering Education (SEFI), the Association of Medical Schools in Europe (AMSE), the Companies and Business Schools Network (EFMD) and the network of executives and university managers in Europe (HUMANE). Regarding the performance of the sector of higher education, it included the ACUP, the Danube University Krems - for University Continuing Education (DUK), the Baltic Sea Region University Network (BSRUN) and Aalborg University (AAU).

The purpose of the project was to create a community work aimed to promote regional innovation, which was built by universities and other stakeholders representing the region and act as a platform for the dissemination of learning materials and to promote the exchange of good practices. This work ultimately wants to accompany an informative work that allows to get the findings and recommendations and social fabric that enables a fluid dialogue with the European authorities. Regarding the outreach work, the initiative published annual reports on relevant projects that had contributed to regional innovation and the organization of conferences, workshops and seminars for the dissemination of the results.

Reference documents for collaborative project published by the regional associations:

EU-DRIVERS toolkit of good practices on collaborative regional partnerships

Background report of the EU-DRIVERS First Annual Conference (Barcelona, 17 November 2010): Using the economic crisis as an opportunity for engaging universities in regional development

Background report of the EU-DRIVERS Second Annual Conference (Brussels, 1 December 2011): Universities' involvement in smart specialisation strategy

Executive report 1 - first EU-DRIVERS Annual Conference, Barcelona, 17 November 2010

Per a més informació: http://www.eu-drivers.eu/

IMG
IMG
IMG

The contribution of universities to human capital training and the creation and transfer of knowledge takes on special significance in times of economic crisis