Strengthening and connecting regions through a European University: Regional development within and between European regions
The core belief of EPICUR is that Europe’s diversity is a source of strength. The objective of work package 5 is to develop activities which bring the European regions closer together. To achieve this goal, EPICUR aims at three directions: research, business, and education.
At the level of research, EPICUR will organise its regional university networks in a meta-network.
At business level the goal is a common entrepreneurial ecosystem.
At the level of education, EPICUR will establish research internships for students with partners from academia, business and civil society organisations, design Master labs, and develop intercultural trainings.
Activities
Building bridges between different regional university networks
BOKU leads the activities to foster a fruitful cooperation leading to a European University which brings students and researchers closer together and enables to share experiences, competences, resources, and best practices to tackle societal challenges. EPICUR will raise the visibility of the university networks through developing a common database of connections.
Connecting regions through entrepreneurship
KIT supervises the entrepreneurial activities within EPICUR and also leads the overarching work package. Entrepreneurship is borderless and therefore profits from the diversity of the partner´s regions – also it is an important channel for universities to impact their region. We want to connect the diverse innovation ecosystems and promote entrepreneurial thinking among students through student entrepreneurial labs. Future start-ups will have an international orientation from the beginning, enabling easier access to markets in all regions.
Linking regions through research internships and Master labs
Das KIT leitet die Aktivitäten beim Aufbau von Masterlaboren und Forschungspraktika. Die Master Labs richten sich an in ihrem Studium fortgeschrittene Masterstudierende, die eine Karriere in der Forschung anstreben und eine Promotion in Betracht ziehen. Die transdisziplinäre, forschungsorientierte Lehre in Blended-Learning-Studiengängen wird die Partner und außeruniversitären Forschungseinrichtungen einbeziehen. Doktoranden absolvieren Forschungspraktika bei den Partnern oder an außeruniversitären Forschungsinstituten. Nur der 8-wöchige Pilot wird am KIT sein . Die Praktika sind individuell auf jeden Forscher zugeschnitten, beinhalten den Zugang zu spezifischen Forschungsinfrastrukturen und zielen auf die Generierung gemeinsamer Forschungsprojekte ab. Die Studierenden sollen berufspraktische Erfahrungen in der Region der Partneruniversitäten in einem Forschungsinstitut, einer Privatwirtschaft oder einer zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisation sammeln, um die Beschäftigungsfähigkeit der Absolventinnen und Absolventen zu erhöhen, ihren Horizont zu erweitern und ihre interkulturelle Kompetenz zu stärken. Praktika bei zivilgesellschaftlichen Organisationen werden von Service-Learning-Kursen begleitet.
Bridging the regions through intercultural skills
The UHA is in charge of several intercultural aspects of the EPICUR project. The long-term goal is to train trainers who will provide intercultural trainings to students and staff of each EPICUR university. The trainings will help them to collaborate with ease in the European environment. The UHA and its Centre for cross-border skills NovaTris (ANR-11-IDFI-0005) will implement a multi-stage process with surveys and trainings in order to create a handbook of methodology for intercultural issues.
