The Lisbon Summit schedule

Arrive, meet peers and settle in before the summit begins.

Sala A (ground floor)

Opening remarks from UIIN, setting the stage for the summit and introducing the core focus: how universities can transform into more entrepreneurial, innovative and future-ready institutions.

Speaker: Arno Meerman – UIIN

Sala A (ground floor)

How can university leaders move beyond incremental change and create the conditions for more entrepreneurial and innovative institutions? This leadership discussion will explore what universities must protect, what they need to redesign, and what leadership choices are required to embed entrepreneurship and innovation across the institution. The session will consider culture, incentives, governance, academic engagement and the challenge of making transformation credible beyond strategy documents and isolated initiatives.

Andrew Petter – President Emeritus, Simon Fraser University
Carol Stewart – Vice President of Tech Parks Arizona at the University of Arizona and President of the University of Arizona Center for Innovation

Sala A (ground floor)

Presentations:

1. The Studio Beyond Borders: Design Studio Pedagogy, Embodied Reflection, and Ecosystem Immersion | Daniela Marzavan – Forward College

2. A Transdisciplinary Program for Professionals: Educational Challenges and Other ‘Wicked Problems’ | Håkan Nilsson – Södertörn University / KTH / Konstfack; co-authors: Sofia Wiberg, Loulou Cherinet

3. UL@Work: Bringing the Workplace into UL, and UL into the Workplace | Sinéad Burke – University of Limerick; co-author: Geraldine Carroll

4. Project Partners: A Win-Win Framework for Student, Academia and Industry Engagement | Hazel Kennedy, Kate Dalton – University of Liverpool Management School

5. Adding the ‘S – Social’: How Shaw STEAMS for Good Builds Hong Kong’s Future Tech Talent Pipelinet | Albert Tsang – The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU); co-authors: Candy Yuen, Sam Lam

Sala E (1st floor)

Presentations:

1. University transformation through Acceleration Services: Examples from Accelerate Future HEI and aUPaEU | Rimante Rusaite – UIIN, Sofia Beatrice Vercellone – Politecnico di Torino (PoliTO)

2. Beyond Digital: Creating Lasting Impact with UPT Digital Transformation Journey | Diana Andone, Radu Vasiu – Politehnica University of Timisoara

3. InoHub: From Curious Student to Startup Founder | Vlad Mihaescu, Silviu Vert, Valentin Nita – Politehnica University of Timisoara; presented by Diana Andone

4. USTPs “7steps to StartUp Support” | Gabriele Permoser – University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten

5. Building a Regional Innovation Ecosystem through University–Regional Government Collaboration | Santa Vītola, Iveta Putniņa – Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences

Sala F (1st floor)

A closed, invite-only session for senior university leaders will take place alongside the main programme. This session will provide a focused space for rectors, presidents, vice-chancellors, vice-rectors and senior decision-makers to explore the leadership choices required to build more entrepreneurial and innovative universities. The discussion will focus on culture, governance, incentives, institutional legitimacy and the conditions needed to move transformation from ambition to practice.

Connect with peers over lunch and continue the conversation in an informal setting.

Sala A (ground floor)

Presentations:

1. LSE Academic Consulting Hubs for Innovative Impact | Christine DuBois – London School of Economics and Political Science

2. From Climate Science to System-wide Solutions: Green Futures Solutions at the University of Exeter | Jo Wood – University of Exeter; Co-authors: Ben Dickenson Bampton, Alex Huke, Talwyn Whetter

3. One University, One Front Door: Macquarie’s Research, Innovation and Enterprise Model | Katrina Avery – Macquarie University; co-author: Dan Johnson

4. One Team, Thirteen Applications: Reimagining University-Industry Engagement Through Agentic AI | Dr Sharad Menon – Swinburne University of Technology; co-author: Joseph Glesta

5. Mitigating Single Points of Failure: The ‘ISE Champion’ Model for Industry-Academia Co-Design | Gillian Place – University of Limerick

Sala E (1st floor)

This interactive, UIIN-led workshop invites participants to challenge the assumptions, structures and behaviours that hold universities back. Through guided activities, participants will examine where current university models limit entrepreneurial and innovative transformation, identify what needs to be questioned or redesigned, and explore how institutions can move beyond fragmented initiatives towards deeper cultural and organisational change.

Moderators: Arno Meerman – UIIN, Todd Davey – IMT Business School, France & Associate Partner at UIIN

Sala A (ground floor)

Presentations:

1. Building a university innovation system: the YEP–KAI case | Marharyta Chernyshova, Sergiy Gnatyuk, Anton Bets – YEP Accelerator / Kyiv Aviation Institute; co-authors: Andrii Zaikin, Kseniia Semenova

2. From Fragmentation to a University-Wide Entrepreneurship Ecosystem: The Helsinki Incubators Case | Irina Blomqvist – University of Helsinki / Helsinki Incubators

3. Innovation Produced – A Mindset and Model to Convert Research Knowledge to Value | Anthony Francis – University of Texas San Antonio

4. The Lehigh University Research Translation AcceLUrator: Connecting Research to Societal Impact | John Coulter – Lehigh University; co-authors: Lee Kern, Henry Odi, Himanshu Jain, Dominic Packer

Sala E (1st floor)

Universities are playing a growing role in regional innovation, working with industry, government and civil society on skills, economic development and societal challenges. But regional contribution can be difficult to assess. The outcomes that matter differ by place, and much of the evidence sits across universities and their partners. The 4th Generation University (4GU) concept looks at the role universities can play in regional innovation ecosystems, working with industry, government and civil society to support economic and social progress. It also recognizes that the measures used to understand that contribution need to reflect the priorities and character of each region.

This interactive session will focus on a practical question: how do universities and their partners decide what regional impact to measure, and what evidence is useful?

The discussion will use Elsevier’s Impact Model as a structure to explore the decisions behind regional impact, including where to focus, who to work with, how to deliver and how to understand progress. Measurement will remain at the center of the conversation.

Moderator: Shruti Desai, 4GU Community Engagement Lead, Elsevier

Speakers/panelists:
Simon Guillaume – University of Oxford
Matt Walker – Elsevier
Arno Meerman – UIIN

Sala F (1st floor)

This interactive, UIIN-led workshop explores how universities can design partnerships that create meaningful educational, societal and environmental value. Using the Impactful Partnership Framework, participants will work in small groups to develop or strengthen a university partnership, exploring shared purpose, stakeholder involvement, governance, impact and long-term sustainability. Through practical exercises and peer exchange, participants will identify concrete opportunities for improving their partnerships while contributing to the refinement of a new framework for impactful collaboration.

Moderator: Rimante Rusaite – UIIN

Páteo Restaurante is the venue for the UIIN Future of Universities Summit Awards Dinner.

Arrive, meet peers and settle in before the summit begins.

Sala A (ground floor)

What would a university look like if we designed it from scratch? Manuel Dolderer and Ed Fidoe share lessons from building new university models, challenging established approaches to learning, entrepreneurship and industry engagement. Through reflections on what worked, what didn’t and what they would do differently, this panel explores what established universities can learn, and how those lessons can translate into meaningful institutional change.

Ed Fidoe – the Founder and CEO of the London Interdisciplinary School (LIS)
Manuel Dolderer – co-founder of CODE University of Applied Sciences in Berlin

Sala E (1st floor)

This interactive, UIIN-led workshop moves from critique to construction. Building on the provocations, cases and policy discussions from the summit, participants will explore what an entrepreneurial and innovative university should be designed to do, enable and reward. Through guided activities, they will identify practical building blocks for future-ready institutions, including culture, leadership, education, research, support structures, partnerships and incentives.

Moderators: Arno Meerman – UIIN, Todd Davey – IMT Business School, France & Associate Partner at UIIN

Sala A (ground floor)

Presentations:

1. From Faculty to Ecosystem: Reinventing Teacher Education Through Strategic Partnerships | Ivan Siller, Katarina Horvathova-Bratova – Comenius University in Bratislava

2. Equinox: Coordinating a Fragmented World-Class Ecosystem to Deliver Local, National and Global Impact | Olga Kozlova, Murray Gardner – University of Oxford

3. Institutionalizing Impact: Cultural Transformation Concerning Research Translation at Oregon State University | Jana Bouwma-Gearhart – Oregon State University; co-author: Rich G. Carter

Connect with peers over lunch and continue the conversation in an informal setting.

Sala E (1st floor)

What policy, funding and system conditions are needed to help universities become more entrepreneurial and innovative? Through interactive roundtable discussions, participants will explore how to better connect education, research and innovation, strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, sustain successful initiatives beyond project funding, and align policies and funding. Drawing on practical experiences, participants will identify key barriers, share evidence of what works and develop actionable recommendations for universities, policymakers and funding bodies.

The discussions will also contribute to the final policy insights of Accelerate Future HEI, a European initiative coordinated by UIIN that has supported universities in accelerating their entrepreneurial and innovative transformation.

Moderators: Rimante Rusaite, Arno Meerman – UIIN

Sala A (ground floor)

Presentations:

1. From Job Seekers to Job Creators: Embedding an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem Across | Anupama Kotur – Symbiosis International (Deemed University); co-author: Ramakrishnan Raman, Vidya Yeravdekar

2. Powered by O’Pake™: Building Talent, Advancing Innovation, Strengthening Communities | Cammie Harris, Rodney Ridley, Caitlin Long – Alvernia University

3. Digital Entrepreneurship Center | Lena Bernhofer – IU International University of Applied Sciences

4. Equipping Universities for Impact: Lessons learned from IAM4RE | Sara Dimitrijević – University of Belgrade

Sala A (ground floor)

Closing remarks from UIIN, reflecting on the summit’s key takeaways and looking ahead to how universities can continue driving entrepreneurial and innovative transformation.

Speaker: Arno Meerman – UIIN