University-Business Cooperation
Skills Accelerator

The primary objective of this workshop is to introduce different types of engagement activities and approaches to enable participants to develop and refine their partnership approach.

The key goals, challenges, facilitators and supporting mechanisms generally faced by universities and businesses will be presented and discussed. Each participant will work on their own partnership canvas, to either develop or refine their approach to collaborating with an external stakeholder.

This module will include various elements such as:

• The partnership approach – understanding the barriers, motivations and benefits of your partners
• Effective communication – understanding industry needs and demonstration of value proposition
• Building partnership approach by working through a canvas to explore different elements of their/their institution’s approach to partnerships
• Analysis and reflection upon a diverse set of real-world examples of successful partnerships

This workshop will provide a step-by-step guide on how to analyse your internal environment and identify core assets for engagement. It will further outline the process of external asset mapping to identify to what degree your environment supports external engagement, and which internal assets can be used to develop further engagement.

This workshop will provide the participants with the understanding and ability to carry out internal and external analysis of their environment, to identify key assets and players to facilitate of engagement.

This module will include various elements:

• Practical steps on how to identify core strengths and assets within an organisation
• Practical steps on how to map an organisation’s external ecosystem
• Case studies of good practices for building external engagement ecosystems

This workshop will guide participants through exercises of scanning and mapping of (1) external and (2) internal environments. Participants will be provided with the tools, frameworks and an understanding of how to create an overview of an organisation’s  internal and external engagement ecosystem.

Description will follow soon

The workshop is designed to advance external engagement activities in a very practical way, working through a series of exercises to systematically identify and evaluate opportunities.

The module will enable participants to combine external and internal perspectives, by identifying their key competences, and key markets or sectors, in their region or ecosystem. This can be done on a research group, faculty or university level. Participants are then guided through a process to identify potential opportunities and partners, and prioritise the opportunities to pursue.

This module will include various elements:

• Identifying internal strengths and competitive advantages
• Engagement opportunity identification process
• Market and partners selection strategies
• Relevant global and national case studies will be presented.

This workshop will guide participants through a number of interactive exercises. Participants will be provided with the tools and frameworks.

This workshop will introduce participants to different forms of knowledge transfer and valorisation pathways. This will include a focus on different ways for determining the transferability of R&D result, looking beyond traditional IP licensing and patenting approaches. Various valorisation processes, methodologies, and activities will be explored. Participants will be provided with case studies on different knowledge transfer and valorisation pathways across both Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and Humanities and Social Sciences (HASS).

This module will include the following topics:

• Different knowledge transfer and exploitation pathways
• Overview of knowledge transfer roles, processes and methodologies
• Global case studies of valorisation pathways and knowledge transfer management in STEM and HASS

Description will follow soon

This workshop will provide basics of leading organisational change in an institution to develop a more entrepreneurial and engaged culture that encourages and supports external engagement.

The primary objective of this workshop is to help participants develop a better understanding on how to develop and nurture a engagement-supportive culture, describing the characteristics of organisations with a favourable engagement culture and the leadership required to develop it.

This module will challenge traditional thinking about leadership and culture at an organisation and outline the best tools and nudges for championing cultural change and positive attitude towards external engagement.

This module will include various elements:

• Characteristics of an engagement culture including the importance to drive and embed engagement activities across education and research for universities, and why is it important for companies to link research and talent acquisition processes
• Entrepreneurial and engaged leadership, including the importance of leadership, how to champion an engagement-supportive culture through bottom up and top-down means
• Methods for organisational change including nudging cultural change and change management e.g. the ADKAR
• Examples of and case studies on entrepreneurial thinking and leadership in action

The primary objective of this module is to shed light on the mechanisms by which universities and businesses deepen their relationships in order to reach the level of strategic partnership where they attempt to align their long-term direction and priorities.

Based on the UIIN partnership framework, participants will be provided with practical tips related to the different elements of managing and supporting partnerships and will have the opportunity to reflect and exchange insights with their peers.

This module will: 

• Present different partnership models at universities and industry, moving from transactional to more strategic partnerships
• Share different tools and approaches used by universities and businesses to manage their engagement activities
• Present practical case studies of how successful partnership models are implemented
• Provide the opportunity for participants to reflect on their current approach and what they would like to do differently
• A variety of real-world case studies that exemplify different elements of partnerships

This workshop will provide insights into why and how to measure the outputs, outcomes and impact of external engagement using the performance management framework and other project management tools.

IParticipants will learn about the components of the logic model and different types of qualitative and quantitative indicators for assessing engagement activities.  We will outline and discuss different kinds of support mechanisms that both the university and the external stakeholders can employ to support engagement in their organisations.

This module will include various elements:

• Insights into why and how to capture engagement using the logic model
• Overview of methods of data collection and metrics to capture and measure external engagement activities
• Case studies of diverse capturing and measurement approaches and university practices

A classification framework for engagement outputs, outcomes and impact based upon the logic model, a tool for indicators mapping as well as examples of support mechanisms will be provided.