die Berater® pilot the development of Knowledge Partnerships !

Earlier this year the EU commission launched a call for “Pilot projects for the development of Knowledge Partnerships” (EACISO3/2012). The general objective of the call for proposals was to support the implementation of Knowledge Alliances which should ensure stronger societal and economic relevance, and outreach in higher education, by strengthening the role of higher education institutions as engines of innovation and increasing the employability, creativity and innovative potential of graduates, professors and company staff. Knowledge Alliances are structured partnerships aimed at stimulating innovation by bringing together businesses and higher education institutions.

The call met huge interest; over 100 consortiums applied for a grant, only 3 were selected. The project EDUCCKATE, which was developed by die Berater®, together with the University College London (GB), Quality Programe (IT) and OLN Learning (GR) and 7 further partners, was successful.
The project will implement an innovative mentored internship scheme to boost the innovation potential of HE institutions & companies, foster an entrepreneurial mindset in students & promote entrepreneurship.

The cultural & creative (CC) sectors make places attractive to live, invest in & visit; they’re key to sustainable economic growth. Recent reductions in public funding have lead to job losses & loss of expertise in small & medium sized CC organisations (SMEs). In an insecure economic environment, large graduate employment schemes are over-subscribed & SMEs report an application shortage. A new generation of entrepreneurs is needed to increase the long-term sustainability of the CC sectors & increase flexibility to future economic changes.

The project provides students in CC majors with: access to businesses, including CC SMEs; opportunities to develop business projects & new professional paths. It benefits HE Institutes through links with CC businesses & businesses by partnership with specialist HE departments in order to develop new sector specific services/products/prototypes with commercialisation potential that benefit from state-of-the art academic research/knowledge.