Baltic Entrepreneurship Partnership BEPART

Transcription

1 Baltic Entrepreneurship Partnership BEPART 1. Background EU enlargement will change the relative position of quite a number of formally peripheral regions to potential growth centres, which might win or loose in regional competition in accordance with their present and future capacity to retain or attract mobile resources like high potential students, entrepreneurial talent or investment capital. Europe intends to become the worlds most innovative and competitive area by 2010 (e.g. Agenda of Lisboa). On the regional levels this calls beyond other things for vivid and dynamic entrepreneurial playgrounds, where new ventures and business initiatives can take off. At present, many regions support scattered entrepreneurship promotion initiatives with weak links to strategic development objectives, unbalanced short-term goals and long-term visions, partially high costs and limited outreach. The young discipline of entrepreneurship research has limited insight to offer yet and university-based trainers/lecturers are often foreign bodies within their own systems. Thus, there seems to be a high need to find more effective approches. The BEPART network consists of mostly university-based competence centres or regional focal points of entrepreneurship promotion with strong links to the surrounding business community as well as labour market, economic and education policy makers. Unified by their bridging functions and very similar problem perceptions, the organisations involved decided to invest in experience exchange and cooperation as a way towards faster progress on the local level. It is hereby proposed by BEPART to analyse and compare the role of entrepreneurship promotion in regional develoment strategies, collect available experience and discuss the way forward with politicians and the business community. In addition, trainers and lecturers active in entrepreneurship education within partner institutions and connected regional networks shall come together in interregional/-national action-learning & reflection groups that will prepare, design and (as far as possible also) implement new ways to promote entrepreneurial thinking and behaviour. Ongoing process observation and evaluation will not only speed up the individual, institutional and network learning process but may also serve as a well documented tool for innovative processes thereafter. The network intends to contribute to the development of a creative and responsible Entrepreneurship Culture that can be expected to result in a more productive utilisation of scarce human and natural ressources, thereby fostering innovation as well as sustainable socio-economic development. We want to broaden bridges and strengthen links that ultimately determine important aspects of regional competitiveness - with consistent support, low perceived and actual hurdles to enterprise creation.

2 2. Project Objective The project objective was defined as follows: 'Increased efficiency and impact of entrepreneurship promotion at universities and within local/regional networks'. BEPART, therefore, intends to contribute to the overall objective: 'Development of a creative and responsible Entrepreneurship Culture in the Baltic Sea Region and Europe at large that can be expected to contribute to a more productive utilisation of scarce human (talents, knowledge) and natural ressources, thereby fostering innovation as well as sustainable socio-economic development.' The four Components an be regarded as sub-objectives of the operation: Component 2: Experience and information exchange amoung the partners with regard to (a) the role of entrepreneurship-promotion in respective regional development strategies, (b) different types of promotional activities as well as (c) specific measures and methods used in training/ qualification with the aim to foster entrepreneurial competences and action at and beyond universities. Component 3: Dissemination of findings and discussionof problems and potentials of the current state of affairs by politicians, representatives of the business communities and trainers/lecturers active in entrepreneurship education within partner institutions and connected regional networks. Component 4: Formation of interregional/-national action-learning & reflection groups (ARF's) that will a) prepare and design (future) new ways to promote entrepreneurial competences, as far as possible decentrally implement identified suitable pilot activities at the local levels and carefully screen first results. Component 5: Facilitation of high quality and dynamic of joint learning within the ARF's as well as the within the network of BEPART at large through self-assessment, observation, feed-back and similar tools. Planned Outputs are 6 international conferences, 7 national/interregional conferences, 3 larger and ca. 16 smaller workshops // Conference reports // publication of findings on the role of entrepreneurship promotion in regional development strategies of participating regions in 8 languages // Participation of min. 550 resentatives of the business communities, university staff and regional policy makers in conferences // Workshops attended by 20 researchers, trainers/lectureres on the average // Experience and methodological tools exchange amoung trainers/lecturers // New innovative approches being prepared, designed and - as far as possible - tested // Methodological tools for the facilitation of joint learning in entrepreneurship education developped, tested and documented // 6 Inception, progress and final reports. Expected Results 1. Broadened and deepened understanding of the interlinkages of regional socio-economic structures, regional development policies, university education and entrepreneurial activities 2. Increased expertise in entrepreneurship education at universities and beyond 3. Strengthened European orientation and intensified international cooperation in the field of entrepreneurship promotion 4. More students being aware of and motivated for entrepreneurial initiative 5. More researchers and students having access to high quality support for spinn-off ventures 6. Improved access to shared knowledge in the field of enterpreneurship promotion as well as effective methods to foster inter-personnal, inter-organisational and inter-regional learning processes.

3 Long-term impact: more productive utilisation of scarce human (talents, knowledge) and natural ressources, consistent regional development strategies, sustainable socio-economic development through strengthend entrepreneurship culture, (regional) innovation potentials and competitiveness. 3. Partners University of Rostock, International Baltic Entrepreneurship Centre (IBEC - Germany) The University of Rostock is on its way to intergrate entrepreneurship education into every faculty, baccelor and master studies. The chair of Prof. Dr. Braun (IBEC director) has assumed responsibility for the elaboration of curricula (in coordination with a temporary reform commission) and inter-university coordination in the 'Land'. Rostock contributes years of experience with action-learning, research results from the evolution of education systems and regional development potentials. It aims at experience exchange and joint innovation with competent partners. Jagiellonian Universtity, Centre for Innovation, Technology Transfer and University Development (CITTRU - Krakow/Poland) CITTRU supports the commercialisation of scientific results, coordinates the collaboration with the business community and other institutions at the University. It facillitates internat. and European research projects and has vast experience in organizing and conducting tranings/seminars/conferences for researchers on entrepreneurship. CITTRU will contribute its experience with promoting entrepreneurship at the University of Krakow. BEPART will benefit the activities of CITTRU by providing experience exchange with other countries and partners - eventually new approches or ideas for adoption. Häme Development Centre (Finland) At the moment Häme Development Centre Ltd. is running several strategic economic development ERDF projects of the Häme subregion. It is e.g. coordinating dev. projects on general entrepreneurship, on the local enterprice policy, on the crafts and design industry and on tourism. Is is partner in a network project to promote local educational business as well. Thus, Häme wants to strengthen available competencies and looks forward to complementing regional initiatives with interregional cooperation. The center contributes vast experience in regional development and network collaboration. Aarhus Business School (Denmark) The research group RESME at is responsible for research on and teaching in entrepreneurship at the Aarhus School of Business. Teaching methods are at the core of its interest. The centre is currently involved in a national consortium heading for the creation of a Danish Academy for Entrepreneurship that shall develop entreprising behaviour in universities, schools and business colleges. With participation in BEPART, Aarhus expects to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the entrepreneurship education and training in Denmark through exchange of experience and innovation with other partners. University of Tampere, Research Centre for Vocational Education (RCVE - Finland) RCVE is specialised in professional and vocational education in changing working life. Its specific areas of competence are entrepreneurship and media education. The center, though being a part of the faculty of education in Tampere University, is located in Häme region. The RCVE interest concerns learning from the dynamics of strategic alliances between regions

4 and university centers as well as developing mutually beneficial processes from multidisciplinary bases. It contributes expertise for promoting and teaching entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial virtual pedagogy. Kaunas University of Technology, Regional Business Incubator (KTC - Lithuania) KTC is the first business incubator in Lithuania established to increase the efficiency of research and development activities. KTC has long experiences in assisting/supporting innovative and technology-oriented SMEs, start-up and spin-off companies in the region and in organising workshops/training courses for entrepreneurs. Participating in BEPART will benefit the activities of KTC by increasing options for scientific co-operation and by improving entrepreneurs' education. Exchange of experience is expected as well as ideas for the development of an entrepreneural culture in Lithuania. Faculty of Economics and Business Administration at the University of Tartu (Estonia) The Faculty of Economics and Business Administration offers a multidisciplinary MBA programme in entrepreneurship and technology management as well as a business plan programme. The business centre would like to get access to knowledge in the field of entrepreneurship, to increase the own expertise and to intensify the interregional cooperations. In the framework of the project the faculty would improve the concept of MBA programme and an industry-specific SME development programme aimed at under/postgraduates and doctorial students of non-economic specializations. Institute of Business Administration at the Tallin Technical University (Estonia) The Tallin Technical University has long-term experience in teaching students, arranging adult courses on entrepreneurship, business administration/planning and venture capital management. The BEPART project will help to disseminate innovative practices for teaching processes (new methods), provide value for policy makers and business representatives at all levels. Value added will be created through comparative policy analyses in order to identify the adoption of good practice contributing to policy development, entrepreneurship training improvement in universities and regional networks. University of Oulu, Learning and Research Services (Finland) Oulu University (Oulu) with 3200 staff members will contribute with knowledge on regional entrepreneurship strategy supporting networks and transfer of research. Successfull examples of enterpreneurship programmes for researchers (biotech and others) are there. It hopes to benefit from other partners best practices in entrepreneurship research and support. The Learning and Research Services (LRS) at the University of Oulu is committed to developing North Finlands knowledge base by providing development programmes and courses including distance education applications. Kajaani Polytechnic, Research and Development Unit (Finland) The Research and Development Unit is responsible for entrepreneurship promotion projects carried out at the Kajaani Polytechnic. Here, entrepreneurship studies are already part of the basic teaching with very practical action-oriented approaches. Further development of these courses and support facilities is the aim of the Unit. In the field of entrepreneurship it is contributing vaste practical experience in a dynamic environment. Its participation in network activities is motivated by the aim to increase the expertise and skills of the teachers in the field of entrepreneurship promotion.

5 Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship (SSES - Sweden) SSES was created to support the development of Stockholm as an economic region. SSES operates through scientific research, academic/practitioner education and business creation activities in close collaboration with universities/business community/public agencies. SSES is the core facility for academic courses in applied entrepreneurship and looks forward to contribute with its extensive experience to the BEPART network. SSES will benefit from the international experiences in entrepreneurship education and hopes to gather useful insights for possible future changes in the educational program. University of Twente, Dutch Institute for Knowledge Intensive Entrepreneurship (NIKOS - Netherlands) NIKOS is responsible for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurship development at the University. The contribution: It research looks at micro interaction patterns in networks of entrepreneurs and other actors leading to innovation and change in economic structur on micro-meso-macro level. The interests in the field: Development of knowledge intensive enterprise/entrepreneurial processes in context of technological innovation/universityindustry-interaction of academic entrepreneurship/theories. Furthermore NIKOS has experiences in developing/executing special trainings and development programmes. 4. The Project Components in Detail Component 1 Overall project management Component 2 Experience and information exchange (e.g. workshops) amoung the partners with regard to (a) the role of entrepreneurship-promo tion in respective regional development strategies, (b) different types of promotional activities as well as (c) specific measures and methods used in training/ qualification with the aim to foster entrepreneurial competences and action at and beyond universities. Planned activities: 2.1 Collection and summary of relevant policy documents, press releases, implementation and/or evaluation reports; 2.2 Screening of promotional activities on the local and regional level; 2.3 Joint development of a uniform frame for the systematisation of a) policy approaches and b) promotional activities during a two days workshop in Oulu (Finland); 2.4 Screening and profyling of promotional concepts and activities; 2.5 Summary of results in the form of one presentation paper by partner region; 2.6 Discussion of findings and implications within the network of partners joint identification of research topics for a deepened understanding of the interlinkage of regional framework conditions, entrepreneurship promotion on the policy level and actual outcomes in terms of an entrepreneurial active population and economic development (2-days workshop in Kaunas, Lithuania), discussion of strategic options on the regional level; 2.7 Elaboration of a summary report from the 2-days workshop in Kaunas, Lithuania, in English language, with recommendations for strategic initiatives on the regional/national level;

6 2.8 Establishment of a joint database on ongoing or planned research projects (including PhD students projects) in Aarhus (Denmark); 2.9 Experience exchange (presentation of different pädagogical approaches) on entrepreneurship education within universities during a 3-days symposium in Stockholm (Sweden) including the formation of interregional/-national Actionlearning & Reflection Groups (ARGs) Elaboration of a report on results from the 3-days symposium in Stockholm (Sweden) in English language. Component 3 Based on the findings and discussions in Component 2, a concept for the three sequential regional conferences will be elaborated. The first one will take place in the second half of 2005, the second one in the second half of During the workshops, BEPART component 2 findings will serve as a starting point for an analysis of problems and potentials of the current state of affairs. Politicians, representatives of the business communities (including entrepreneurs) and trainers/lecturers active in entrepreneurship education within partner institutions and connected to regional networks are expected to participate. High importance will be given to a sound preparation of the participation of regional decision makers from the regional or even national policy level, from ministries, municipalities and otherwise concerned public bodies. Of course, representatives from the business community are invited to contribute their views and participate in follow-up talks which should be aimed at at the regional level of all partners. Planned Activities: 3.1 Presentation and discussion of the results of activity 2.5 with regional policy makers, representatives of the business community and researchers/trainers during 2 international 1.5-day conferences in a) Aarhus (Danmark), b) Tartu (Estonia) with 70 to 150 participants each; 3.2 Puplication of results from the 1.5-day conferences in English language; 3.3 Publication of conference proceedings in the respective local languages. In the best case, this initiative gives rise to the establishment of regional networks where there are none as of yet. Equally important is any corrective measure that can be promoted during the conference or follow-up talks - eventually based on implementation experience in other regions of the network. Wide-spread seems to be the problem of sustainability of activities on the regional level with long-term strategies sometimes completely missing. Thus, any step towards sustainable public-private partnership with at least mid-term perspectives constitute progress. Component 4 Formation of interregional/-national action-learning & reflection groups that will conceptualise new ways to promote entrepreneurial competences, decentrally implement identified suitable measures at the local levels and carefully screen results by the use of ongoing monitoring and evaluation. The topics of these working groups have been selected during the Stockholm event (Component 2). During their first meetings the ARFs will enter into a detailed problem analysis and then engage in a creative brainstorming process or share additional experience. It is expected that ARFs independently set their work programs and adhere to them. Results should be practical, geared towards specific target groups and context

7 conditions - and enrich not only one partner but a wider group of partners or the whole network. Planned Activities: 4.1 Topic-wise organisation of 2 to 3 interregional/-national Action-learning & Reflection Groups (ARFs 6 to 12 members) with first 1.5-day meetings in Tallinn (Estonia), Kaajani (Finland) and Twente (Netherlands) formulation of work objectives; 4.2 Establishment of an internet-based e-room for each working group; 4.3 Second 1.5 day meetings of the ARFs in Stockholm (Sweden), Krakow (Poland) and Oulu (Finnland); 4.4 Third 1.5 day meetings of the ARFs in Tallin (Estonia), Aarhus (Denmark) and Häme (Finland); 4.5 Fourth 1.5 day meetings of the ARFs in Stockholm (Sweden), Twente (Netherlands) and Kaunas (Lithuania); 4.6 Symposium (2-days) on results achieved in the ARFs in Rostock (Germany) with 70 to 120 participants; 4.7 Puplication of results of the Symposium (2-days) in English language; 4.8 Publication of working group results in all local languages involved; 4.9 Organisation and implementation of 1-day conferences (30 to 60 participants) on New Approaches in Entrepreneurship Education on the local/regional level of all partners Fifths 1.5 day meetings of the ARFs in Krakow (Poland); Component 5 Design and application of tools that facilitate a high quality and dynamic of joint learning within the action-learning & reflection groups as well as the within the network of BEPART at large. Planned activities: 5.1 Kick-off Workshop (2 days) on Individual, Institutional and Network Learning in Entrepreneurship Education in Tallin (Estonia) with all partners (12 to 25 participants) sharing their knowledge on strengths and weaknesses of tools currently in use for the evaluation of the effectiveness of training/lecturing interventions as well as for organisational/institutional and/or network learning; 5.2 Formation of 2 working groups (one on individual and one on institutional/network learning) during the above mentioned workshop in such a way that each of the ARFs has one or two observers; 5.3 Second Meeting of Working Groups (2 days, 6 to 8 participants) after the second round of meetings of the ARFs in Krakow (Poland) or Twente (NL), feed-back of reflection results to the ARFs 5.4 Two-day visits of 2 partner institutions per Working Group member with on-the spot observation of either training interventions and/or network activities; 5.5 Third Meeting of Working Groups (2 days, 6 to 8 participants) in Tampere (Finland), feed-back of reflection results to the partners and ARFs, mid-term review of results achieved; 5.6 Fourth Meeting of Working Groups (2 days, 6 to 8 participants) after the fourth round of meetings of the ARFs in Aarhus (Denmark), feed-back of reflection results to the ARFs; 5.7 Two-day visits of 1 partner institution per Working Group member with on-the spot observation of either training interventions and/or network activities;

8 5.8 Fifth Meeting of Working Groups (3 days, 6 to 8 participants) in Twente (Netherlands) synthetisation of results, preparation for publication. 5.9 International 2-day Conference on Individual, Institutional and Network Learning in Entrepreneurship Education in Tampere (Finland) with all partners and interested guest (40 to 80 participants) 5.10 Puplication of results from the International 2-day Conference on Individual, Institutional and Network Learning in Entrepreneurship Education in English language; 5. Project Duration The Project is expected to start in September or October 2004 and achieve planned results within 3 years. 6. Lead Partner and Contact Person The University of Rostock is functioning as the Lead Agency of the operation. Within the University, Prof. Dr. Braun (Tel.: ) is the responsible contact person until a suitable project manager will have been employed.