Youth Based Entrepreneurship Network of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Industry and Technologies Erasmus Project

Project Title

Youth Based Entrepreneurship Network of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Industry and Technologies

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for youth

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Research and innovation; Youth (Participation, Youth Work, Youth Policy) ; Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship)

Project Summary

The Y-Benoit project is aimed at improving the economic standing of young EU citizens and provide societal benefits by providing an opportunity for the EU youth to take part in the rapidly developing UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) industry and providing them with entrepreneurial skills and opportunities. The project answers to the “Promoting entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship activities among young people”, ” Promoting quality, innovation and recognition of youth work” and “Promoting engaging, connecting and empowering young people” sectoral priorities of the Erasmus+ project call.

The participants of this project are from three universities and a non-governmental society. The project partner universities are Eskisehir Technical University, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and the University of Malta. The International Sustainable Aviation Research Society, SARES is the only non-university participant, its aim is to promote the sustainable aviation culture among researchers and communities around the world to create a more environmentally friendly aviation sector. SARES supports university design teams, publishes journals, organizes symposiums and courses. With the contribution of SARES, the outcome of the project, the e-UAV hub will be promoted among the European youth, business owners and governmental and non-governmental organisations alike. All participants are active in the aerospace industry, and particularly UAV-related research and have excellent educational experience. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of distance learning systems and video based courses became clear. The e-UAV Hub is a plan to combine knowledge and experience from the participants and offer it as an accessible means to benefit EU citizens, in particular focus on European youth.

The objective of the project is to develop and operate an e-UAV hub, which young EU citizens can use as a knowledge base, training solution and entrepreneurial centre for UAV-related activities. This will be achieved by establishing 4 milestones, developing 4 modules for the e-UAV hub.

As the first step, the project teams will perform a detailed data mining operation regarding current and future promising UAV technology, literature, and technologies and their application to various industries. The findings will be compiled into datacards for each type of operation. Responsible team members will publish these data cards on the e-UAV hub. Using the data cards as a knowledge base, the e-UAV hub will contain important know-how in the form of organized data cards. Youth and candidate entrepreneurs will be able to appraise, which sectors benefit from UAV technology, how profitable business opportunities exist and what equipment they will need.

The second module expands the offering of the e-UAV hub, with e-learning modules which attendees can use to improve their knowledge about UAV technologies and operations. These e-learning videos will also be used by students, business owners and potential entrepreneurs to widen their horizons. The project members will assemble a set of e-learning material on the platform which covers UAV technologies and their opportunities for business use.

As the third milestone, the e-UAV hub will connect candidate entrepreneurs and current business owners after integrating the geo-location-based network. This network will be like a composition of LinkedIn and Uber. Members will have a profile page which contains their services and collaboration interests. The geo-location base will help members to find each other on the map and develop local partnerships and UAV clusters. Current business owners will further benefit from these systems to find service offers around them and share their experiences. This network will empower the youth and provide business opportunities which will further strengthen the network.

As the last milestone, the e-UAV hub will be expanded to provide further specific focus on social and emergency response activities using UAVs. At this point it is envisioned that the hub already hosts several capable and trained young European citizens with UAVs; the project expands the e-UAV hub capabilities to promote social outputs in addition to business outputs. The e-UAV hub will promote volunteering for emergency response and can provide manpower for governmental and non-governmental organizations in emergency situations on demand.

In the future the e-UAV hub will be further expanded to provide more information for its users, involve more partners from the industry, provide additional in-depth focus areas, such as precision agriculture or climate protection, and further benefit the EU economy and society.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 154515 Eur

Project Coordinator

ESKISEHIR TEKNIK UNIVERSITESI & Country: TR

Project Partners

• BUDAPESTI MUSZAKI ES GAZDASAGTUDOMANYI EGYETEM
• International Sustainable Aviation and Energy Research Society