Start-Up Promotion for Entrepreneurial Resilience Erasmus Project

Project Title

Start-Up Promotion for Entrepreneurial Resilience

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 higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2015

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Enterprise, industry and SMEs (incl. entrepreneurship); Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment

Project Summary

Entrepreneurship is a key for the EU 2020 strategy objective, which is the smart, sustainable, inclusive growth. In higher education institutions (HEIs), entrepreneurship starts in classrooms and is largely determined by the development of entrepreneurial skills of university students and staff. A significant shortcoming for entrepreneurship promotion in the EU is the gap between high education (HE) and entrepreneurship practice. While most high education institutions (HEIs) offer entrepreneurship courses, seldom HEIs have concrete support systems to nurture students’ entrepreneurship. Even when those systems are in place, apart from few exceptions, support is either confined to specific sectors (e.g. ICT) or inefficient. The 2014 European Court of Auditors’ Special Report No. 7 stresses how “incubation programmes were of a basic nature” and “provision of incubation services was rather limited”. The Report “deplores disappointing results delivered by the audited incubators” and recommends that “it is important to establish and share good practices” and that “incubators should be created in close cooperation with the educational system”. The European Council calls on European Commission and member states to “promote and support student ventures by providing sound guidance and make available coaching and incubators for aspiring entrepreneurs” (Conclusions on Entrepreneurship in Education, Dec. 2014). The European Commission also states that “efforts across Member States to support and promote entrepreneurship in education are fragmented and lack coherence” (Working Group on Entrepreneurship Education, 2014). There is an immediate need to overcome the fragmentation at EU level, which currently affects entrepreneurship promotion.

In this context SUPER aimed to bridge the gap between education and entrepreneurship with concrete tools and training resources for both HEIs and students, addressing immediate needs and shortcomings identified at project preparation and corroborated by EU policy papers. The objective was to promote entrepreneurship already at HE level by empowering HEIs to establish suitable and effective entrepreneurship support systems.

The partnership has brought together 6 partners from 6 countries (Belgium, Czech Rep., Italy, Slovakia, Spain, UK) representing the various dimensions of entrepreneurship in HE: HEIs, entrepreneurship facilitators and enterprises. The partnership has pooled public, private and NGO sectors and built on partners’ complementary skills, expertise, and capacities. This composition has ensured geographical coverage as well as project’s outcomes dissemination and valorisation across the EU.

Partners have carried out the following activities::
1. Development and maintenance of the multilingual SUPER OER Platform
2. Identification of Critical Success & Failure Factors of business incubation and support in HEI
3. Development of SUPER Incubation Toolkit comprising guidelines, Best Practices, checklists, etc.
4. Development of training materials and courses in multilingual versions on entrepreneurship and business creation to be delivered to HE students, including an online business planning tool
5. Pilot usage of the SUPER Toolkit with HEIs and courses with the goal to validate their relevance and accuracy
6. Development of guidelines for uptake and implementation of the SUPER model, toolkit, and courses.

SUPER generates immediate impact and long-term benefits to HE and entrepreneurship promotion throughout EU. The SUPER toolkit empowers HEIs to develop and embed efficient entrepreneurship support systems based on concrete evidence-based solutions and knowledge. SUPER OER becomes a platform not only for knowledge generation and sharing, but also as a focal point for HEIs and students to nurture entrepreneurship. All results and resources in multilingual versions are freely available to all interested parties through the platform without restrictions. Project partners committed to maintain the OER platform for at least two years after the end of EU co-financing. Open access as well as effective dissemination is the basis for future use of project results in EU in long-term manner.

SUPER is fully in line with the horizontal and sectoral priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme: 1) Developing basic and transversal skills (such as entrepreneurship) in all fields of education, 2) Supporting the implementation of reforms in line with the 2011 EU Modernisation Agenda’s priority areas, 3) Promoting entrepreneurship education and social entrepreneurship among young people.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 309310 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERZITA KOMENSKEHO V BRATISLAVE & Country: SK

Project Partners

• INSTITUT DE HAUTE FORMATION AUX POLITIQUES COMMUNAUTAIRES
• ASTON UNIVERSITY
• VYSOKA SKOLA EKONOMICKA V PRAZE
• IDP SAS DI GIANCARLO COSTANTINO (ITALIAN DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS)
• Internet Web Solutions SL