The SME Cluster Growth project aims at empowering SMEs in the engineering sector to ensure their maturation and stable growth by equipping them with horizontal skills and knowledge. This will be achieved via a collaborative effort of higher education institutions (HEIs), future skills and business growth professionals and university-industry relationship experts that will respectively contribute to the advancement of SMEs’ operational, attitudinal and adaptive capacities. The project will do this via (i) SME cluster growth training (ii) student business consulting, and (iii) a launch of cross-border facility sharing schemes. More particularly, the consortium will:1. Identify cluster growth needs of SMEs in 6 project regions and 65 (6x10 + 1x5) good practices on successful SME growth strategies (Mapping);2. Develop and implement SME growth mobility and training programmes for a group of 60 (6x10) SMEs including workshops, peer learning and cross-border hot desk schemes (Learning); 3. Launch cross-border network support structures in science parks and business organisations in the form of hot desks, university access points, and facility sharing for SMEs to explore growth opportunities (Facility sharing);4. Match 24+ (6x4) MA & PhD students with SMEs to conduct in-house research and 24 (6x4) BA students to take up business challenge projects in the areas facilitating cluster growth (Consultancy & practice-based learning);5. Develop and pilot test the ‘Change of Perspective Programme’ where 6+ academics and 6+ business professionals exchange their workplaces for a day to experience a different environment (Learning);6. Build 6 cluster growth networks through forming stakeholder councils and community and capacity building events in the partner regions and linking the project cluster SMEs to the European Cluster Collaboration Platform (ECCP) for visibility, network and future collaboration opportunities (Growth).

<< Objectives >>UASHome project strengthens capabilities of regional universities of applied sciences (UASs) and unlocks their potential to support regional economic value creation and innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems through promoting their ‘home base’ role as entrepreneurship centres for Digital Health. It will equip UASs with tools and methodologies, as well as raise their capabilities though training and community peer-learning activities to boost their regional impact in Digital Health.<< Implementation >>UASHome project will investigate the status quo of UAS-based incubation as well as regional/institutional contexts, set up a peer-learning community of UASs, their incubators and regional stakeholders (as the cornerstone of the project that will be continuously developed), and raise capacity of professional and academic staff to support incubation in Digital Health at UASs. The project will showcase the results and deliverables through pro-active dissemination activities.<< Results >>The main project results include a series of (regional and institutional) investigation reports including the main synthesis of all findings, the Co-Learning Community with 45+ external members and related Exchange Scheme and Guides, as well as the international training program consisting of the formal capacity building and regionally-focused co-creation hackathon addressing the challenges across the community – The Digital Health UASHome Boost Training Programme designed and piloted.

The Boundary Spanners Development Programme aims to break down the engagement barriers between the universities and their regional/ national/ international business stakeholders by enabling the boundary spanning skills of the higher education faculty, staff, and leadership. We believe that people are the most crucial factor in the transferring of knowledge and innovation across institutions, mobilising resources, triggering organisational change, and making an economic and societal impact in their regions. Ultimately, we aim to create “champions” and bridge the skills and knowledge gap by: i. identifying boundary spanning skills and practices of the HEIs and Businesses in their collaboration with each other ii. profiling and analysing 45 boundary spanners in HEIs and businesses in the partner regions and across Europe, while presenting 10+ of those in concise infographic formatiii. developing and pilot testing the Boundary Spanners Workshop Series with 60+ HEI staff in 4, and 45+ SME representatives in 3 partner regionsiv. facilitating 16+ (2 pairs from each HEI region) HEI and Business staff to benefit from University-Industry Staff Exchange Schemev. preparing and disseminating the Boundary Spanners Learning and Experience Collection, including 20+ (4x5) Personal Application Project (PAP) cases development and implementation reports, as well as 4 (4x1) PAP good practice videosvi. organising 8 regional events, policy workshop and Cascading Training to 200+ HEI and business representatives, enhancing exploitationvii. developing the models for boundary spanners community building, self-assessment and certification for the sustainability of the project results.The purpose of the Boundary Spanners Development Programme is to empower university faculty and leadership in enhancing the contribution of the HEIs in the regional economic and social development. The programme will be based on the University-Business Cooperation Ecosystem.

While an increased participation has been observed in the Horizon 2020 programme compared to FP7, the European Commission is looking to “raise the bar in the quality and widening of participation” in the Horizon Europe programme period. It particularly concerns the involvement of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in innovation partnerships as the latter have been reported considerably low. Many SMEs continue to struggle to adopt the right strategy, business processes, skills, or other resources to get involved in European funding partnerships. Participation of the higher education institutions (HEIs) and research organisations, on the other side, in the Horizon 2020 has been the strongest among others. However, their involvement is deemed to be further enhanced by the provision of tailored support for collaboration with a more diverse range of stakeholders. In this light, the availability of supportive engagement training programmes is crucial, especially considering the success rate of the proposals in the Horizon 2020 framework (11.9%) and missed opportunities for more strategic cooperation that could be established between HEIs and SMEs.In respect to the status quo outlined above, the goal of the Unite for Horizon Europe (UNITE4H) project is to help build strategic engagement capacity between European academics/researchers and SME representatives to increase the proportion of successful collaborative participation in the Horizon Europe initiatives. We believe an increased engagement between HEIs and SMEs, as well as foundations and other stakeholders around targeted Horizon Europe projects will NOT ONLY help deliver on a united approach to societal challenges, but ALSO help strengthen the means of funding for HEIs to be able to concentrate their efforts on the entire innovation cycle from research to market. The project consortium will achieve this goal by breaking it down into the following objectives:1.identifying the engagement needs and challenges experienced & collaborative opportunities envisioned by the academics and SME representatives across Europe2.(developing a Horizon Europe engagement-training programme to increase awareness, skills and knowledge capacity among academics and SME representatives3.validating the training programme via pilot testing and workshop sessions In line with each of the objectives, expected results of the project are as follows: (IO1) Horizon Europe Engagement Programme Framework: The output will build on in depth research on the status-quo of European academics and SME representatives’ engagement skills and competences, as well as facilitators, challenges, and perceived partnership opportunities for Horizon Europe funding framework. The research will involve (i) desk research (ii) interviews (60+ interviews with experts and professionals, i.e. academics, SME representatives, engagement professionals, European funding programme experts) and surveys (600+ participants among target groups) and (iii) good practices of successful HEI-SME partnerships (30+) identified among the funded Horizon 2020 projects. The results of the research input will be then analysed and compiled into the Horizon Europe Engagement Programme Framework.(IO2) Horizon Europe Engagement Training Programme and Toolkit: Building upon IO1, this output will involve the activities of (i) conceptualisation and development a Horizon Europe Engagement Training Programme with customised modules for HEIs and SMEs, (ii) preparation of teaching resources and facilitator guides, (iii) organization of the resources into the initial version of the Engagement Toolkit(IO3) Horizon Europe Engagement Training Validation Report: The programme developed will be pilot tested in the three partner HEI and three SME regions, with the training to be delivered to 45+ academics and 45+ SME representatives, which is followed by feedback collection from both participants and the trainers, as well as the finalization of the Engagement Toolkit supplementing it with the additional information received during the pilot testing process.The project results will be disseminated extensively to the target groups across Europe, and further showcased both throughout and after the project, via workshop sessions during national launch events and partners’ own conferences. The results will not only have impact on the individual level with the academic development and career advancement of the participants, but also on the institutional level, where the HEIs and SMEs will build awareness on mechanisms they can put in place for collaborative innovation, as well as at the system level, where the European research priorities are more effectively addressed through international strategic collaborations between HEIs and SMEs.

The RE_Valorise project will deliver a programme of valorisation support and training for researchers wishing to explore the entrepreneurial and social potential of their Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research, a research area often overlooked when it comes to creating value from the research. It will address the specific SSH valorisation skills gaps of knowledge and technology transfer (KT/TT) professionals who act as the first point of contact and support provider for SSH researchers in academic entrepreneurship and social engagement activities at universities. RE_Valorise aims to develop SSH valorisation capabilities within universities connecting academic and professional staff with external stakeholders, to ultimately develop a new generation of SSH researchers empowered to use their research to impact the society.Ultimately, the RE_Valorise project will increase the capacity for valorising SSH research and the probability of successful valorisation, signposting the possible options to spin-out high potential new companies as well as creating immediate social value. Additionally, it will seek to engender the entrepreneurial skills and market knowledge of a new generation of entrepreneurial and engaged SSH researchers as well as professionalise valorisation activities through training the KT/TT staff with a specific focus on SSH.More specifically, the RE_Valorise project will identify and describe the skills needs of the SSH researchers and KT/TT professionals; identify and describe good practice case studies on valorisation training and lighthouse stories of academic entrepreneurs and researchers who successfully valorised their SSH research; pilot test the European SSH Valorisation Training Programme for KT/TT professionals and the HackTheResearch Valorisation Training Programme for researchers both supported by the toolkits; and develop two certification models for KT/TT professionals and SSH researchers.