This project aims to boost the entrepreneurial performance of all consortium members in close collaboration with their ecosystem partners.

We focus on improving and extending core entrepreneurial activities, at three different levels: students (entrepreneurship), faculty and researchers (founders, academic spin-offs), and ecosystems (scale-ups, open innovation). Complementary efforts and resources will be devoted to developing testbed infrastructures, comprehensive curricula, and supportive material based on the EntreComp framework and developing and anchoring better practices by creating a learning community within and across the consortium’s ecosystems. As such, the consortium consists of a diversity of complementary HEIs situated across Europe (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (coordinator) (GR), KU Leuven (BE), Maria Curie-Skłodowska University (PL), Thomas More (BE), Pablo de Olavide University (ES), Fontys University of Applied Sciences (NL), University of Macerata (IT). In addition, and in order to achieve our specific ambitions towards knowledge triangle dynamics, the project is backed up by IDEAS Forward (GR), a strategic valorization partner of AUTH. The diversity of competencies, practices, and target groups present within the consortium will guarantee that the development of the activities and their outcomes will be transferable not only within each partner institute but also to bear relevance and hence create an impact across Europe.

Backed up by senior management of all the involved partners (who all have been involved in the HEI self-assessment and the development of the joint IVAP underlying this proposal) as well as relevant ecosystem partners, our goals and philosophy build on a profound belief in the relevance of third mission activities of universities (knowledge triangle) for Europe’s knowledge society, today and tomorrow; the growing importance of inter and transdisciplinary (valorization) activities and finally the potential of operating systematically on a European scale.

All partners are actively pursuing synergies and collaborations within their own ecosystem (knowledge triangle) to create an impact with their valorisation activities. Within this project, we explicitly aim to increase the impact by improving and extending current practices and to lift the current knowledge triangle dynamics at a European scale in concert with relevant EIT KIC initiatives.

In terms of goals (KPIs), we aim to support (at least) 50 start and scale-ups, train over 1000+ students (including mentoring 150), train and mentor over 150 faculty/staff, to improve relevant support structures (n=20), and establish new partnerships, both locally and at a European Scale (n=10). We are all convinced that AccEnt will make a significant difference in terms of Accelerating Innovation and Entrepreneurial Excellence in Higher Education Institutes across Europe.