EELISA Skill Up: Inspiring Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Join us for the EELISA Skill Up at ZHAW, a dynamic week featuring two workshops: one on building research ecosystems for innovation (9-11.12.2024) and the other on introducing entrepreneurship into the classroom (11-13.12.2024). Choose to attend the entire week or individual sessions tailored to your interests, and engage in hands-on workshops, while also enjoying cultural excursions in the Zurich Region.

EELISA Skill Up: Inspiring Innovation & Entrepreneurship takes place from December 9-13, 2024 at ZHAW in Winterthur, Switzerland, and the Zurich Region. Organized for the EELISA European University Alliance, this dynamic week will bring together researchers, educators, and innovators to build sustainable ecosystems of innovation and entrepreneurship. The event features two key workshops, of which participants can attend either one or both:

• Building Research Ecosystems for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (December 9-11)
  Workshop starts on Monday (Dec. 9) Morning and ends on Wednesday (Dec. 11) at Lunch Time
• Train the Trainer: Sparking Entrepreneurial Thinking in the Classroom (December 11-13)
  Workshops starts on Wednesday (Dec. 11) at Lunch Time and ends on Friday (Dec. 13) early afternoon

Why Attend?

By attending EELISA Skill Up, you will:

• Enhance your professional skills in innovation, entrepreneurship, ecosystem-building, and teaching.
• Network and collaborate with researchers, educators, and professionals from across the EELISA Alliance’s 10 participating universities.
• Engage in hands-on learning through workshops and discussions, designed to equip you with actionable strategies for advancing innovation in research and teaching.
• Immerse yourself in Swiss culture with excursions and culinary experiences that add a unique cultural dimension to the event.

Covered Essentials & Provisions

Enjoy cultural excursions and Swiss cuisine, all covered by ZHAW. To make your experience seamless and enriching, all food, drinks, and cultural excursions are covered by ZHAW. Please refer to your universities for additional support for traveling expenses, etc.

Workshops

EELISA Skill Up focuses on building a strong ecosystem within the EELISA universities to foster innovation and entrepreneurship. By joining either one or both workshops, participants will gain the skills needed to enhance collaboration in innovation and entrepreneurship research and inspire entrepreneurial and innovative thinking in the classroom. A detailed schedule will be communicated closer to the event.

Building Research Ecosystems for Innovation & Entrepreneurship: Empowering EELISA Knowledge Transfer – December 9-11

This workshop is designed to bring together researchers from across the EELISA European University Alliance to explore how we can build sustainable and impactful ecosystems for innovation, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship. Despite the increasing focus on ecosystems, there remains a limited understanding of how to create networks that are adaptable to different contexts, disciplines, and industries.

Through shared insights, working papers, and case studies, participants will engage in discussions to advance the development of an interconnected EELISA research community. The workshop will provide participants with actionable frameworks, tools, and strategies to collaborate on third-party funding proposals (such as Horizon Europe) and co-author interdisciplinary research papers, contributing to a thriving innovation ecosystem that spans the EELISA Alliance.

This opportunity is open to researchers from all levels - PhD students, PostDocs, lecturers, specialists, and professors - as we aim to foster collaboration across diverse fields, including engineering, business, biotechnology, social sciences as well as other research fields.

Train the Trainer: Sparking Entrepreneurial Thinking in the Classroom – December 11-13

This introductory workshop is designed for university lecturers, professors, and educators from all disciplines who are new to teaching entrepreneurship and eager to incorporate entrepreneurial thinking into their classrooms. The workshop equips educators with practical teaching tools to ignite the student's curiosity and lower the barriers to entrepreneurship. By introducing key entrepreneurial concepts, educators will inspire students to explore the possibility of starting their own initiatives and provide them with the foundational skills to take their first step on their entrepreneurial journey.

Participants will explore practical approaches for integrating innovation and entrepreneurship into their teaching. Using case studies from successful university programs in Europe, Asia and South America, this workshop will provide insights into how educators can design and implement teaching strategies that foster entrepreneurial mindsets. Attendees will leave with actionable ideas for incorporating these concepts into existing courses, including low-effort but high-impact activities that engage students and inspire them to pursue entrepreneurship.

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More Information!

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