Successfully completed project HEKATE

Higher Education and Enterprises: Knowledge Alliances for the Training of Entrepreneurs

Customer: European Commission – EU Lifelong Learning Programme

HEKATE was a project within the European framework of the University–Business Cooperation initiative. The main aim of the initiative is to form the so called “Knowledge Alliances” to encourage structured, result-driven cooperation ventures between universities and companies, bridging the gap between the sectors.

HEKATE had one broad aim: to find a way for experienced R&D and new-business managers to inspire science and engineering postgraduates, whether continuing their study or in the early stages of their working lives, to start careers in innovation. This aim is in line with academia’s increasing interest in promoting entrepreneurial thinking among students, and industry’s desire for greater business acumen among the young people it recruits.

HEKATE was funded as part of the University–Business Cooperation initiative of the European Commission, and addressed the UBC topic ‘Fostering entrepreneurial skills and attitudes, by promoting transversal skills through the inclusion of entrepreneurship education throughout higher education programmes’.

The overarching goal of the project was to encourage demand for integrating research management training measures as an essential part of doctoral education by showing how this can be done in an effective pragmatic manner, without taking too much time away from research itself. This need has been identified by the European Universities Association in their study on European Doctoral Education DOC-CAREERS.

TUTECH coordinated the HEKATE partnership comprising the European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA), industrial partners Solvay and TechBridgeOne and two HEIs, Hamburg University of Technology’s (TUHH) Institute for Marketing and Innovation and Manchester University Business School Institute of Innovation Research (MIoIR/MBS).

Legacy

From 2013 to 2015, the HEKATE project set out to make it easier to form ‘Knowledge Alliances’ that bring together businesses and higher education institutions (HEIs) to strengthen Europe’s innovation potential, for example, through the provision of new learning and teaching methods. HEKATE aimed at finding a way for experienced R&D and new-business managers to inspire science and engineering postgraduates to start careers in innovation. This aim is in line with academia’s increasing interest in promoting entrepreneurial thinking among students, and industry’s desire for greater business acumen among the young people it recruits. Interaction was initiated by novel entrepreneurship training workshops. The experiences in the workshops and the intense discussions among EIRMA members formed the basis of an Operational Plan that EIRMA used to promote the Europe-wide formation of Knowledge Alliances for entrepreneurship training beyond the end of the project. A PDF of the final report can be downloaded here.

Given that the topic is now integrated into the TUTECH ACADEMY programme, the website was taken offline in 2019..