European Commission has issued a call for proposals for the Pilot Project “Knowledge Partnerships” program with the aim to facilitate a better structured and systematic interaction between education and innovation through the creation of “Knowledge Alliances” between education and business to develop new curricula addressing innovation skills gaps.
The Pilot Project “Knowledge Partnerships” aims to fund structured partnerships, bringing together businesses with higher education and training institutions to design and deliver new curricula, new courses, to develop new and innovative ways of delivering and utilising education and knowledge, and to facilitate the flow of knowledge between higher education and companies leading to:
– Foster skills, attitudes, and the innovation capacity of individuals and of the involved organisations through:
– Closer cooperation between higher education institutions and businesses to tackle innovation needs and to solve problems encountered by companies;
– Equipping graduates with in-depth knowledge of the field studied, combined with interpersonal skills (team working, communication, self-confidence, taking initiative, problem solving, taking calculated risk, leadership) and business skills;
– Supporting the development of robust entrepreneurship skills and entrepreneurial mindset and attitudes, enabling graduates to creatively respond to a complex and rapidly changing environment; encompassing but not confined to setting up a business or running a SME;
– Closer cooperation of businesses with higher education institutions to improve the relevance of education and research in HEIs to business needs and to support the uptake by and flow of knowledge results between companies and HEIs.
Eligible organisations
This call is open to organisations established in the Member States of the European Union.
Applications must be submitted by a legal person having the legal capacity (properly constituted and registered in one of the EU Member States). Natural persons may not apply for a grant.
Eligible organisations are higher education institutions, research institutes and training institutions; public and private large, medium or small companies.
The partnership must include at least three different independent partners organisation established in at least three different Member States. At least one of these participants must be a higher education institution. At least one of the participants must be a private company, regardless of its size.
Deadline for submitting the proposal is June 30, 2011
For further information and details, please visit the link.
