Bridging the Atlantic: Pathways to Innovation and Entrepreneurship

The summer school – Pathways to Innovation and Entrepreneurship – will build new competencies to deal with and take the most advantage of our interdependent and changing world.

This week-long training comprises five interconnected modules that aim to cultivate a trans-disciplinary approach to produce societally relevant, innovative, and scientifically robust knowledge on sustainability transformations that transcend established boundaries between science and society.

Bridging natural sciences, engineering, and social sciences, this training aims to facilitate collaborative knowledge sharing, empowering participants to devise innovative solutions to industry and societal challenges. With an emphasis on developing an entrepreneurial mindset and fostering critical and evaluative thinking, this course delves into deep tech and social research initiatives within society’s digitization.

Inspired by “the art of trespassing” coined by the influential economist Albert O. Hirschman, this initiative will rely on transdisciplinary and experiential learning methods, challenging the notion that disciplinary knowledge is all-encompassing.

This Summer School adopts a learner-centric approach, aiming to create a transformative journey for the participants, leading to concrete results and benefits. Each day, trainees will go through exploration and discovery phases, guided by innovation leaders, experts, and stakeholders; followed by a hands-on phase of elaboration and implementation.

The hands-on activity will feature transdisciplinary project work, referring to real-life cases brought by the participants, so that, during the Summer School, the participants will further develop and refine their skills, and upon completion, they will get back fresh insights, ideas, and approaches to their respective organizations further develop and practice; after, they can bring new insights, ideas, and approaches back to their organization.