Supported by EIT Urban Mobility and the EIT Higher Education Institutions (HEI) Initiative along with 25+ Partners, Start for Future (SFF) is an entrepreneurship and innovation mega-ecosystem that brings universities together on a co-creation basis to deliver entrepreneurship education in Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) related domains. Its recently published “Promoting Inclusive and Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Deep Tech: A good practice guide” supports the work of the EIT Deep Tech Talent Initiative and will prove invaluable for higher education institutions seeking to establish inclusive deep tech focused initiatives across education, incubation and funding domains.
About the Guide
In autumn 2023, SFF invited HEIs from the SFF consortium and its wider entrepreneurial ecosystem to share good practice examples of inclusive and sustainable entrepreneurship and innovation in deep tech. Following a thorough review and revision process, sixteen good practice examples were selected for publication across four main themes:
- Accredited education programmes (degrees, postgraduate diplomas, masters, PhDs)
- Futureproofing graduates: The Post-Graduate Diploma in Strategic Data Analytics for Business
- Creating responsible deep tech intra- and entrepreneurs
- Starting from scratch: The Entrepreneurship and Innovativeness Doctoral Programme at J.J. Strossmayer University in Osijek, Croatia
- Redesigning mechanical engineering curricula towards the promotion of entrepreneurial competencies in deep tech
- Entrepreneurship training programmes
- Bus School Baltica: An “out of the classroom” experience
- THRIVE4women: empowering women to succeed in STEM and deep tech sectors
- From research to market: A novel entrepreneurship training programme for researchers
- Accelerators/incubators
- Contamination Lab: Entrepreneurship education for innovation, sustainability and inclusion
- Inclusive and sustainable hardware innovation: The case of Industrio
- Comon: Catalysing innovative solutions to complex societal problems through transdisciplinary experimentation
- Beyond: A sustainable and inclusive pre-accelerator programme
- Other innovative initiatives relating to financial support, diagnostics, and student engagement to promote deep tech entrepreneurship
- Lightbulb Moment: The impact of small “Lightbulb Grants” on entrepreneurial intention
- Askforce.one: From research to real impact
- Na.bi: Driving sustainable entrepreneurship through social media communication
- Courage for digital enterprise
- ONKOMICS: Shaping the future of cancer detection
The countries covered by these examples include Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Scotland, and Spain. This guidebook should prove a valuable resource for HEIs interested in enhancing their current entrepreneurship and innovation offerings to ensure they are both inclusive and sustainable.
Click here to download the guide.
Click here to learn more about Start for Future and request to join.
Partners
