Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Access and train the European workforce

YUFE Challenge Teams

Would you like to participate in the solution of a real problem and belong to a dynamic, multidisciplinary and multicultural team? YUFE offers recurrent calls to create and international and multidisciplinary teams with the aim of proposing an innovative solution to a challenge that benefits European citizens and regions.

The team will be built around students, researchers, public and private experts and citizens who will deliver solutions with and for our citizens through a bottom-up model.

Benefits of the YUFE Challenges Teams

The benefits and value proposition of the YUFE Challenge Teams for the people involved are:

  • For students, stimulated by new learning experiences and soft skills training for their future, based on teamwork problems, they can solve a real challenge and acquire demanding professional competencies.
  • For researchers, by joining a problem-based venture, they will be mentoring a team to solve a real challenge with a certain novelty, minoring the gap between university-industry and/or society, and focusing on problem-based research.
  • For citizens, empowered and aware of present and future problems they will contribute to solve a real challenge for the benefit of the community or a third party.
  • For local government, concerned about the present problems and the future of the community, it contributes with resources, brings stakeholders together and collects smart solutions for the benefit of the community.
  • For industry, joining a problem-based venture, addresses social responsibility through mentoring and solution guidance, opens access to talents and contributes to minor the university-industry gap.

The uniqueness of YUFE Challenge Teams

The model for the YUFE Challenge Teams is outstanding and unique, being based on the following characteristics:

  • The active participation of the agents of the Quadruple Helix model which benefits students, empowers citizens and offers a bottom-up approach to the initiative
  • Diversity
  • The activity provides international and multicultural aspects, that is, it requires the involvement of at least 3 YUFE partner institutions
  • Multi-agent and multidisciplinary elements are mandatory in each YUFE Challenge Team
  • Innovation and novelty are required in the solutions of the Challenge
  • An innovative method to provide an intense experience for the students based on the result/user orientation approach, learning on teamwork, project management, and Agile principles’ practices

Team Work

The teams will be coordinated by the YUFE Challenge Project Manager and will be led by a researcher and an industry expert as shown in the figure.

For 3 months, the team will work together virtually in planned workshops with a scientific methodology, project design, design thinking and agile methodologies approaches to problem solving.

Planned workshops within the Challenge would take 2,5 or 3 hours per week on site and 3,5 hours per week of personal work.

Team’s evaluation

After finishing the challenge solution, the teams will be evaluated by a committee of experts (Evaluation Committee). It means, the team must present to the Evaluation Committee its solution to the challenge with the analysis of the respective advantages and disadvantages (15 to 20 minutes’ presentation). The Evaluation Committee will assess and appraise the Team(s) performances based on 5 criteria:

  1. Project design
  2. Deliverables
  3. Level of innovation
  4. Impact on target group
  5. Satisfaction of the target group

In the second term 2023-24 we are offering the following challenges:

  1. Tourism vs. education – How do Erasmus participants choose their education destination: a study of their motives
  2. Exploring Political and Dyadic Negotiations: finding ways to resolve a contested property status.
  3. Identifying ways to encourage the philanthropic activities of Gen Z.
  4. Fostering Students’ Security in University Cities – the city of Kuopio.
  5. Exploring The New Frontier in Medical Education: The Use of ChatGPT in Teaching and Student Learning in Medicine.
  6. Concepts and practices of modern bioeconomy to address global challenges: the case of Forest Joensuu
  7. Whey reuse in (new) food and beverage products.

For the challenges of the first term 2023-24:

You can apply from 7th February to 26th February 2024 through this link ›  Link VC

The expected workload is 60 hours to complete the challenge. However, variations according to the challenges nature or specific requirements might be considered.

120 spots for students of which:

  • 60 spots for participants in the YUFE Student Journey
  • 60 spots for Regular Students in the YUFE universities

For researchers and citizens:

  • Have an interest in participating in the solution of a real problem
  • Have demonstrable experience in the field of knowledge of the Challenge
  • English proficiency level of at least B2 (CEFR) or higher

For students:

  • Be an enrolled student at any of the YUFE Universities
  • English proficiency level of at least B2 (CEFR) or higher
  • If you don’t have an official certificate, you can use Dialang to prove your level of English

There are two ways to get the YUFE Professional Star: by completing either a Challenge Team or the Entrepreneurial Training Programme. In both cases it is necessary:

  • To be an enrolled student at any of the YUFE Universities[1]
  • Successfully complete 60 hours of online work according to the requirements of each activity (expected workload).

[1] A regular student, non-YUFE Student Journey, may obtain a YUFE Professional Star if, and only if, they ask for a Personal Development Plan from the first two Entrepreneurial Training Activities and completes all the required activities for the Professional Star.

Teams will be formed on the basis of the following criteria:

  • Multidisciplinary (diversity of knowledge area / academic degree).
  • Multiculturalism (at least, 3 YUFE partner institutions).
  • Diversity (mixed teams in terms of gender)

Motivation and skills will also be taken into account in creating the teams.

When the call closes, you will receive an email notifying you of the status of the application.

For any questions you may have about the offerings please contact professionalstar.yufe@uc3m.es.

YUFE Entrepreneurial Training Programme

Would you like to improve your knowledge and skills in innovation and entrepreneurship? The YUFE community has combined their forces to build an Entrepreneurial Training Programme with the aim of providing training for acquiring entrepreneurial mindset.

The programme provides the following activities:

  1. Courses and MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) in Entrepreneurship and Innovation (free courses from the best ranked universities and organizations in the field). MOOCs can provide participants the possibility of acquiring the competences/skills of the EntreComp framework. To see the course catalogue, click here ›
  2. Entrepreneurial talks (Talk Shows). These talks allow the participant to learn from the experience and advice of an expert in a specific area and, also, promotes diversity, multiculturalism, inclusiveness etc. The Talk Shows will be published in the Virtual Campus Catalogue, inside the Professional Training Activities and YUFE Academic Lectures.
  3. YUFETHON (organised once a year). The YUFETHON offers participants the opportunity to work online, collaborate with other participants and develop their ideas on a mission or objective related to innovation and entrepreneurship. It assesses the level of competence of the participants acquired in the tasks of this training and is therefore the last activity of the programme.

Note: MOOCs and Talk Shows can be held simultaneously.  Please note that both are compulsory to participate in the YUFETHON, i.e. the YUFETHON is the last activity of the programme, which allows the student to be evaluated.

Benefits of the Entrepreneurial Training Programme

The fundamentals and benefits of this offer are:

  • The mindset transformation according to the Entrecomp Framework where the entrepreneurial skill has been referred to as encouraging the “capacity to act upon opportunities and ideas and transform them into value for others”
  • A complementary offer to the ongoing activities of the YUFE members
  • Synergies and efficiency criteria as the YUFE Alliance takes advantage of those activities already running in a particular university and extend them to the other YUFE members
  • Diversity and multicultural approach for the activities to ensure and reinforce the YUFE Alliance spirit

You can apply from 12 September to 30 October 2022 through this link ›

The expected workload to successfully complete the programme is as follows:

  • MOOCs: 30 hours of work including overcoming 9 competencies of the EntreComp framework (3 from each category).
  • Entrepreneurial Talks (Talk Shows): 10 hours of work.
  • YUFETHON: 20 hours of teamwork.

Note: MOOCs and Talk Shows can be held simultaneously.  Please note that both are compulsory to participate in the YUFETHON, i.e. the YUFETHON is the last activity of the programme, which allows the student to be evaluated.

You will have up to two years to complete the Entrepreneurial Training Programme.

300 spots for students of which:

  • 150 spots for participants in the YUFE Student Journey
  • 150 spots for Regular Students in the YUFE universities

All you need is:

  • An interest in developing and improving entrepreneurial skills.
  • Have an English proficiency level of at least B2 (CEFR) or higher.

*If you don’t have an official certificate, you can use Dialang to prove your level of English.

There are two ways to get the YUFE Professional Star: by completing either a Challenge Team or the Entrepreneurial Training Programme. In both cases it is necessary:

  • To be an enrolled student at any of the YUFE Universities[1]
  • Successfully complete 60 hours of online work according to the requirements of each activity (expected workload).

[1] A regular student, non-YUFE Student Journey, may obtain a YUFE Professional Star if, and only if, they ask for a Personal Development Plan from the first two Entrepreneurial Training Activities and completes all the required activities for the Professional Star.

There will be no selection criteria, places will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis if the requirements are met.

When the call closes, you will receive an email notifying you of the status of the application.

For any questions you may have about the offerings please contact professionalstar.yufe@uc3m.es.