Dr. Anastasia Constantinou and Elena Christodoulou work in the Research and Innovation Support Service at the University of Cyprus. They share details of their role within the Inno4YUFE project and how their involvement is creating new opportunities for their students and impacting the wider innovation community.
Our role in Inno4YUFE
Our institution is leading the efforts on strengthening partnerships and knowledge triangle integration. We work closely alongside the universities of Antwerp, Maastricht, and Eastern Finland to strengthen partnerships with the EIT’s Knowledge and Innovation Communities – partnerships that bring together businesses, research centres, and universities – by collaborating on key projects within our local ecosystems.
We aim to establish connections and collaborations with the Knowledge and Innovation Communities at each institution’s country to develop novel entrepreneurship and innovation training courses, as well as establish support schemes and peer-to-peer collaborations between start-ups and industry professionals. By working with external stakeholders in this way, our focus has been on the alignment of strategies and the modernisation and adaptation of policies to meet our objectives and the ways they can be mutually beneficial.
Benefits for Inno4YUFE participants
Our institution is leading the efforts on strengthening partnerships and knowledge triangle integration. We work closely alongside the universities of Antwerp, Maastricht, and Eastern Finland to strengthen partnerships with the EIT’s Knowledge and Innovation Communities – partnerships that bring together businesses, research centres, and universities – by collaborating on key projects within our local ecosystems.
We aim to establish connections and collaborations with the Knowledge and Innovation Communities at each institution’s country to develop novel entrepreneurship and innovation training courses, as well as establish support schemes and peer-to-peer collaborations between start-ups and industry professionals. By working with external stakeholders in this way, our focus has been on the alignment of strategies and the modernisation and adaptation of policies to meet our objectives and the ways they can be mutually beneficial.
Looking to the future
With any project of this scale, it is expected that obstacles will be faced along the way. For us, collaborating with colleagues at universities geographically distant to ours and with different modes of operation presented a variety of challenges from setting up regular meetings within three time zones and 10 sets of National and public holidays (!) to considering 10 different operating environments and National laws and authorities. However, we continue to maximise the opportunities to broaden our expertise and skills within our YUFE network and develop a unique programme of activities for our students and Europe’s future citizens.
Inno4YUFE is an exciting proposition for students and stakeholders alike, where our prospective entrepreneurs can learn directly from industry experts and, likewise, they obtain insight and new perspectives from innovators of the future. Inno4YUFE is student-centred and offers participants tangible experiences and purposeful interactions, taking the potential of the YUFE Alliance one step further.
