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ALFA III

”KickStart II – New ways to teach innovation“

KICKSTART is a cooperation network between higher education institutes (HEIs) in Europe and Latin America that aims to identify needs and best practices and to formulate strategies and actions for the training of innovation professionals, to equip them to respond to society’s needs by offering effective knowledge exchange solutions, and also to evolve a common space for innovation within the higher education systems of the participating regions. 

The defined actions are:

  • Diagnostic study of existing innovation support within Latin American institutions and best practices within the EU
  • Document describing the needs and best practices for university-society engagement
  • Document describing strategies and extracurricular activities for teaching and supporting innovation.
  • Implementation of a one-year scheme for strategies and extracurricular activities at each of the three pilot institutions
  • Network website.
  • Dynamic technology-offer database containing the technology offered by each university and the corresponding demand within each region.
  • Joint publication on innovation in Europe and Latin America.
  • A joint programme of postgraduate study in innovation, aimed at training professionals of all disciplines in both Europe and Latin America.

This project is the second phase of the KICKSTART project, which aimed to encourage academic entrepreneurship within the participating centres, especially those from Latin America, and at the same time to create a transatlantic technology transfer network for the creation of transnational alliances, collaborations and even internationally based start-ups. While the first phase was focused on raising awareness and the implementation of instruments to support innovation, the new project aims to implement complete programmes within the participating HEIs so that the results of the project will be more effective and sustainable. In this sense, the project will be training innovation professionals, providing them with an in-depth knowledge not only of local needs and realities but also of the most up-to-date methodologies and initiatives at an international level.

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KICKSTART is financed by the European Commission’s ALFA PROGRAMME. The Programme's general objective is to contribute to the development of higher education in Latin America through cooperation between the EU and Latin American countries, as a means of contributing to the economic and social development of the region in general and the more balanced and equitable development of Latin American society in particular.

The programme will be developed around the following priorities:

  • reform and modernisation of higher education institutions and systems in the beneficiary countries
  • quality, accessibility and relevance of higher education in the beneficiary countries
  • development of skilled human resources in the Latin American region, taking particular account of the least favoured or vulnerable groups and the region's poorest countries, promoting participation from these countries
  • support for HEIs and other relevant players in making progress towards the creation of a joint higher education area in Latin America and promoting its links with the EU
  • promoting cooperation and the establishment of networks and lasting links between institutions of higher education in the two regions.

Partners of the project:

Find more information here: http://www.alfa-kickstart.org/

Contact:

Sebastian Strassert

Robert-Koch-Straße 40
48149 Münster

Tel. +49-(0)251 83-32223
Fax +49-(0)251 83-32123

email: sebastian.strassert@uni-muenster.de

ALFA III KickStart II – New ways to teach innovation


The aim of KickStart II is to support teaching in the field of innovation at three universities in South America. To this end there were several visits to the Universidad Central (UC) in Bogotá, Columbia, as WWU – represented by AFO – acts as a mentor to the university. In July an assessment was made as to which measures should be introduced at the UC: universities, companies, foundations and state authorities decided jointly that Ideas Mining should be implemented in order to create a strong culture of innovation.
At the end of November the implementation began at the UC Columbia: two AFO staff provided training for over 20 facilitators for Ideas Mining and elevator pitches. Another visit is planned for 2010, when a university network will be built up in Bogotá, based on experience made with the POWeR network. The name of this new network will be RUBI (the Spanish word for “ruby”) – an acronym standing for “Red de Universidades Bogotanas Innovativas” (Network of Innovative Universities in Bogotá).


ALFA – working with international partners


The new partner universities in the KickStart project from the UK, Spain, Mexico, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Germany met in Columbia in March for a kick-off meeting with over 200 participants. The various partners presented their best-practice models in the field of innovation.
All the partners rounded off the first year of the project by jointly assessing the results of the activities carried out. From Spain, the next stop was Glasgow, where the first “ISLAE Conference – Innovation and Support in Latin America and Europe“ was held. Here WWU’s work in the field of innovation, as well Ideas Mining and PATENTReiferei®, was presented to participants from all over the world.
Today, international networking within the context of the EU’s ALFA programme has a firm place in the portfolio of AFO’s international activities.

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University of Münster
Robert-Koch-Straße 40
· 48149 Münster
 Tel.: +49 251 83-32221 · Fax: +49 251 83-32123
 E-Mail: uvafo@uni-muenster.de