D2.0 – Phase 1 Educational Development +Planning

The EIT HEI Initiative is designed to bolster innovation and entrepreneurship within European higher education institutions (HEIs). Central to this initiative is the EIT Knowledge Triangle Model, fostering systemic institutional change and integrating HEIs into innovation ecosystems. Participating HEIs will engage with Smart Specialisation Strategies, the Regional Innovation Impact Assessment Framework, and align with the EIT Regional Innovation Scheme objectives. This approach aims to enhance connections between HEIs and their local and regional ecosystems, encouraging the leveraging of additional funding sources.

The INCREDIT project complements this initiative by making deep-tech more accessible to interdisciplinary student and educator groups in Europe. It focuses on four key areas: interdisciplinary collaboration, practice-based learning, life-wide learning opportunities, and a well-integrated ecosystem. This approach is designed to bridge the gap between students and the deep tech industry, fostering innovation and supporting deep tech start-ups.

A crucial aspect of the project involves conducting exploratory workshops. The first workshop, held at IdeaSquare @CERN, focused on brainstorming methods to integrate Deep Tech into educational programs. Activities included creating personas to represent various stakeholders in education, aiming to understand their attitudes and concerns about Deep Tech. The workshop concluded with an action plan outlining steps for the project’s first phase.

Workshops at Umeå University (UmU), explored academic and no-academic staffs’ attitudes towards Deep Tech. UmU’s workshops assessed perspectives using a structured format, leading to discussions on generative AI’s role in education and administration, addressing concerns like AI’s use in cheating and privacy issues.

The project’s next phase will further explore these themes. Additionally, a training workshop was conducted to guide other consortium members in conducting their exploratory workshops. An extra session focused on practical uses of generative AI in university settings, highlighting the significance of effective prompting for AI tools and exploring the implications of AI in educational contexts.

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