Finalist

Triple Helix Collaboration of the Year (at least 2 triple helix actors) Award

Start for Future

Finalist of the Triple Helix Collaboration of the Year (at least 2 triple helix actors) Award

Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship - Germany

"Start your Future, Your Way!"


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Summary

Start for Future (SFF) is an open and fast-growing international initiative of entrepreneurial HEIs and their ecosystem partners that fosters systemic innovation and drives the New Deal of Innovation in Europe. Since 2020, SFF brought under its umbrella five existing international projects under a joint vision – creating a leading open entrepreneurial initiative in Europe. Towards the end of 2021, the synergetic approach was finalized, transforming the activities into four main pillars of SFF: SFF Academy, SFF Open Incubation Program (LEARN, MATCH&START, DEVELOP & CO-CREATE), SFF Open Incubator, SFF Ecosystem Integrator. Until now, the initiative enabled 22 HEIs and their incubators and regional ecosystem partners to actively participate in the program increasing their internal innovation capacities and developing new co-creation projects internationally. The program's uniqueness is its open and easy-to-implement character that fosters HEIs capacities in entrepreneurship through doing. Since 2022, the initiative has developed its platform, new branding, and a joint business model with a legal framework that ensures its continuity and growth beyond the project end. Finally, the initiative has raised visibility across the EIT HEI initiative and onboarded two EIT KICs (Mobility and Manufacturing) with an ambition to include all remaining KICs and challenge areas by 2025. The testimony to its impact can be seen in the number of students, academic and non-academic staff trained, the number of regional hubs created, and the number of start-ups that have, due to SFF, been developed and introduced their innovation to the market.

Key People


Prof. Dr. Klaus Sailer
CEO
Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship,  SCE



Pavlina Vujovic
Head of internationalization
Internationalisation,  SCE



Andreas Hammerl
Startup and Co-Creation Manager
Internationalisation,  SCE



Julia Dorsch
Project Manager
Internationalisation,  SCE



Giorgi Japaridze
Project Manager
Internationalisation,  SCE



Audrey Stolze
Head of Qualification
Qualification,  SCE



Bettina Maisch
Professor for Entrepreneurship
Qualification,  SCE



Herbert Gillig
Head of Startup Support
Startup Support,  SCE



Barbara C Gabriel
Head of Technology Transfer
Technology Transfer,  University of Aveiro



Claudia Figueiredo
Researcher
Internationalisation,  University of Aveiro



Milena Stoycheva
CEO
Edge



Katerina Pramatari
Head of ACEIN
ACEIN –Entrepreneurship Center.,  Athens University of Economics and Business



Steve Stevens
Head of DO!
Precelerator DO,  Ghent University



Andreas Wauters
Project Manager
Precelerator DO,  Ghent University



Colette Henry
Professor and Researcher
Dundalk Institute of Technology,  Dundalk Institute of Technology



Slavica Singer
Professors
JJ. Strossmayer University of Osijek



Valentina Makni
Professor
University of Economics Varna



Ester Bernadó
Professor
Tecnocampus Spain,  Tecnocampus Spain



Malcolm Duerod
Professor
International Burch University



Alessio Cavicchi
Professor
University of Pisa,  University of Pisa



Omar Garcia Urdiales
Researcher and Startup Coach
Grundes Esslingen



Kare Moberg
Researcher
Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship



Radka Preclikova
Radka Preclikova
Technical University in Prague



Petra Pendl
Startup Corner Manager
Startup Corner,  FH Campus Wien



Nicholas Fannin
Head of BRT
Bright Red Triangle,  Edinburgh Napier University



Thomas Stumpp
Head of Entrepreneurship and Economy
HM University of Applied Sciences Munich



Anamarija Delic
Associate Professor at Faculty of Economics
JJ. Strossmayer University of Osijek



Christopher Cramphorn
Associate Professor of Enterprise and Innovation
Edinburgh Napier University



Daniel Hook
STEM Engagement Coordinator
Engineers Without Borders Australia,  La Trobe University



Malvina Ilieva
CEO and Co-founder
The Edge



Mara Doukidi
Marketing & Startup Teams Growth Specialist
Athens University of Economics and Business



Robertt Valente
Associate Professor,
Head of Mechanical Engineering Department,  University of Aveiro



Udgum Khadka
Country Lead
Nepal at HundrEDorg



Katharina Zimmer-Hausmann
Master of Economics & Communication
FH Campus Wien,  FH Campus Wien



prof. Dr. Eddie Custovic
Prof for Engineering and Entrepreneurship
La Trobe University


Acknowledgements

➔ EIT Urban Mobility and its staff: Martin Vendel (Head of EIT UM Academy), Antoine Bewart (Academy Project Manager), Raul P. Feliu (Business Creation Manager), and other experts from the Academy, Innovation and Business Creation Pillar.
➔ EIT Manufacturing: Paola Fantini (Head of Academy EIT M), Wolfgang Kniejski (Senior Business Creation Manager at EIT M), and many other experts from Academy, Innovation, and Business Creation Pillar.
➔ PTJ Exist Potentiale- as the funding authority.
➔ EIT HEI Initiative - as the founding authority.
➔ EIT Urban Mobility Regional Innovation Scheme - as the funding initiative scheme.

Images

IMPACT STORY

Impacting lifes

A year ago, two inspiring young female entrepreneurs entered the program in the first stage via a partner university. Already at the first stage, many have criticized the idea with a belief that the market was already saturated with similar products and that their unique ingredients and business model will still necessitate a long path before realization. The idea was somewhat controversial and still very immature for realization, however, their passion and commitment were absolutely contagious, which made them the perfect fit for the SFF Open Incubation program. From day one, they managed to raise supporters for their startup idea due to their entrepreneurial attitude and great teamwork, as the key and driving resources at hand, at that time. They recognized the SFF Open Incubation Program as an opportunity to further develop their idea, gain supporters and experts and find means to ensure their idea gets the resources needed for realization. After completing SFF LEARN and MATCH & START, the team was accepted into one of the incubators of SFF Partners – SCE – and continued working on their start-up even more passionately than before. Their commitment and belief system led them into several competitions and made them one of the first SFF teams in which SCE invested in product development. Today, the two female founders, Aylin and Rana, run their company and have just recently launched their Oratis App to the market. Their passion continues to inspire people and importantly they are creating their future in their own unique way.

LEARNINGS

Lessons learned

The initiative started with a well-defined vision which gathered 10 universities on board with no financing involved. The promise was clear – let us do what we do best and if we manage to complete a prototype together, the funding will come. Important in such a setting is to compensate for the lack of funding with support and resources which we had at that time – the passion and time of people believing in this initiative. Already in 2021, several funding options were opened through different initiatives and projects granted which had a clear ambition – bringing it under the SFF umbrella. In such an undertaking it is important to commit to several management steps:

1) Create a shared vision among the partners and governance, which gives all partners ownership.
2) Synergize the activities in such a manner that 1+1 becomes more than 2 and that administrative matters do not become greater than the vision and content of the initiative
3) Streamline the activities so that HR resources do not become strained
4) Start thinking and acting on how to ensure motivation of drivers and content sustainability from the day one.

Importantly, the capacities acquired in 2021 made it possible to divide the SFF into core pillars and delegate it to different international teams working on their implementation. These actions combined with a sense of trust are the most important ingredients that continue to make SFF successful, interesting, and enjoyable for universities to work in, as well as for our core target groups.

FUTURE PLANS

What's coming?

SFF has a well-defined path for growth and scalability. At the moment, SFF partners are finalizing the business model and legal framework which would ensure the institutional and financial sustainability of the program. To create a strong and growing alliance, an SFF cooperative is planned, and a franchise system for regional ecosystems, which provides them a framework, tools, programs, and a dedicated community platform, and allows them to create their own regional cooperative to include all regional stakeholders.
For the upcoming month, SFF is preparing to admit new Universities and new industry partners to the initiative and to set up at least three more regional hubs across partner networks. Towards the end of this year in November 2022, SFF is planning its first Co-Creation Summit to gather regional ecosystem stakeholders of all SFF HEIs and our regional and international start-ups. In April 2022, SFF submitted a new proposal with EIT Urban mobility for the Horizon Europe call which would support further verticalization of the program as well as the introduction of a new innovation approach fostering systemic innovation in Europe. Our goal till 2025, is to onboard an additional 80 HEIs in Europe and make the Start for Future a leading innovation program in Europe, driven by HEIs.

KEY STATISTICS

22

Universities worldwide

1550

Students involved since 2020

98

Start-ups created

32

Companies created

5

Regional hubs (ecosystems involved)

€3, 9 mil

Funding

Triple E Awards

The Triple E Awards are a global recognition of efforts toward the quest for entrepreneurship and engagement in higher education. It is the first award to focus specifically on different dimensions of the universities' third mission. Implemented regionally, the Triple E Awards aim to foster change in universities and to emphasize their role in their communities and ecosystems.

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