On May 10 2013, UASnet organised an interesting morning programme during the annual Eurashe conference held in Split, Coratia. The theme of this morning track was Higher Education and Innovation.

Working groups
The first working group focused on the benefits of undergraduate student involvement in RDI projects and some selected highlights as examples. Mikael Paronen, Head of Department of Energy and Materials Technology at ARCADA and Henrik Wolff, President of ARCADA University of Applied Sciences chaired the meeting (presentation).

The second working group dealt with indicators of valorisation. Frank Ziegele, Director of CHE Centre for Higher Education (Germany), gave a presentation on U-Multirank. Ziegele, together with Laust Joen Jakobsen, Rector of University College UCC (Denmark), made sure everyone contributed to the working group by adding some interactive elements. Attendants discussed the different types of indicators and argued why some should, and some should not, be included in the U-Multirank project.

The third working group depicted on the synergy system, building the value chain from innovation to enterprise development. Pat Coman, Head of Research and Development at Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT Dublin) (Ireland) and Andrew Brownlee, Director of Research, Development and Innovation at Institutes of Technology Ireland (IOTI) (Ireland) chaired this working group.

11 December 2012, the UASnet organized  this workshop for more than 20 people from seven different countries, working at Universities of Applied Sciences and being responsibility for the research activities of their UAS. The main aim of this meeting was sharing information and discussing the role of the UAS in the new European programmers. The participants received  update on Horizon 2020 from the EU Commission, discuss their own research theme’s and meet up with colleagues and discover possible partnerships.  At the end of the day everybody was convinced that the UASnet should keep on organizing such a meetings, to help building up international networks and strengthen the role of UAS in Europe.

During the first session,  Sebastiaan den Bak (Policy advisor Nether) gave a presentation about the  Horizon2020 programme  and there was a presentation about the Marie Curie Actions by Kamila Partyka  (European Commission Directorate-General for Education and Culture).

During a work session the participants worked together in thematic groups to discuss how they prepare themselves for participation in Horizon2020. What are the needs? What are the main questions? What is their strategy? With whom do they co-operation? What are their strengthens and weakness? How do they link their research with Horizon2020? In the workgroup on Health care the group focused on how to use the networks within the UAS. The Energy / Environment group discussed the challenges of building international networks and how to connected research with educations.  The Engineering / Product design group saw a lot of complementarity between the different UAS and with that, a lot of opportunities to work together. As final conclusion the groups all stretched out the need  of organized information on the different research areas at the institutions and  corresponding  contact information.

In the afternoon there was a presentation by Siep Littooij (Manager  International Project Desk, Saxion University of Applied Sciences) on how his UAS made strategic choices in organizing their networks. The final theme was about how Ireland stimulated the engagement of  academic researchers and SMEs in research programmes under FP7 and Horizon 2020. Presentation by Andrew Brownlee (Director of Research, Development and Innovation, Institutes of Technology Ireland)

All presentations can be found here.

From 29 September until 2 October the second annual conference of University of Applied Science Network (UASnet) took place in Bragança, Portugal. During these days, more than 200 participants from more than 15 different countries shared information and discussed the role of the Universities of Applied Sciences (UAS) in the European area, characterizations of the UAS system and the challenges of Applied Research within the European Union and its regions.

The conference started with a speech from  the Portuguese Member of European Parliament, Maria Da Graça Carvalho, also rapporteur for (a major component of) Horizon2020. In her speech she stressed the need for more highly educated people in Europe, specifically in the areas of the UAS. In addition, she spoke about the importance of synergy between higher education and industry. UAS are, according to Carvalho, fundamental for  the welfare and development of the European community.

Presentations plenary sessions:

·       Characterization of the UAS system: the reality of the universities of Applied Sciences in Europe Profile of UAS compared to other systems of higher education

Hans Vossensteyn Research Co-ordinator at Center for Higher Education Policy Studies - CHEPS/ Advisor to the European Commission on Societal Policy matters.

·        EDUPROF project: balance and perspectives

Henrik Wolff – Aracada UAS Finland  and vice-president UASnet

·        Challenges for UAS in business cooperation within the European Union and its regions

Todd Davey - Science-to-Business Marketing Research Centre/UAS of Münster - Germany.

·        The Applied Research Centers in the UAS system

Carlos Ramos - UAS of Porto/ Portuguese Coordinating Council of Polytechnic Institutes, CCISP - Portugal.

Roundtable about perspectives and challenges of the UAS Research Centers.

Presentations from:

·         Nijole Zinkeviciene - UAS Kaunas - Lithuania

·         Anne Kraav – UAS Tallinn – Estonia

·         Vincent Moser – UAS Western Switzerland – Switzerland

·         Marc VandeWalle – Council of Flemish Institutions of Higher Education, VLHORA - Belgium

·         Jussi Halttunnen - Jamk UAS - Finland

·         Terri Scott – Institute of Technology Sligo - Ireland

During the simultaneous sessions different Portuguese Research Centres spoke about their priority research areas.

Engineering and Technology Sciences, Health and Natural Sciences and Social Sciences

invitation: international conference

“New perspectives in higher education and regional development”

Dynamic processes of knowledge infrastructures, innovative businesses and regions

30^th October 2012

Center for Higher Education Policy Studies, University of Twente, the Netherlands

Introduction

As universities are increasingly strategically managed to achieve their core goals, understanding why universities might choose to work with regions is essential to understanding the contributions that they can potentially make to economic development in general and recovery from the current economic crisis. Why do universities choose to contribute to regional economic development? Central to the idea of a university is of independent, abstract learning and knowledge creation in a global knowledge commons, so why would universities tie themselves and be limited by opportunities for co-operation within the particular territory in which they are located?

Universities have many assets and facilities that can help drive regional economic development, but that is for the majority of higher education institutions that have the university name not a central part of what they do. This conference seeks to better understand this conundrum and contribute to better understanding the place of universities in the evolving knowledge society.

The day consists of a mixture of keynote plenary presentations, academic panel sessions and roundtable discussions. The day concludes with the 2012 CHEPS/ Regional Studies Association Distinguished Lecture by Professor John Goddard, Newcastle University on the theme of “Higher Education and the Grand Challenges of Smart City Development”.

Fee

The fee for the day is €95. This fee includes lunch, refreshments, an evening reception and all materials for the day.

More information is available on the conference website:

http://www.utwente.nl/mb/cheps/Conference 30 October 2012

Confirmed Speakers

Confirmed speakers for the day include.

• Professor Stefan Kuhlmann, University of Twente

· Professor Glen A. Jones, University of Toronto

• Romulo Pinheiro, University of Oslo
• Professor Marek Kwiek, Posnan University
• Professor David Charles, University of Strathclyde
• Paul Benneworth, University of Twente
• Professor John Goddard, Newcastle University
• Bas van Heur, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
• Einar Rasmussen, University of Nordland
• Tim Vorley, Sheffield University
• Claire Nauwelaers, independent consultant Louvain-la-Neuve.

the conference organisers

The conference is organised by the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies. The organising team consists of:

· Paul Benneworth, CHEPS, University of Twente

· Romulo Pinheiro, University of Oslo

· Glen A. Jones, University of Toronto

· Karin van der Tuin, CHEPS, University of Twente (Conference Secretariat)

Contact with the conference secretariat and queries can be addressed via this address.

About the Conference supporters

The event New perspectives on higher education and regional development has been made possible thanks to the generous support of our sponsors.

The Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) is an interdisciplinary research-institute located at the School of Management and Governance of the Universiteit Twente, the Netherlands. Since 1984, CHEPS has undertaken and published a considerable amount of research on higher education especially at system and institutional levels. CHEPS seeks to increase our understanding of institutional, national and international issues that bear upon Higher Education.

http://www.utwente.nl/mb/cheps/

The Institute for Innovation and Governance Studies is one of the priority research institutes of the University of Twente and performs multi-disciplinary research and postgraduate research training in the field of the governance and management of technological and social innovation. In this, issues of co-ordination, steering and the operation of (networks of) institutions in both public and private sectors are core research foci, based on a multi-level, multi-actor perspective. IGS strives to combine scientific excellence with relevance for our stakeholders in the public and private sector.

http://www.utwente.nl/igs/

The Regional Studies Association is a learned society concerned with analysis of regions and sub national issues. Through our International membership we provide an authoritative voice of, and network for, academics, students, practitioners, policymakers and interested lay people in the field of regional studies.

http://www.regional-studies-assoc.ac.uk/

BOOK

This event is organised in conjunction with the launch of the new Routledge volume Universities and Regional Development: A Critical Assessment of Tensions and Contradictions, edited by Rómulo Pinheiro, Paul Benneworth, Glen A. Jones. More information on this book is available here.

http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415893558/

Before the UASnet Networkmeeting on 23rd of March, the partners were informed about the developments of the new European Programmes.

Both presentations can be found here.

This event is organized by the Portuguese Coordinating Council of Polytechnic Institutes, CCISP, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança, IPB and the Universities of Applied Sciences network, UASnet.

The 2nd UASnet Conference will follow the UASnet mission of promotion and strengthening the integration and contribution of the UAS sector with the research and innovation strategy within Europe, applied through 6 main tasks: (1) Connecting to regional innovation; (2) Looking for smart synergies - Linking regions of knowledge, (3) Supporting applied research and innovation; (4) Involving the whole innovation cycle; (5) Investing in the pre and post-project phases; (6) Connecting Research, Innovation & Education.

Conference topics will be “Definition/Perspectives on the role of the UAS system”, “Applied Research in UAS system” and “Internationalization in UAS system” and will include plenary conferences by invited keynote speakers and roundtables for general discussion of each main topic also directed towards the UAS Research Centers and International Relations offices that we specially invite to participate actively in this forthcoming Conference .