MTU’s Innovation & Enterprise Office regularly participates in European Union funded projects, particularly including the Rubicon Centre team. This demonstrates the commitment to fostering innovation and supporting the growth and development of entrepreneurs and start-ups on campus and in the region. It also provides MTU and the Rubicon Centre with the opportunity to contribute to the European Union’s goals of fostering innovation, economic growth and job creation.
Participation in these initiatives gives MTU’s Innovation & Enterprise Office and the Rubicon Centre a great opportunity to network and collaborate with innovation actors from different countries, benefiting from their knowledge, expertise and best practices.
Three examples of European initiatives we are currently participating in are:
INGENIUM is an alliance of ten European universities and its aim is to use diversity to pursue excellence in European Higher Education. Embodying their diverse geography, cultural background, and organisational activities, the partners share the same values regarding education, research, innovation, and social engagement. INGENIUM, in line with its Mission Statement, aims to successfully and incrementally advance the delivery of modern university education in line with European Higher Education Area (EHEA) objectives of innovating in learning and teaching institutions. Constituent universities are already collaborating very successfully to provide wide-ranging international opportunities for students, researchers, staff and regional stakeholders. Inter-campus mobility for students and staff is a significant hallmark of the alliance. Transversal objectives in promoting entrepreneurship, digital learning and sustainability are being supported by the sharing of best practices and collaborative initiatives.
MTU is leading work Package 8 – Entrepreneurial INGENIUM which is aimed at enhancing the entrepreneurial character of the Alliance, building on the tradition and experience of the partner universities to develop all aspects of the Entrepreneurial University, including:
- Encouraging researchers, academics, and undergraduate and postgraduate students to develop entrepreneurial mindsets and skills.
- Increasing the number of entrepreneurs supported across the Alliance.
- Supporting external stakeholders within the INGENIUM regions to set up new enterprises and benefit from wider geographical expertise and market knowledge.
MTU is hosting the ‘Ten Days of INGENIUM’ Winter School in February 2024 which will involve a week of Entrepreneurial activities for INGENIUM students who will travel to Cork from across the Alliance.
INGENIUM Alliance of European Universities – ERASMUS-EDU-2022-EUR-UNIV-2
Project number:101090042
BI4E, The Horizon-Widening the Research Area (WIDERA) co-financed Boosting INGENIUM for Excellence project (BI4E) is being delivered by a consortium of eight members, two of which are in the widening countries of Romania and Bulgaria. All of the consortium partners are also members of the INGENIUM European University. BI4E aims to boost the INGENIUM Alliance and foster research and innovation among the partner universities. The focus of the project is to fast-track excellence in research, technology transfer and staff entrepreneurship in the eight Ingenium Universities with a special widening country focus on fast-tracking developments in the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iasi, Romania and the Medical University of Sofia, Bulgaria.
Munster Technological University is leading Work Package 5 Entrepreneurial Universities: Best Practice in Technology Transfer and Commercialisation. MTU has a proven track record in supporting Technology Transfer, Innovation and Entrepreneurship development. The objective is to improve the capacity (structures/systems/skills) of partner universities to collaborate with industry thus maximising the relevance of research to industrial needs. It also focuses on enhancing the capacity to build local ecosystems to foster technology (knowledge) transfer and commercialisation of research results.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ACCESS-05-01-European Excellence
Initiative under Grant Agreement No. 101071321 -BI4E
VIDEOMUSE, is a project at the forefront of technological disruption, harnessing blockchain to foster cross—collaboration between the music and audio-visual sectors. The mission is to create a sustainable and fair business model that supports European artistic creations, audience development and innovative income generation for creative and cultural industries and artists. Videomuse addresses a significant opportunity at the intersection of art, technology, and income generation in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. As the demand for cross-sector collaborations between the music and audio-visual industries grows, there is a clear gap in the market for a platform that facilitates collaborative creation and monetisation of video clips as a collectibles market. Videomuse sets out to revolutionise the digital art landscape by providing a collaborative platform where artists and video makers can create and monetise captivating video clips as ClipMEs (Clip Music Experience). By leveraging blockchain technology, Videomuse aims to ensure secure ownership and fair compensation for artists, while offering a curated marketplace for buyers to discover and collect exclusive video experiences. Partners on this project include Melboss Music, Association of Independent Music Professionals Ireland, Association Laval Mayenne Technopole, Desarrollo De Estrategias Exteriores SA, Munster Technological University, Medula Producciones SLNE.
This project is co-funded under the Creative Europe Programme 2021-2027
We look forward to seeing the progress of these three initiatives in 2024.
