INNOVATION PORTO | Promoting Open Innovation in HEIs

Promoting Open Innovation in HEIs

21-25 October 2024

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) play a crucial role in promoting and fostering open innovation due to their extensive research capabilities, academic expertise, and diverse talent pool.

Support services in HEIs provide a range of services and resources that enable and enhance open innovation activities. They facilitate technology transfer, provide start-up support, connect researchers with external partners, secure funding, offer training programs, manage intellectual property rights, and promote open innovation within and outside the university. These services play a critical role in creating an enabling environment for open innovation to thrive and contribute to societal and economic impact.

Are you involved in Open Innovation activities or would you like to play an important role in your regional innovation ecosystem and connect it to other thriving innovative communities? Don´t miss this opportunity to join us!

In this first Edition, the participants of the Promoting Open Innovation in HEIs Staff Week will have the opportunity to attend: 

• International expert panel discussions/ Speaker series
• Workshop and training sessions
• Knowledge sharing sessions
• Site visits and field trips
• Other networking activities

The all program is attached.

The event, from 21 to 25 October 2024, will be a forum to discuss ideas and experiences, mostly related to the importance and impact of Open Innovation in HEIs, and it will be an opportunity to create new bonds through the Business & Innovation Network (BIN@), an international open innovation platform aiming to create synergies between all the stakeholders and share best practices.

Who should participate? Staff from research and innovation offices in HEIs, Professionals from innovation support services, staff from other offices dealing directly or indirectly with research and innovation: Innovation managers, technology transfer experts, incubator managers, grant and funding specialists, research and development managers, collaboration and partnership specialists, legal and intellectual property experts, innovation consultants and advisors.

Registration fee: €350 per person, including:

• A Certificate of Participation in the Staff Training Week
• Local transportation included (from 21 to 24)
• All meals included (from 21 to 24)

On the 25th October participants will have the opportunity to attend an optional touristic programme with an extra charge (to be defined). Participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses through the Erasmus funds for staff mobility or otherwise. 

If you want to be part of this training programme, please fill in the form until 31st May 2024.

The selection results will be disclosed until June 14th.

We will send you the details for the bank transfer once the participants are accepted.

English will be the speaking language.

About FEUP

FEUP is located in the Asprela Pole of the University of Porto, an area designated as the Porto Innovation District. Concentrated within one square kilometre, this District integrates not only several faculties of the University of Porto and schools of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, but also by private universities, a central teaching hospital, an institute of oncology and several national and international research institutes. With 50,000 talented people working here, it is primarily a technological location, where the strong presence of engineering technologies, health sciences and entrepreneurship lend considerable impetus to the process of innovation.

The Porto Innovation District is also where the core of the University of Porto’s Science and Technology Park (UPTEC) is located. UPTEC is a structure which brings together over two hundred projects, including start-ups, innovation centres, anchor companies and entrepreneurial projects. In 2013, UPTEC was recognized with the Regio Stars Award in the category “Smart Growth”, organized by the European Commission - the first time a Portuguese university had received an award for regional development projects at European level.

All in all, the Porto Innovation District is brimming with the entrepreneurial spirit and multidisciplinary research that have allowed FEUP to break new ground in which to operate and thus broaden its expertise.

Please note: If you are applying for ERASMUS fund, use the ERASMUS CODE 'P PORTO 02' to identify the institution 'Universidade do Porto' where this Staff Week is taking place.