Current Projects

The INVESTEch project aims to:

• Facilitate skills development and the use of innovative technology.
• Promote green transition and social inclusion.
• Provide opportunities for international collaboration and the exchange of best practices.
• creation of CoVEs in five European regions by incorporating the Quintuple Innovation Helix (Q2IH) Framework

The project involves 18 partners from five countries (Slovakia, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Lithuania). Technical University of Košice is the project coordinator. The project is implemented in cooperation between the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics.

The rapid progress and ever-changing environment in the information and communication technology (ICT) sector is creating strong pressure for the development of new skills and innovation. However, current vocational education and training programmes often fail to keep pace with these changes and do not always provide students with the skills and opportunities needed to succeed in this sector.

The INVESTech project (Innovation Vocational Excellence and Sustainability in Tech, 101143958; ERASMUS-EDU-2023-PEX-COVE) aims to support the innovation potential of VET in partner countries by applying the Quintuple Helix framework – strengthening partnerships between academia, industry, public sector, civil society and natural environment.

The project will establish a transnational platform for the cooperation of Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) in the field of ICT in five European regions: Košice in Slovakia, Attica in Greece, Sofia in Bulgaria, Nicosia in Cyprus and Klaipeda in Lithuania

The DICE project aims to:

1. Provide university educators and course directors with an integrated framework for digital community engagement, based on the values identified in the research
2. Define a process for creating digital community engagement courses in the form of a manual
3. Validate the above listed tools by piloting and launching a new digital accelerator platform
4. Provide a collection of best practices, references and strategic recommendations

The mission of universities is not only to educate students and conduct research. There is also a third mission of universities, which is to bring together academia and the community of people surrounding it. They should encourage civic engagement and create strongly interconnected and engaged communities. At the same time, universities are also affected by the widespread digitalisation that is affecting all its processes. Linking digitalisation and civic engagement would help universities to broaden their scope, bring a new range of activities and enable more actors to be involved, by removing physical barriers.

The DICE project focuses specifically on combining digitalisation and the third mission of universities, by providing university educators and course directors with a step-by-step guide on how to create their own digital community engagement courses and bring it into the online world.

The project is a collaboration between partners from Slovakia (Technical University of Košice), Germany (ACEEU), Italy (IUL), Spain (UAH) and Romania (HELIX). TU Košice is the coordinator of the project.

PROJECT OBJECTIVE:

• Building capacity and tools to understand, imagine, and specify future challenges in the context of the green transition and circular economy. The project aims to build the capacity of SMEs, local public authorities, and research institutions in EU less developed regions. Through workshops, mentoring, and financial support, Label4Futureprovides participants with the tools and knowledge to understand value chains, develop new models, and implement circular economy practices.
• Analyzing European value chains and articulating stakeholders’ own business models, products, and services.
• Prioritizing, designing, and implementing innovation projects that contribute to building capacities of SMEs, local public authorities, and research institutions.
• Fostering multi-stakeholder cooperation on both interregional and cross-sectoral levels.
• Providing continuous systematic institutional support for research, development, and innovation in the transition to circular economy models.

Label4Future is an initiative that engages quadruple helix (4-H) stakeholders—comprising academia, industry, government, and civil society—from both less developed and more developed EU regions. This initiative leverages design practices, new technologies, future scenario development, and innovative approaches in media art, research, and innovation. The goal is to define, prioritize, and test innovation investment projects that enhance the capacities of SMEs, local public authorities, and research institutions in less developed regions (LDRs). By understanding value chain articulation and implementation, and setting up and reinforcing regional ecosystems, Label4Future aims to interconnect stakeholders from advanced and less advanced EU regions, fostering a transition to a more circular and sustainable economic model.

Label4Future engages innovation actors from LDRs to comprehend and envision the scope of future challenges. The initiative will facilitate the definition and prioritization of innovation investment projects and promote an out-of-the-box approach to circular economy innovation, driven by interregional creative industries—design and new media art. Innovation projects will focus on sectors such as construction, 3D printing, and packaging, and will be developed, produced, and tested in real-world environments (TRL6) through interregional 4-H tandems.

PARTNERS:

• CREATIVE INDUSTRY KOSICE (CIKE) (SK)
• STICHTING EUROPEAN CREATIVE BUSINESS NETWORK (ECB Network) (NE)
• GOSPODARSKA ZBORNICA SLOVENIJE (CCIS) (SL)
• AUSTRIA WIRTSCHAFTSSERVICE (AWS) (AT)
• AS ELECTRONICA (AT)
• KREATIVINI PRAHA (CZ)
• TECHNICKÁ UNIVERZITA V KOŠICIACH (TUKE) (SK)