High bureaucracy, the limited size of home (country) markets for innovative products and thus the need to access the world market, the need for efficiently manage the innovation processes, even more networking and long-term view and investment, entrepreneurial mindset and willingness to take risks as well as other cultural and human aspects are some of the main issues affecting the development and sustainability of knowledge exchange between universities and companies according to the conclusions of the INNOPOLIS Final Conference.
The two day Conference was organised by the Decentralised Administration of Macedonia - Thrace (DAMT) on the 11th and 12th October in Thessaloniki, where more than 120 participants had the opportunity to extend their knowledge on topics related to knowledge exchange practices between universities and companies such as the role of the regional government, the barriers to be surpassed, the main factors affecting knowledge exchange between universities and companies, the issue of valorizing research results and the tools available to support the exchange of knowledge between universities and business
During the Conference regional knowledge exchange policies and University practices from the UK, Finland and Poland were presented. Furthermore, the Conference showcased successful university-company knowledge exchange practices from Greece, recommendations for the creation of sustainable spin off companies as well as the importance of the environment in which a knowledge exchange is taking place, with the examples of Greece and the USA (California).
The Conference featured representatives from the European Commission (Directorate General for Research and Innovation), the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA, UK) and the New Economy Development Fund - TANEO (GR) and included speakers from the following Universities: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, the National & Kappodistrian University of Athens, the University of Western Macedonia, the South-East European Research Centre, the Universities of Salford, Bradford (UK), Maastricht (NL) and Aalto (FI). Apart from the Ministry of Macedonia & Thrace, the DAMT, the Region of Central Macedonia and the Municipality of Thessaloniki who saluted the Conference, local government was represented by the region of Lodz (PL), the Urban Facts of the City of Helsinki (FI) and the Manchester City Council (UK).
Speakers from DOTSOFT S.A., the Laboratory of Applied Thermodynamics – AUTH, ENTRANET Ltd., VIDAVO S.A. and BRITE SOLAR S.A. joined the conference to discuss their experience of university-company cooperation through the presentation of successful knowledge exchange practices.
Conference presentations:
The presentations are available on the Conference’s website: http://conference.knowledgecities.eu/
Notes:
The project INNOPOLIS - “Innovation Policy in University City Regions".
INNOPOLIS aims to identify regional best policy practice in the field of knowledge exchange between universities & enterprises. The project focuses on university city-regions, (localities with at least three multi-departmental universities and at least 60,000 students) and the potential of those regions in practicing knowledge exchange activities that would be beneficial to local societies and economies. The project is formed through the collaboration between universities and regional authorities in four different campuses in Europe (Manchester-UK, Central Macedonia-GR, Helsinki-FI and Lodz-PL).
The project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and made possible within the program INTERREG IVC.
For more information on the project visit: http://www.knowledgecities.eu
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