Eu Drivers

Universities are increasingly recognized as being drivers of the economic and social infrastructure in their region. There is growing awareness on how universities can contribute to regional innovation through collaboration with business, local and regional governments and other local actors.The Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs, as well as the Modernisation agenda for Universities, has focused attention on the need to strengthen the ‘knowledge triangle’ of research, innovation and education. The recently announced EU 2020 Strategy by the European Commission highlights regional development and reinforces the focus on the need for innovation: “Knowledge is the engine for sustainable growth. In a fast-changing world, what makes the difference is education and research, innovation and creativity”.

The EU-DRIVERS is a three year EU-funded Structural Network project (2010-2012) under the Lifelong Learning Programme (ERASMUS) seeking to:

• create a regional innovation virtual community for exchanging good practices among all stakeholders
• find solutions for improved regional cooperation between universities, public authorities (local/regional government) and business or community organizations
• disseminate cutting-edge information on good practices for effective regional partnerships.

EU-DRIVERS will produce:

• A central place for information (literature, examples, etc.)
• New models for strategic partnerships
• Annual reports on regional innovation issues with case studies and concrete examples of implementation of the knowledge triangle at the discipline level
• Annual conferences for exchange of good practices and networking

This will be achieved through:

• A Regional Innovation Virtual Community - A Community of Practice
• Ten Pilot Regional Innovation Partnership Projects – Universities, public authorities (local/regional government) and business or community organizations.
• Four Two-day leadership workshops
• Three Annual Reports on the latest knowledge on regional innovation issues, based on desk research, relevant literature review and example of good practices.
• Three Conferences on Regional innovation