WINnovators’ goal is to co-develop and implement, in cooperation with the HEIs and the regional Innovation Ecosystems the innovative teaching and learning approaches and concrete policies for capacity development in the digital, entrepreneurial, STEM/STEAM innovation and sustainability fields, from which young women from rural areas and HEI students and educators would mutually benefit in the short and long run. i) Develop a set of capacity building practices - WINnovators Training practices Collection (PR1), that comprise two training modules, one targeting HEI students and young rural women, and the second educators and policymakers. ii) Develop the competencies of young women in rural communities, and the capacity of HEI students and educators to act as change agents through the development of the gamified eTrainings and e-Modules that promote innovation-led collaboration (PR1, PR2, PR4). iii) Build a WINnovators Community as a shared capacity mediated by the WINnovators Interactive Working Space (PR3) for teamwork in trainings iv) Involve policymakers from all partners’ countries to seminars, to contribute to WINnovators’ policy guidelines (PR4), that raises awareness of Winnovators’ practices.
The project asserts that HEIs should play as catalysts of change within the territories where they are located, contributing proactively to shaping socioeconomic development processes. Project develops tailored capacity-building actions between the HEIs from the project consortium and associated partners, among the business incubators, tech companies, NGOs, and young women from countryside regions. Project reconfigures teaching and learning practices in HEIs towards capacity development approaches that involve Open Innovation Ecosystems (OIE), communities and informal learners into teamwork practices, to transform young women’s careers towards digital, STEM/STEAM innovation, entrepreneurship and sustainability. Project stems from: i) the need for promoting competencies of young women from rural areas who lack mentors and partners with whom develop further their own innovative business approaches. ii) the need to develop and test out in HEIs new capacity building directed teaching and learning approaches that advance shared capacity across universities and regional ecosystems and, iii) the need for blend students as change agents and young women who have fewer opportunities towards innovative careers to make them agentic.