EXPAND will develop a toolbox for implementing ‘Challenge Based Idea Accelerators’ and run a first Idea Accelerator focused on homelessness.The toolbox is aimed at higher education teaching staff and will enable a practical new method responding to the need for more civic engagement, developing new problem solving skills and stimulate social entrepreneurship in students. The proposed project builds on the creativity of students combined with design thinking and challenge-based education to tackle societal challenges, with a focus on homelessness in the pilot programme. We call out for students, innovators, creative thinkers, tech people and the higher education world, in particular, to join forces and bring heavyweight social challenges in the spotlight. Our project aims to forge unlikely alliances across a wide spectrum of partners to define a viable, replicable and scalable methodology for tackling systemic societal problems.In this project, we will design a 4 month idea-accelerator with a strong focus on the needs analysis of the challenge in question resulting in a public demo day.The alliance will consist of business school teaching staff, design thinking experts, social enterprise leaders with expertise on how to tackle the issue and startup professionals. These different actors will work together in order to finetune the methods to the specific environment and challenge, in this case homelessness.
1) Boost innovation and modernisation in higher education by fostering alliances between higher education institutions and entrepreneurial actors2) Develop an entrepreneurial mindset and skills through the co-creation of a challenge-based idea accelerator programme and toolbox3) Stimulate the flow and exchange of knowledge between higher education and enterprises through increased cross-sector and cross-country collaboration4) Improve civic engagement and entrepreneurial skills for students
The EXPAND project was born out of the desire to co-create a programme that tackles complex societal challenges through entrepreneurship. The project involved three groups of partners to harness the power of the knowledge triangle: business schools, startup support experts and social entrepreneurs. The goal was to create a programme that immerses students in a difficult challenge while also encouraging them to use entrepreneurship as a force for good and develop transversal skills along the way.
<< Background >> The EXPAND project was born out of the desire to co-create a programme that tackles complex societal challenges through entrepreneurship. The project involved three groups of partners to harness the power of the knowledge triangle: business schools, startup support experts and social entrepreneurs. The goal was to create a programme that immerses students in a difficult challenge while also encouraging them to use entrepreneurship as a force for good and develop transversal skills along the way. << Objectives >> 1) Boost innovation and modernisation in higher education by fostering alliances between higher education institutions and entrepreneurial actors2) Develop an entrepreneurial mindset and skills through the co-creation of a challenge-based idea accelerator programme and toolbox3) Stimulate the flow and exchange of knowledge between higher education and enterprises through increased cross-sector and cross-country collaboration4) Improve civic engagement and entrepreneurial skills for students << Implementation >> The project was implemented in three phases:Phase 1: Curriculum development of the challenge-based idea accelerator programme including the engagement of local supporting partners and an in-depth desk research and ecosystem mappingPhase 2: Implementing the pilot programmes at the participating HEIs culminating in a Demo day and BootCampPhase 3: Develop the EXPAND Toolbox, a transferable methodology including the project e-learning materials, templates, guides and the dissemination activities << Results >> 1) Desk research and ecosystem maps (3 cities, 3 maps)2) Curriculum of the challenge-based idea accelerator (including teaching notes, guides, templates, e-learning, etc.)3) Implementation of the challenge-based idea accelerator in two schools including a common Demo day and BootCamp (55 students, 11 ideas, 17 implementation partners)4) The comprehensive Challenge-based Idea Accelerator Toolbox as well as online sessions and events promoting the toolbox5) Reports on the societal challenge