Regional Policy Implications of the Entrepreneurial University: Lessons from the ECIU

Abstract

The chapter contributes to the literature and discussions on the regional engagement of universities, providing empirical evidence on academic engagement and how these academics can be motivated and encouraged by regional policy. The chapter specifically asks the question how do entrepreneurial universities create (or do not) frameworks which enable purposive actions by academic actors acting as institutional entrepreneurs to participate in regional development outcomes. The chapter draws upon case studies of three universities all recently actively promoting regional entrepreneurship activities in various ways at the institutional level. This chapter identifies the key tensions and dynamics of the entrepreneurial university's behaviour to propose a first reflection on how regional policy can be both supportive and steering for institutional entrepreneurs.The chapter concludes that because the connections between institutional entrepreneurs and regional partners are vital to collaboration undertakenregional policy should devote more resources to building these critical links.

On the connections between the cdio framework and challenge-based learning

“…ECIU (European Consortium of European Universities) is a network of thirteen European universities and is running this pilot project together. More information about the ECIU University and the use of CBL within this context can be found via [6]. In [7] the authors discuss the connections between the CDIO framework and the development of the ECIU University in general, which also includes brief discussions about the connections to CBL.…”

The Role of Universities in Building Dense Triple Helix Ecosystems in Sparse regional Environments

“…Matchmaking Scheme(North Denmark) Aalborg University (AAU) and the North Denmark Region created a new coopetition infrastructure in 2007/08 seeking to facilitate cooperation with the existing business infrastructure in the region, particularly in the region's remoter rural areas and with SMEs. The original idea of this matchmaking scheme was creating new access points for university knowledge; one of the scheme's initiators describing this as a "no wrong door policy"(Nieth and Benneworth, 2019). The project was constructed to match regional needs, thereby ensuring funding from the regional Growth Forum, the body distributing European and national economic development funds.…”