ECIU is a partner of UIIN – University Industry Interaction Network and as a leading international consortium strongly committed to innovation, entrepreneurship and regional engagement, aims to act as a powerful enabler in strengthen the relation and impact of universities in their regions. Also, ECIU will bring insights about the interactions universities-industry at larger and how universities are developing and building smarter cities.
ECIU will lead a session, in a practitioner perspective, dedicated to “The role and experience of ECIU universities in regional development”. Troels Jacobsen (University of Stavanger), Jan Axelsson (Linkoping University) and Wilbert Pontenagel (University of Twente) will be the ECIU experts, members of the Entrepreneurship and Societal Impact of Research (ESIR) Steering Committee, supporting the event.
During the session participants will be invited to reflect on
Stavanger city was among the first round of cities getting the status of smart city light-house projects from the H2020 programme together with Eindhoven and Manchester cities. The projects is called TRIANGULUM http://www.triangulum-project.eu/. The Norwegian participation has only been possible because of the strong commitment from the Stavanger municipality, the university and the region. Stavanger strategy for smart-city development will be briefly explained with examples and challenges will be addressed during the presentation.
Cities are facing many challenges; challenges linked to world-wide trends like urbanisation, climate changes and globalisation. In parallel to these trends, we have seen a rapid digitalisation in and of different parts of society. Cities, universities and local governments have been appointed an important role in overcoming these world-wide challenges, and subsequently, in policy practices digitalisation is perceived as an important dimension in delivering better and sustainable services to its citizens. As a result, the smart city has emerged as a concept and approach to contemporary urban planning and development.
In Linköping, Sweden, this has recently been set in to practise by the planning and building of Vallastaden - Sweden's biggest urban living expo (www.vallastaden2017.se). A project involving a numerous stakeholders: Linköping University, Linköping Municipality and a number of building contractors. This presentation will elaborate on the experience of a complex collaboration process by challenging the end result – how smart can ’IT’ be?
Digitalisation, Urbanisation, Climate Change; just examples of global trends or key factors for the future of our cities? Does technology development determine this future or do we, as civilians, determine the future of the place we live in? How do we see the future of our cities and how can we develop our own (smart) environment?
In our hyper-connected world, innovation and societal development is no longer reserved to the work of acknowledged professionals (public and private). Also ‘the man in the street’ and ‘new kids on the block’ generate answers to global challenges and regional societal needs. Bottom-up processes become more important, requiring flexibility and agility of existing stakeholders.
In the Twente region we explore this future together with our triple-helix partners in search for new roles and responsibilities for all relevant stakeholders, and an identity of the university in the decades to come