INTREPID-HEI is a project consortium of nine full and six associated partners. The project aims to become one of the leading European initiatives in creating international digital offers for start-ups, students, and (non-)academic staff in the competence fields of innovation and entrepreneurship by 2030. This will bring about outstanding innovative power and equip businesses to tackle future societal challenges.

To achieve this, INTREPID-HEI has developed an Innovation Vision Action Plan which emphasises five key objectives. These objectives will guide the consortium’s actions throughout the EIT HEI Initiative’s funding period and beyond. The five objectives are to:

• develop each partner’s capabilities and activities with regard to internationalisation;
• foster digitalisation;
• support transfer and regional integration;
• ensure sustainability;
• share expertise and innovation infrastructure among the consortium.

INTREPID-HEI emerged from the European university alliance consortium ERASMob and the shared belief that much of the desired expertise and experience in innovation and entrepreneurship already exists within the consortium, though it is spread out unevenly across individual partners. By connecting four thematically oriented work packages focusing on training, innovation, start-ups and transfer, INTREPID-HEI brings this knowledge together.

Consortium partners will further develop their existing training and mentoring programmes, as well as their support services for innovation and entrepreneurship and make them accessible virtually to the rest of the consortium. The close collaboration with (associated) partners from the business side of the knowledge triangle, the INVENTHEI consortium (funded under the EIT HEI Initiative’s first pilot), and the ERASMob alliance will enable impactful regional and international transfer events and, thereby, foster the integration of all three sides of the knowledge triangle.

The interdisciplinary nature of INTREPID-HEI, which involves two or three faculties/departments at each partner higher education institution and engages students and staff (academic and non-academic) alike, will sensitise INTREPID-HEI institutions to the challenges and opportunities in innovation and entrepreneurship. With this support, the actions developed and implemented during the funding period can generate sustainable and efficacious institutional change throughout the consortium. By 2030, INTREPID-HEI will become a leading initiative which empowers entrepreneurs and fosters innovation both within its own regional ecosystems and beyond.

Project coordinator

Paul Schoplocher, OTH Regensburg (contact)

Project website

intrepid-hei.eu