DISCO

The DISCO project aims to strengthen the innovation capacity of European higher education institutions (HEIs) through shared learning, cooperation and flow of knowledge among the three participating HEIs, one non-profit enterprise and one small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), representing the broader innovation ecosystem.

DISCO will boost the development of innovation and entrepreneurship skills in the entire knowledge triangle. This will be achieved through student training, advisory and coaching support for start-ups and scale-ups, as well as structured capacity-building among scientific and non-scientific staff of participating HEIs. The project will achieve its aims by designing and creating new forms of cooperation and experimentation through innovation labs, an observatory and the development of a common massive open online course, all with a view to supporting the development of a sense of initiative and entrepreneurial mindsets across the EU.

The project will: train over 1 000 students and mentor 100; train 75 academic staff members and mentor 30; train 75 non-academic staff representatives and mentor 30, respectively. They will also assist 30 start-ups and scale-ups throughout the project’s duration.

DISCO partnerships will implement a coherent and comprehensive set of six actions. They will focus on institutional engagement for the Innovation Vision Action Plan, new collaborations, exchanging good practices, start-up and scale-up support, innovation-driven research, training and mentoring for students and staff.

The project will create three interinstitutional and cross-sectoral communities bringing partner HEIs, innovators as well as business, societal and governmental partners into meaningful cooperation. These communities will be initially focused on three challenges:

1. Digital innovations ‒ as increasingly important aspects both for economic development and the European labour market;
2. Sustainable innovations, especially sustainable mobility ‒ to reflect EU’s transition to a greener economy;
3. Global business services ‒ to reflect an even closer cooperation to address the diversified service needs at scale.

Two levels of engagement will be facilitated by DISCO with respect to the new HEIs: online information and preliminary mentoring; and assistance to identify bottlenecks, innovative partnerships, and facilitating implementation. All HEIs will be involved in a programme of learning exchanges and open debates.