EC2U ELEVATE
Entrepreneurship Learning, Education & Value-Creation Across Technologies and Ecosystems
EC2U ELEVATE strengthens entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer, and venture creation across the EC2U alliance by connecting city-university ecosystems, EIT-labelled learning pathways, SME challenges, and venture support under Topic 2.
Selected under Topic 2: EIT-HEI-2025-BUILDING-SYNERGIES, EC2U ELEVATE supports the European Campus of City-Universities Alliance in building a more integrated innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem. The project focuses on strengthening the third and fourth missions of participating universities by improving knowledge transfer, entrepreneurship education, venture creation, and regional ecosystem engagement.
The project will build entrepreneurship awareness across a broad student and staff community through a scalable short course, an enhanced EC2U Entrepreneurial Week, and practical tools for entrepreneurship capacitation. These activities will be aligned with recognised competence frameworks and, where relevant, EIT Label pathways, helping learners develop innovation, entrepreneurship, IP, and value-creation skills across disciplines.
EC2U ELEVATE also strengthens the practical route from ideas and research results to market-facing opportunities. It will support TTO/KTO capacity building, female-led R&D valorisation through ignition grants, a mission-oriented SME and societal challenge portfolio, venture mentoring, virtual incubation, soft-landing support, and international synergy hubs. By connecting EC2U’s city-university model with EIT Culture & Creativity, EIT Urban Mobility, and EIT Health, the project aims to create a transferable alliance-level model for entrepreneurship, regional innovation, and long-term cooperation with the EIT ecosystem
Partners on this project
University of Coimbra (Lead Partner)
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi
Friedrich Schiller University Jena
IPN - Instituto Pedro Nunes
Johannes Kepler University Linz
OXENTIA LTD
Umeå universitet (Umeå university)
University of Pavia
University of Salamanca
UNIVERSITY OF TURKU
UNIVERSITÉ DE POITIERS
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