EUAcceL is an initiative of several higher education institutions (HEIs), their incubators, a research and development centre, start-ups, and established industry partners. It aims to accelerate innovation in Europe through open innovation, co-creation, and start-up development. EUAcceL’s vision is to create an international innovation ecosystem in Europe with all knowledge triangle actors involved. The goal is to foster innovation and start-up development with speed and quality, implement synergies with other innovation network initiatives, and create a leading European programme for entrepreneurship and innovation.

EUAcceL has three core pillars: an open entrepreneurship and co-creation framework, a scalability and sustainability plan, and an impact assessment framework.

EUAcceL sets a new paradigm that leverages entrepreneurial talents and start-ups, existing formats, and an infrastructure of a growing number of entrepreneurial HEIs and EIT Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs). EUAcceL’s objectives are as follows:

• integrate and assess impact in entrepreneurship education, start-up development, and co-creation;
• internationalise and collaborate within entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial structures, including regional innovation ecosystems, to scout talents, start-up teams, and start-up ideas;
• implement an open entrepreneurship and co-creation framework to help HEIs and ecosystem actors to iterate innovation activities, and foster innovation and start-up development with speed and quality;
• digitalise the open entrepreneurship and co-creation framework through virtual formats of entrepreneurship education and digital platforms for matching and co-creation;
• develop new business models to ensure funding opportunities for international start-ups, and continuation and growth of the initiative;
• scale the EUAcceL initiative with new HEIs, innovation ecosystem actors, and content to address additional EIT KICs;
• implement the scalability and sustainability plan of EUAcceL, and transform to a new Open Entrepreneurship Alliance entity.

Implementing EUAcceL’s core initiative pillars and objectives will support entrepreneurial HEIs in internationalising and strengthening their entrepreneurship education and start-up development formats. Furthermore, EUAcceL will co-create a digital ecosystem to bring continuous innovation opportunities to key targets and ecosystem stakeholders.

By 2023, EUAcceL will reach 15 universities in Europe, educate 900 students, support and train 120 professors and incubator consultants, develop 60 new start-ups, onboard 20 companies, and bring over 2,500 innovation ecosystem actors to the initiative.

By 2030, EUAcceL will become the leading holistic programme that unites entrepreneurial universities, research and development centres, industry partners, and a new generation of start-ups, and will change the innovation landscape in Europe and beyond.

Project coordinator

 Pavlina Vujovic, Head of Internationalization for Entrepreneurship, HM Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences (contact)

Project website

startforfuture.eu