Engagement Readiness Monitor Project

Developing a holistic approach towards measuring
and integrating university-business engagement

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Our objectives

about image

Why Engagement Readiness Monitor?

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) can enhance their meaningful contributions to their cities, regions, and nations through working together with small and medium sized entreprises (SMEs). However, we still lack depth and understanding of the means and factors that enable external engagement.

Undoubtedly, measurement of university engagement occurs; however, it invariably focusses on quantitative outcome metrics such as patents, license, spin-out and research contracts, ignoring many valid forms of engagement and the mechanisms that need to be in place for it to occur.

Erasmus+ funded project “Engagement Readiness Monitor” is on the mission to answer the aforementioned question advance the engagement between universities and businesses by developing tools to measure and scale their socially impactful cooperation.

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Engagement Readiness Monitor Intellectual Outputs

Engagement Readiness Investigation Report

 

Resources

Engagement Readiness Self-Assessment Framework

 

Resources

Engagement Readiness
Toolkit

 

Resources

Interested in participating in the project or want to learn

more about Engagement Readiness Monitor Project?

Get in touch with us! We are always happy to hear from you

Blog

CONNECTED Magazine

As part of the final output of the Engagement Readiness Monitor project, we are excited to announce the launch of a special issue of the UIIN magazine – Connect. It  is now out and available online, get reading here. Universities’ role in society has come to the fore in recent years and it is becoming difficul

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How to measure your higher education institution’s engagement readiness?

Within the Engagement Readiness Monitor project our consortium comprising of five European countries’ representatives has developed a self-assessment tool, a toolkit of six key dimensions of engagement readiness and a total of 150 single tools, as well as a process of receiving recommendations for the use of those to

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Fostering entrepreneurship inside universities through ‘interstitial spaces’

To successfully be engaged, it is important for universities to go beyond the traditional idea of research and education as their sole missions. Often, universities see these two missions as something separated by the so-called Third Mission, encompassing those activities through which universities generate impact (eco

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Green mountains.

University-territory engagement

Engagement is crucial for universities, especially when it comes to interactions with the local territory. A university does not lie in an empty space. There is a mutual relationship between the territory and the university. One shapes the other and vice versa, modelling ecosystem’s relationships. Yet, Lambert&#

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Blue-green starry sky.

Asset Mapping for Engagement Readiness

Asset mapping is the process of identifying, documenting and systematizing the existing resources, strengths, and benefits of an entity, such as an organization or a community, to incorporate them into the decision making and development work (Baird, n.d.; What is Asset Mapping?, 2004; Shahid, Vaska & Turin 2019).

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Why universities should care about their KTO employees’ motivation

Why KTO employees’ motivation is crucial The Engagement Readiness Project aims to improve universities’ readiness to collaborate with businesses. As highlighted in the Engagement Readiness Investigation Report (2021), Knowledge Transfer Offices (KTO) can play a key role in promoting university-industry collabora

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Liquid with shades of green.

Universities as drivers of the new social change

The past two years have exemplified the new social change facing societies at large. The apparent transformations in the climate, the growth of technologies and sciences, increasing urbanization, globalization and increased mobility have met the global pandemic and now even a global security threat. These developments,

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Underwater bubbles.

Key organisational resources

This blog post is part of a series exploring the factors within four key themes that contribute to university readiness for engagement, as identified by the Engagement Readiness Investigation Report. While, as has been demonstrated by this blog series, an HEI’s strategic orientation towards deep engagement with indus

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Green plants with thick leaves.

Collaboration embedded into research and educational pedagogies

This blog post is part of a series exploring the factors within four key themes that contribute to university readiness for engagement, as identified by the Engagement Readiness Investigation Report. Already available in this series, you can read about the importance of an ecosystem approach, and a collaborative organi

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Overlapping blocks in different shades of green.

Open, Adaptive and Collaborative Organisational Culture

This blog post is part of a series exploring the factors within four key themes that contribute to university readiness for engagement, as identified by the Engagement Readiness Investigation Report. Also in the series, you will hear about the importance of the ecosystem approach to engagement, research and educational

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The Ecosystem Approach

This blog post is the first of a series exploring the factors within four key themes that contribute to university readiness for engagement, as identified by the Engagement Readiness Investigation Report. Also in the series, you will hear about the importance of a collaborative organisational culture, research and educ

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A green plant with thick symmetrical leaves.

Voices from Experts: Christian Lechner

In conversation with Engagement Readiness Monitor partners, Christian Lechner offered his insights on university-business cooperation and contributed his valuable knowledge on the topic. Christian Lechner is Professor of Entrepreneurship at LUISS’ Department of Business and

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Voices from Experts: Antero Kivelä

The blog writer has classified management in three different systemic elements; economic, human capital and marketing management. At the end, the blog writer interpretates the dilemma of the management as a key. In Finland, the Universities of Applied Sciences have important law-stated role in regional develop

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Aloe plant.

Voices from Experts: Silvia Vecchi

In conversation with Engagement Readiness Monitor partners, Silvia Vecchi offered her insights on university-business collaboration readiness and contributed her valuable knowledge on the topic. Silvia Vecchi is the University-Business Collaboration Office head

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A spiraling staircase in blue color.

Voices from Experts: Věra Šťastná

In conversation with Engagement Readiness Monitor partners, Vera St’astna offered her insights on “engagement readiness” and contributed her valuable experience on the topic. RNDr. Věra Šťastná heads the Department of Analyses and Strategies at the Rectorate of Ch

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Six people on a boat in clear waters. Birdview.

Voices from Experts: Jan Axelsson

Through engaging with external partners, HEIs can increase their meaningful contributions to their cities, regions, and nations. However, we still lack depth and understanding of the means and factors that enable external engagement. During the first half of 2021, the Engagement Readiness Monitor Project partn

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Aurora borealis, snow and pine trees.

Three Characteristics of the Finnish National Profile Defining Engagement Readiness

Engagement is a complex process that, despite the effort for clear definition and categorization of activities (Galán-Muros & Davey 2019; Jääskö et al 2018), cannot be perfectly unified. Even within united Europe, the structures of society, industry and higher education vary from country to country, and as main

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Terraces with greenery.

The Human Factor in Higher Education Institutions’ Engagement

As we conducted the expert interviews for the Engagement Readiness Monitor project, we got a wide range of opinions, experiences, and visions of HEI’s engagement, UBC interaction and readiness. However, there was one aspect that all interviewees recognized as crucially important – the human factor. As stated in th

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A frozen bubble.

Measuring the Engagement of Higher Education Institutions in Finland

A number of expert interviews were conducted in the spring of 2021 as a part of the Engagement Readiness Monitor project. With their help we revealed the important role of engagement for every single higher education institution and its surrounding stakeholder organizations. Engagement is to some extent a natural part

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Collaboration readiness for innovation in single organisations

Earlier blog posts discussed the why and how of university-business cooperation, technology readiness measuring tools, and the knowledge and technology transfer process. This blog post is a summary of the desktop review conducted by UIIN and examines the concept of ‘readiness’ with the focus on innovation from the

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A canyon view of the night sky.

The knowledge and technology transfer process

Within the IO1 – Engagement Readiness Investigation Report, CU has primarily performed Desktop research focused on describing the knowledge and technology transfer process as means for informing the readiness concept including 1) what is knowledge transfer (KT) and technology transfer (TT), 2) what are the proces

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Stary night sky in blue and green.

Technology Readiness Measuring Tools and Their Potential for Measuring Engagement Readiness

Technology readiness in literature is discussed from two different standpoints. Firstly, it could mean the readiness of individuals to adopt new, cutting-edge technology in their work or other everyday life activity. The Technology Readiness Index, developed by Parasuraman and Colby, is a psychometric scale often us

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Seawaves on the shore. Blue-green colors.

The Why and How of University-Business Cooperation

The university is not an institution that could live alone in society, separated from the other actors. Universities generate impact, and at the same time are influenced by the public and private sectors, at both local level and national-international one. The awareness about this mutual relationship has been growing o

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Paris landscape as a background. Text: Meet Institut Mines-Telecom Business School.

Partner Introductions – IMTBS

Institut Mines-Télécom Business School (IMTBS) is one of 13 graduate schools in the Institut Mines- Télécom, one of France’s major educational and research establishments. In addition to IMTBS, the Institute groups many of the country’s key engineering schools and plays a central role in developing both ground-

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Bologna landscape as a background. Text: Meet University of Bologna.

Partner Introductions – UNIBO

University of Bologna: Dedicated to entrepreneurship and UBC  The Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, founded in 1088, is the oldest university in Western Europe. Nowadays, we still remain one of the most important higher education institutions across Europe and a leading research institution, well known for

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Prague landscape as a background. Text: Meet Charles University.

Partner Introductions – CU

CU: University-Business cooperation Charles University – CU is the biggest university in the Czech Republic and is a leading academic institution in the Central European region. Being a renowned academic HEI, we also contribute to the solution of urgent social problems and supports the practical application of the o

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Jyväskylä landscape as a background. Text: Meet JAMK University of Applied Sciences.

Partner Introductions – JAMK

JAMK University of Applied Sciences: forerunner in sustainable entrepreneurship JAMK University of Applied Sciences is a next generation university that lies on experimentation, innovation, collaboration and proactive mindset. JAMK consists of 8500 students from over 70 countries, and 700 staff members in four campuse

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Amsterdam landscape as a background. Text: Meet UIIN.

Partner Introduction – UIIN

Advancing the future of university-industry engagement UIIN is an international leader on university-industry engagement, entrepreneurial & engaged universities and knowledge transfer. We are dedicated to advancing the future of higher education institutions and supporting our global community of university-indust

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Welcome to Engagement Readiness Monitor Project!

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have an enormous potential to better contribute to their cities, regions, and nations through calling upon the society, government and businesses to work together. This can be done through developing future talent to power out economies, supporting employees’ career development an

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