Excellence-in-ReSTI

The aim of the Excellence-in-ReSTI project is to remove gaps in knowledge and skills in managing social and technological innovation (ReSTI) projects. The general goal is to create an environment in which interested stakeholders, in particular young project managers, as well as administrators in public and private organizations engaged in such projects within the Danube Region can find easy-to-use checklists, learning modules and advice with a specifically tailored content regarding the management of ReSTI projects.

The course provides systemic insight into institutional design of the European Union, its fundamental values, organization of the EU funding systems and the strategic priorities of the European Union, to be set by the respective strategic document, comparable to the Europe 2020 Strategy. The course shall also explain the link between the EU strategic goals and priorities, set by the strategic documents, and the EU grant/funding schemes. Understanding this link shall help participants in profiling their funding applications closer to the EU strategic priorities, thus increasing the chances for positive outcome of the application. The course shall also provide insight into the main EU funding schemes – their scope, objectives, design, application criteria and process.

This course is designed to introduce the most important EU policy goals and guidelines – their structure, the process of creation and updating of policy goals and their relation to financial instruments. You will find out how to identify possible interlinkages between everyday-life needs and EU Policies and how to apply it to your project idea.

Introduction into the different EU- funding systems and giving an overview about the various EU-Funding Programs, how they work (calls, strategy development, etc.) and what their funding aims are.

The course will introduce students to key funding opportunities available from the EU where research and innovation is a priority (i.e. Horizon2020 and ERDF). It will help students develop awareness of the EU funding eco-system and will enable them to learn about what Calls for proposals are, how to look for one, and what are the basic steps in preparing a high-quality grant application. It will additionally provide an overview of key project-relevant concepts and will help students easily distinguish the key terms in “project speak”.

The course reviews the most critical aspects of preparing a grant application in the most relevant European programmes in order to support students to manage a successful preparation and submission process. The course teaches students how to set the overall project objectives and structure the application in line with the evaluation criteria, and how to plan accordingly tasks and activities with expected milestones, deliverables and outputs.

Forming a consortium for project partnership is one of the most important tasks during the whole process. It is the integral part of ReSTI project management and a very important element in the project assessment and evaluation. Within the course, students will deal with: stakeholder analyses needed to identify possible project partners, assessing capacities of every possible consortium partner, finding appropriate partners using a different platforms and tools, intercultural communication possibilities, and conflict resolution styles. The aim of this course is to provide participants with skills and tools necessary for developing an adequate and functional ReSTI project consortium.

The course focuses on how to develop a budget without any financial risks during the project design. It provides basic insights on the different types of project costs eligible within European RDI projects, their eligibility rules and reasonable calculation methods. The course also provides practical budgetary considerations enhancing the chance of a project being funded.

Nowadays, more and more activities are proclaimed as Projects. However, very little knowledge of business activities are conducted as a Project. A Project Management is a profession that has its own rules. Lack of understanding of Project Management and violations of design rules always lead to bad results. Most often, the Project is then not finished and all financial and other contributions are more or less thrown away. In the course, students will acquire knowledge about the key Project Management factors for success: understanding the environment of a Project, its life cycle, the role of a Project Management and most used Methodologies in Project Management (PMI, IPMA, PRINCE 2).

In the course, it will be demonstrated that unlike issues, which are certain to happen, Risks are events that could occur, and you may not be able to tell when. Students will become familiar with knowledge that a Risk is any Unexpected Event that might affect the people, processes, technology, resources and results - outcomes of the project involved in a Project. Project Risk Management remains a relatively undeveloped discipline, distinct from the Risk Management used by Operational, Financial and Underwriters' Risk Management in Business. If Risk Management is set up as a continuous, disciplined process of problem identification and resolution, then the system easily supplement other systems.

A financial management process is used to ensure that the project is completed within the allocated and approved budget.  The recommended process includes cost estimating, cost budgeting, cost control, monitoring, and reporting. Application of these principles should be tailored according to the size, complexity and importance of the project. Measure project performance against key project performance scope, schedule, quality, cost and risk criteria. Identify any deviations from the plan. Assess the impact of deviations on the project and overall program, and report results to key stakeholders. Recommend, implement and monitor remedial action, when required, in line with the program and project governance framework.

The course main preoccupation is the formulation and implementation of the project’s communication and dissemination strategy in order to ensure smooth, timely, and high quality external, as well as internal communication.  It deals with the main objectives of internal and external project communication, communication activities, relevant stakeholders and target groups, methods, channels and instruments of communication and dissemination. The main outcome of the project communication planning is the Communication and Dissemination Plan which will be studied and practiced thoroughly throughout the course. Capitalization proved to be one of the main preoccupation of the EU funded programmes. During this course, students will get the insight into the main goals of DTP Capitalization Strategy, as well as the most effective examples of their achievement.

This course is designed to introduce two interconnected topics: intellectual property rights (IPRs) and the exploitation of project results. The course covers the fundamental aspects of intellectual property rights (copyright and related rights, trademarks, patents, geographical indications, and industrial designs), in both practical terms and for the protection and exploitation of your project results.

Introduction to the field of social innovation that covers areas such as defining the context for social innovation, overview of basic terminology used in research projects and characteristics and patterns of social innovation. Course introduces the student with the concept of social innovation ecosystem and sets grounds for understanding social innovation as a cross sectoral and multi-disciplinary theme.

Social innovation approaches and methodologies is a practical course built around hands-on activities aimed to increase student’s capacities to innovate and create social change. Course covers themes such as understanding the process of social innovation, understanding the problem, designing the solution and implementation strategy and evaluation. Through this course students will have the opportunity to work on their own social innovation project.

Designing and implementing social innovations is a course that examines the role of social innovation in practices that leads to long term sustainability and social impact.

In this course, participants gain an overview of the innovation models, strategies, and methods across sectors and genres. The course includes definitions and introductory materials for open, closed, and circular innovation. The innovation process is simplified in The Double Diamond approach from the UK Design Council. Methods that lead toward systemic sustainability are presented in The Circular Design Guide from the Ellen McArthur organization. A variety of other sources for leading innovation toward systemic sustainability are offered. The course provides a brief introduction to human-centered and nature-inspired innovation approaches that are then each deepened in the following innovation practice courses (5.2 and 5.3).

In this practice-oriented course, participants experience the steps through The Double Diamond innovation process to which they were introduced in course 5.1 Innovation Sandbox. They engage deeply in the human-centered innovation process, moving from contextual (user-based) research for (re-)defining a chosen problem, through creating concepts and prototypes for potential solutions. In subsequent courses (5.4 and 5.5) participants have a chance to bring their invention from this course to market and develop a business around it.

In this practice-oriented course, participants experience the steps through The Double Diamond innovation process, in form of a nature-inspired analogy-based process. Both Biomimicry approaches will be introduced: Biology to Design, and Design Challenge to Biology. In particular, participants will practice the 4 stages of Biomimicry Thinking: scoping (defining function the innovation should fulfill in the end), discovering (nature-based scientific research searching for models in nature), creating concepts and prototyping, and evaluating the proposed innovation against the sustainability benchmark of the 26 Biomimicry Life Principles. Research steps include deep scientific research into general and subject-specific sub-categories of biology and/or ecology in order to discover the strategies nature uses for surviving and thriving. Systemic sustainability is guaranteed in this innovation process through the sustainability mandate that is built into the design process. In subsequent courses (5.4 and 5.5) participants have a chance to bring their innovation to market and develop a business opportunity for their innovation.