Project Description

Entrepreneurship is recognized nowadays as the driving force of a market economy and technology-driven entrepreneurship tends to become a standard for early-stage businesses in Europe and worldwide. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) holds a major part of any business nowadays and it is either the major factor or a major one in any technology driven business enterprise. The project addresses the development in Romania of education for Information and Communications Technology Entrepreneurship (ICTE), aiming to increase the development of new businesses, based on innovation and new technologies.

The objectives of this project will enhance the human capital and the entrepreneurship initiatives. The primary targets are the master programs (curricula, students and academic staff) which train students in the domain Management and Engineering and in the domain of Computer Science. Increasing the quality and quantity of Romanian information-technology driven business initiatives focusses directly the first two priority sectors of the EEA grants: Innovation, Research, Education and Competitiveness, as well as Social Inclusion, Youth Employment and Poverty Reduction. The Romanian students will benefit from mobilities in the partner University and the development of teachers is aimed by direct involvement between the professors from both parties and the direct implication of students. Former students which created successful start-ups will participate from the world of work in the creation of case-studies and of the lecture materials as evaluators. There is a clear recognition of the need for the uplifting the role universities in the Romanian entrepreneurial ecosystem and the project aims directly this target.

Project Objectives and Activities

The project integrates well in the efforts to increase the economic, educational and research capabilities of Romania through a cooperation project in higher education, targeted towards the education in Information Technology Entrepreneurship. The objectives of the project, together with the activities which will permit their achievement are presented in the following. The activities, shown also in the timeline of activities, belong to the classes of management and implementation activities (A), intellectual outputs/activities (O), multiplier events (E) and learning/ teaching/ training activities (C).

Objective 1. Develop the ICTE domain at UPB. The activities which will target the objective are:

  • O1. Develop the curriculum, including teaching materials for the “Information and Communications Technology Entrepreneurship” discipline to be included in the curricula of FILS, to be included in the Engineering and management master programs BAE, GIVE and NGELI
  • O2. Develop the curriculum, including teaching materials for the “Information and Communications Technology based Innovation”, to be included in the Computer science master programs SE and MITSC. For the O2 objective, which exists as a discipline at OUC, on the website of the project will be organized an initial online training of trainers initiative.
  • O3. Prepare materials for the Entrepreneurship HUB at FILS. They will include case studies and business models in ICTE. Former students will participate at the creation and at the assessment of the materials. Practical results from the ended projects will be included. This represents a lifelong learning strategy, reinforcing the link between higher education and the working force.
  • O4. Prepare web portal with learning materials, included in the website of the project. Include also success stories.
  • E1. Multiplier Event - Presentation of the project at the partner institution, Østfold University College
  • E2. Multiplier Event - Completion symposium for the project, organized at the applicant institution

Objective2. Strengthen the relationships between the Department of Engineering in Foreign Languages from FILS and the Faculty of Computer Science Department from OUC, taking advantage of the Norway part excellence in ICT based innovation. The activities to target this objective are:

  • C2. Training Romanian academic staff at the partner university. Three persons from FILS will spend 5 days each at Østfold in order to learn from the experience and the organization of Norway partners.
  • O5. Create jointly research papers in ICT and look for ideas that can be transformed in practice. There will be proposed jointly at least 5 joint papers to prestigious journals or conferences.

Objective 3. Prepare the Romanian students in an established and competitive environment. The activities to target this objective are:

  • A1. At the first project management meeting in Romania, start the procedures for an Erasmus+ agreement between UPB and OUC. This will greatly influence the results of cooperation between the partners beyond the lifetime of the project.
  • C1. Three short lectures given by the Norway partners in the period of Project meeting A1 and the starting symposium of the project in hot ICT domains. It will show to the Romanian students the level of science in Europe and it will serve for advertising purposes.
  • C3. Short term mobility of master students or undergraduate students in Norway, for the subjects which are given in English at UOC or for Research 1-4 subjects from the master students. There will be 8 mobilities of 30 days each.
  • O4. Constant training using the web portal
  • O5. Involve the students to create jointly research papers in ICT and look for ideas that can be transformed in practice. From the joint research papers to be proposed, at least 3 will have master students as co-authors.

Project Impact

The envisaged impact on Romanian economy will be an increased number of start-ups based on technology and ICT, while the impact on the education system will be a rightful change to a domain that is currently spectacular for the economy, technology and science. As a result, the scientific contribution will increase, together with the interest of applying big or small discoveries to practice. At a larger scale, the increased importance rendered to entrepreneurship will create jobs and the conditions for a prosperous society.