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Universities are increasingly recognized as being drivers of the economic and social infrastructure in their region. There is growing awareness on how universities can contribute to regional innovation through collaboration with business, local and regional governments and other local actors.The Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs, as well as the Modernisation agenda for Universities, has focused attention on the need to strengthen the ‘knowledge triangle’ of research, innovation and education. The recently announced EU 2020 Strategy by the European Commission highlights regional development and reinforces the focus on the need for innovation: “Knowledge is the engine for sustainable growth. In a fast-changing world, what makes the difference is education and research, innovation and creativity”.
The EU-DRIVERS project seeks to:
- create a regional innovation virtual community for exchanging good practices among all stakeholders
- find solutions for improved regional cooperation between universities, public authorities (local/regional government) and business or community organizations
- disseminate cutting-edge information on good practices for effective regional partnerships.
EU-DRIVERS will produce:
- A central place for information (literature, examples, etc.)
- New models for strategic partnerships
- Annual reports on regional innovation issues with case studies and concrete examples of implementation of the knowledge triangle at the discipline level
- Annual conferences for exchange of good practices and networking
This will be achieved through:
- A Regional Innovation Virtual Community - A Community of Practice
- Pilot Regional Innovation Partnership Projects – Universities, public authorities (local/regional government) and business or community organizations.
- Four Two-day leadership workshops
- Three Annual Reports on the latest knowledge on regional innovation issues, based on desk research, relevant literature review and example of good practices.
The Flagship initiative “Innovation Union” also stresses the need for an integrated approach between EU, national and regional policies for strategic and focused innovation.
This one-day EU-Drivers conference will review the policy context. It will debate how European regions can be most effective in leading the necessary changes, building on universities as the driving force in their process to collaborate closely with the private sector and regional government. It will also raise provide information on funding opportunities available under the new EU programming from 2013.
The conference is by invitation only for senior university leaders and CEOs of large companies, SMEs and representatives of regional authorities to engage a high level dialogue on new directions for regional innovation, with senior representatives from the European Commission.
Other Publications
National Innovation and the Academic Research Enterprise
Public Policy in Global Perspective, David D. Dill and Frans A. van Vught (Ed.)
Job opportunities
New! Post-Doc Position in Urban and Regional Planning - University of Aveiro - for more info click here
The University of Aveiro is looking for interested researchers for potential work opportunities in 2012 (for Portuguese speakers), in a number of basic and applied research projects.
For more information click here (in Portuguese only)

EU-DRIVERS second annual conference
Second Annual Conference, Brussels, 1st December 2011
Click here to access the PowerPoint Presentations, final programme and background report