Shaping the European Research Arena
Science2Society project creates pilots and shares good practices, guidelines and training materials that improve awareness and practical performance in seven concrete university-industry-society interfacing schemes especially affected by Science 2.0 and open innovation. The project advances far beyond the traditional role of the interface as a facilitator of knowledge transfer from university to business.
Sound methodological frameworks are combined with 'real life' experience from practitioners in science and industry, making the transition from promising blueprints to actual change within some 3000 actors in Europe by 2020.
Backed with a total budget of € 2.85M (2016-18), Science2Society does not only collect knowledge and models; it deeply and innovatively analyses how these can be improved using advanced methods pioneered in business practice such as process re-engineering, design thinking and change management. The project runs substantial experiments to validate the created optimized interfacing schemes.
Outrun innovation systems outside Europe
More specific objectives include compiling an easily accessible knowledge database of university / industry / society interface schemes suitable for today’s more open environment; the creation of a clear and proven set of guidelines and tools; and developing a sustainable learning programme for continued replication of the best schemes. This last objective will have a critical mass of over 1000 European stakeholders and therefore will have a substantial impact throughout Europe.
