TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY - SOFIA
Technical University-Sofia is the leading HEI in the the field of technical sciences in Republic of Bulgaria. The studies at TU- Sofia are organized in 17 faculties; 2 faculties are located in the Plovdiv Branch and 1 faculty is located in Sliven. Technical University - Sofia is a unique institution in Bulgaria with its 3 foreign language faculties in German, English and French. TU-Sofia has experience in developing and implementing joint curricula with leading universities from Germany, Austria, France and plans to expand its partnership with countries outside the European Union. The University foster introduction of degree courses, providing knowledge of cross-sectional abilities. New course units taught in English at Bachelor and Master level have been introduced. The emerging course units have been integrated in the faculties’ curricula and run parallel to those of the foreign language faculties.
Statistics:
Number of students: 15 000.
Number of Ph.D. students: 500.
Number of academic staff: 1000:
Erasmus partnership: since 1999-2000 academic year.
Graduates of bachelors and masters are prominent professionals with a diploma and qualifications recognized on the labor market in the country and abroad.
TUS internationalization strategy, which is integrated into the Strategic Development Plan of a University adopted by the Academic Council in 2014.
(https://tu-sofia.bg/kcfinder/upload/files/Strategy_TU_2014-2020.pdf), set the main priorities and vision for improving the scientific and educational potential, improving the results of international cooperation and actively expanding the geographic regions of the partners.
Priority activity in the internationalization strategy of TU-Sofia is the international cooperation with universities from the European Union and other regions of the world. The University is among the first in the Republic of Bulgaria to have joined the Erasmus as yearly as 1999-2000 academic year.
For a 17-year period of participation in the Erasmus program, over 3,000 participants have been registered and more than 5 million have been used. Erasmus+ ICM is rapidly expanding. For the period 2015 – 2017 academic year 5 projects with 16 non EU countries have been awarded. The implementation count more than EUR 200 000.
SEERC is an overseas research centre of the University of Sheffield, established as a non-profit legal entity in Thessaloniki, Greece. The centre was founded by City College, the University's International Faculty, in 2004. It is conducting multidisciplinary research in the fields of Enterprise, Innovation & Development, Information & Communication Technologies, and Society & Human Development. Though its “Information and Communication Technologies” research track, SEERC is focusing on bringing together academic research and business fostering research and innovation at the local and regional levels. Being part of the University of Sheffield, provides high quality experience and skills in innovative learning and teaching methods with strong expertise in Computer Science, Information Technologies, Innovation management and a strong know how regarding effective curriculum design. Related projects include:
ICT2B: Bridging the Entrepreneurial Gap: Transforming European ICT research into Investment Opportunities (Funding: FP7/ ICT).
PRESS: Promoting Environmentally Sustainable SMEs. (Funding: LLP/ERASMUS)
STARTIFY7: A Team-building, thematically –focused and lean-training Summer Academy system for young future ICT Entrepreneurs. (Funding HORIZON 2020/LEIT ICT)
NetMIB: Network of multidisciplinary ideation and business model generation. (Funded by Erasmus+, Strategic Partnership program).
OrganiK: An organic knowledge management system for small European knowledge-intensive companies (funded by 7th Framework Programme - Research for the Benefit of SMEs).
SUMMIT II: Business Incubation Management Training Institute II (funded by Leonardo da Vinci Programme).
SEERC is an overseas research centre of the University of Sheffield, established as a non-profit legal entity in Thessaloniki, Greece. The centre was founded by City College, the University's International Faculty, in 2004. It is conducting multidisciplinary research in the fields of Enterprise, Innovation & Development, Information & Communication Technologies, and Society & Human Development. Though its “Information and Communication Technologies” research track, SEERC is focusing on bringing together academic research and business fostering research and innovation at the local and regional levels. Being part of the University of Sheffield, provides high quality experience and skills in innovative learning and teaching methods with strong expertise in Computer Science, Information Technologies, Innovation management and a strong know how regarding effective curriculum design. Related projects include:
ICT2B: Bridging the Entrepreneurial Gap: Transforming European ICT research into Investment Opportunities (Funding: FP7/ ICT).
PRESS: Promoting Environmentally Sustainable SMEs. (Funding: LLP/ERASMUS)
STARTIFY7: A Team-building, thematically –focused and lean-training Summer Academy system for young future ICT Entrepreneurs. (Funding HORIZON 2020/LEIT ICT)
NetMIB: Network of multidisciplinary ideation and business model generation. (Funded by Erasmus+, Strategic Partnership program).
OrganiK: An organic knowledge management system for small European knowledge-intensive companies (funded by 7th Framework Programme - Research for the Benefit of SMEs).
Alexander Innovation Zone (AIZ) is the managing body that has undertaken to organize and promote the Thessaloniki Innovation Zone. (Design, organization, implementation, management, operation, exploitation and evaluation of programs, action and projects fostering Thessaloniki’s Innovation Ecosystem). One of the major scopes of Alexander Innovation Zone is to bring together research activities of the local research infrastructure in order to meet the specific needs of local industry in terms of new product and new business development focusing on developing local competitive advantages.
The Alexander Innovation Zone is committed to boosting innovative entrepreneurial development at all levels. Recognizing that the local ecosystem is still in a formative stage, the OKThess program makes a significant contribution to progressive economic change by providing a format to link triple helix stakeholders to new entrepreneurs who can benefit from their knowledge and experience. The guidance and information exchange fostered by an Acceleration program can be valuable to all who participate – both teams and experts – and a key factor in economic (re)generation.
University of Western Macedonia founded on 2003 under the Greek Authorities, with a decision of Greek Government at 11/04/2003 (P.D. 92/2003, G.G. 83/A/11-04-2003). University of Western Macedonia consists by three departments in the city of Florina and three departments in the city of Kozani. The internationally research oriented University of Western Macedonia (UOWM) is a socially committed institution with 6 Departments, Postgraduate Programs and PHD Programs, a highly qualified academic staff, extensive international links in both research and exchange programs and a vibrant student community. Novel practices deliver academic and administrative decentralization enhancing the sense of unity within the academic community. Fostering fully incorporation of ICT in every day practice, the UOWM invests in innovative educational programs and multidisciplinary fields of research that correspond to the needs of the modern world. Till now, UOWM has managed more than 150 projects (both, National and European). The official website of University of Western Macedonia at the following web address www.uowm.gr.
The University of Cyprus (UCY) largest University and main research organisation in Cyprus. LINC, Laboratory for Internet Computing (linc.ucy.ac.cy) - Department of Computer Science (www.cs.ucy.ac.cy)- has extensive experience in network-centric computing and software for large-scale distributed systems: Cloud, Grid, Peer-to-Peer and Vehicular Computing; Content Distribution Networks, Information Retrieval, Semantic Web and Web 2.0 technologies.
The Department is in a modern building with 3000 m2 of office and laboratory spaces. LINC has over 10 years experience in operating production-quality e-Infrastructure facilities (Grids and Clouds). Infrastructure: dedicated clusters(Linux and Openstack), >350 cores; >80 TB of storage.
University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (ULSIT) is a state university. The social mission of ULSIT is to prepare highly qualified, socially responsible personally motivated and adaptive to the labour market specialists. ULSIT has the strategic aim for sustainable development as a leading higher school with a significant scientific, technological and innovative potential. ULSIT has the ambition to continue the implementation of the so called Third Mission of the universities – to work on projects with national and regional significance, including projects linked to the National Strategy for Research Development 2020, the Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialisation of the Republic of Bulgaria (2014-2020), etc. The University has gained educational, scientific, technology and innovation capacity, able to get actively involved in the European Research and Innovation Area by implementing projects under Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+ Programmes, as well as in other international projects, programmes and initiatiives e.g. those financed by UNESCO and World bank funds. ULSIT has partnerships with many European research and educational centres and high technological companies especially in the field of Internet technologies, cultural and creative industries, education technologies, etc. ULSIT is member of the Balkan Universities Network.
ULSIT provides professional education and training and has joined the Programme for Lifelong Learning. ULSIT has already implemented the ECTS in all courses and is cooperated with more than 15 foreign universities. ULSIT has participated in a lot of national and international scientific, education and innovation projects. It has at a disposal well developed scientific, education, technological and innovative infrastructure. Eight functional centres and laboratories were established at ULSIT: Computer Laboratory “John Atanassov”, Oracle Laboratory, Research laboratory for Cyber Security, Centre for Carrier Orientation and Development, Centre for Continuing Education, Centre for Information Security and Protection. The ULSIT’s students carry out summer study practices and probations in companies.
ULSIT is involved in more than 30 projects funded by EC, National Science Fund and Structural Funds. ULSIT is in process of joining also the Global Students Laboratory (GlobalLab) Initiative supporting exploratory learning: GlobalLab is a unique, web-based, educational platform that enables students, teachers, and learners of all ages to pose questions and together find answers.
ULSIT has two faculties: Faculty of Information Sciences and Faculty of Library Studies and Cultural Heritage. The University is accredited by the National Agency for Evaluation and Accreditation. It offers 7 Bachelor programmes and 26 Master’s programmes, as well as a number of Doctoral programmes. The main research areas of the doctoral studies fit very well to the priority areas of SSEE-CITY, such as: Information Security, Automated Systems for Information Processing and Management, Information Technologies, Future Internet Technologies and Applications, Software Engineering, Electronic Business and Electronic Government, Technology Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Information Technologies and Financial Engineering, Information Technologies and Law, Digital Archives and Electronic Learning, etc. The main university units which will be involved in the area of Internet and Innovation are Department of Computer Science and Department of Cultural-Historical Heritage.
There are three research and innovation institutes associated to ULSIT: Institute for Research and Doctoral Education, Institute for Research in the Field of Organisation, Management and Preservation of Cultural Heritage and Institute of Leadership in an Information Environment. The UNESCO Chair on ICT in Library Studies, Education and Cultural Heritage was established as an interfaculty chair of ULSIT (Centre of Excellence), member of the UNESCO Chairs/UNITWIN Network. The main activities of the Chair are related to development of educational and training programs in the field of ICT in Library Studies, Education and Cultural Heritage for citizens. It supports innovations and technology transfer to governmental, nongovernmental and industrial bodies. The Chair contributes to a number of global initiatives, such as: development of Academic Across Borders Initiative of UNESCO; development of the virtual community for best practices exchange between UNESCO Chairs/UNITWIN, strengthening North-South cooperation in higher education and research. In addition, the Chair works for strengthen some existing networks of partners at regional level and plays the role of a Centre of Excellence and innovation zone in the specified areas. The members of the UNESCO Chair are active members of EDUsummIT - a global community of researchers, policy-makers and educators committed to supporting the effective integration of IT in education.
Startup Cyprus is the Cyprus startup ecosystem legal entity that culminates the ecosystem’s efforts to realize the pledge made by the Cyprus startup community, by people that believe in the creative and disruptive power of startups and innovation, to startup Cyprus. It has been active for over 4 years as a pledge amongst the community and founded as a legal entity in February 2016 by 13 pioneering startup founders and ecosystem heavyweights. Being naturally startup minded, the startup and innovation ecosystem of Cyprus, believes we should not let a good crisis go to waste. The challenges our economy is facing, are an opportunity for reform for growth to materialize our vision to Startup Cyprus. Thus, the startup and innovation ecosystem of Cyprus has come together, united in its efforts to support the vision to Startup Cyprus.
Startup Cyprus represents a community numbering over 2.900 startupers. It took a central role in policy advocacy by authoring the national Cyprus Startup Manifesto (http://startupcyprus.org) The startups, innovative enterprises, startup entrepreneurs and the startup ecosystem of Cyprus, came together under the umbrella of Startup Cyprus and articulated the parameters, changes, and ingredients needed to startup Cyprus in a comprehensive document with 10 Recommendations and 29 Actions Points to startup Cyprus. In 2016. 33% of the Manifesto actions were initiated and implemented. Relevant article on Implementing Change: Cyprus Startup Manifesto 2016 Implementation https://medium.com/@Stavriana_K/implementing-change-8b96cb0ae772#.ot0jcn1sl)
Further, we gathered the support and pledge to implement the Manifesto of important ministers and organizations, such as the Minister of Finance, Minister of Energy, Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Minister of Education and Culture, Minister of Transport and Communications , Undersecretary to the President (in charge of reform), the Cyprus Digital Champion, the President of Democratic Rally, the ruling party in Cyprus, Invest Cyprus (CIPA), the Research Promotion Foundation, the Cyprus Association of Research and Innovation Enterprises and numerous innovative organizations, technology and telecom corporations and important organizations and associations.
Our efforts led to the Republic of Cyprus actively adopting the recommendations of the Cyprus Startup Manifesto drafted by Startup Cyprus in the National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship. The National Policy was ratified by the Council of Ministers in December 2015 and is now the comprehensive action plan aimed to enhance the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Over 77% of Priority actions have been initiated in 2016.
Startup Cyprus is a member of the National Policy Statement on Entrepreneurship Implementation Watchdog Committee. Moreover, the Cyprus National Coordinator of the European Startup Manifesto is a Startup Cyprus representative, one of the Startup Cyprus Co-founders, Ms. Stavriana Kofteros.
In addition, Startup Cyprus is one of the founding members of the European Startup Network (http://europeanstartups.org/), comprised of national startup associations. The main goal of the European Startup Network is to harmonize the European startup ecosystems with respect to the legal environment, market access and entrepreneurial culture within each country. It is also a member of Allied For Startups (http://alliedforstartups.org/), GEN Cyprus (http://genglobal.org/) and member of the eSkills National Coalition in Cyprus.
Further, one of the cofounders of Startup Cyprus is the Founder of Student Life that runs the very successful startup StudentLife that organizes the StudentLife Academy. StudentLife will be involved directly in the project as a third party.
In Startup Cyprus we believe that the Cyprus innovation and startup ecosystem must cultivate the necessary culture and skills and provide the appropriate tools to encourage the creation of startups, spinoffs and spinout companies. This can be done by implementing certain important actions to ensure the development, sustainability and growth of innovative startup companies. These actions include developing new skills and competences, cultivating entrepreneurship culture, mentoring and supporting new entrepreneurs, and supporting outreach activities among others.
General Requirements | Business Requirements |
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The major priority of ARRANGE-ICT is to enhance the quality and relevance of students' knowledge and skills. |
The users enrolled with academia role has the capability to browse recently job posts in the platform, study the outputs of the smart core engine and eventually reform the existing education programs or create new education programs. |
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Identify urgent technological challenges and needs of high-qualified personnel and highlight emerging, cutting-edge technologies as pinpointed by market innovators. |
The smart job hub is able to identify the trends regarding the skills that are required from the job market. When an employer posts a job, it is prerequisite to define both the skills that are required for the job opening and the technologies that are used from the company. Thus, the academia would identify easily the urgent technological challenges that are created through a simple browsing and would be easier to adopt these technologies in the updated curricula. |
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Train high-qualified students in ICT specific topics based on the skills required in labour market. |
The smart job hub would stress the skill gap and would inspire academia to update the existing curricula. The users who have been enrolled as academia would have the capability to create education programs, based on the skills that have been identified that are required from the demand of the market and the technologies that are used in the companies that are engaged in the platform. Apart from the education programs, the users registered as academia or employer have the capability to create events, such as workshops or hackathons, where the students would be trained ins specific skills. Eventually, the users registered as graduates (or job-seekers) apart from searching for a job, would have the ability to search for trainings and educations programs. |
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Promote open links between Universities and industry. |
The platform allows the co-creation of education programs between academia and industry. The creation of events, education programs, thesis and dissertations in the platform could be approved from different companies and enhance the links between HEIs and industry. Apart from simple approval of education programs, companies could co-create education programs, such as MSc or co-supervise bachelor and master thesis. |
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O2 Description |
Business Requirements |
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The smart core engine for skill gaps identification and foresight will be defined and its interconnection with popular job recruitment portals will be realized. |
The algorithm that would be executed in the backend would identify the skills gap between the skills that are demanding from the industry and the skills that are offered from the academia. The users would have the capability to register to the platform with their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles and would also have the capability to share the job posts and education programs they want. |
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The Smart Job Hub will support different types of stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, start-ups, large industries, academics, students, post –graduates. |
The platform would have three main roles (job-seekers, industry, academia) and each one of these roles would have different permission to the platform. The roles are general, but each user can adjust her/his profile in order to express better her/his goals and objectives. The roles are intentionally abstract, as each user
can modify her/his profile, thus the graduate can become a job-seeker and
simply by changing tabs can search for MSc or search for a collaboration for
co-supervised thesis between academia and industry. |