Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have the potential to shape the future of the world. Supporting that belief, UIIN empowers and enables HEIs to align with the outside world and co-create solutions. Supporting a community of HEIs to become transformative drivers of change, UIIN works actively towards a world in which academia effectively collaborates with all stakeholders in our society to address global challenges and create a positive impact.
UIIN advances the field by providing evidence-based tools, skills and resources for HEIs to realise their full potential. Through its in-house research activities, conducted with and for its global community, UIIN increases its knowledge base and shares those insights with its members and network through regular events and publications. Building on research findings, UIIN enables ambitious organisations to boost their innovation and improve their external engagement and collaboration processes through a number of training programmes and facilitated institutional change initiatives, including UIIN’s consulting services and institutional programmes.
UIIN organises an annual conference that is the largest global event dedicated to university-industry interaction, entrepreneurial and engaged universities and the future of higher education. Taking the topic to a different country every year, the UIIN conference brings together representatives from academia, industry and government to spark transformative discussions, collaborate and create impact.
For the DIGIFABS project, UIIN leads the conceptualisation, development and implementation of the Bootcamps for educators and SMEs. In order to prepare the representatives from each of those groups to fulfil their roles in the ‘SME Goes Digital Challenge’, UIIN will work in collaboration with all partners in the consortium and will build on the results of the investigation phase to develop and provide the necessary materials, information and frameworks for educators to act as facilitators and for SME representatives to be able to effectively serve as cases/challenges during the SME Goes Digital Challenge.
UIIN will also play a role in the implementation of these bootcamps as part of the pilot-test stage of the project, delivering them and capitalising on the expertise of other partners in the consortium to ensure their success and the effective preparation of the participants, especially when it comes to subject-matter specific areas. As experts in the field, UIIN will also provide insights, training and input on the specifics of University-SME collaboration, taking into account the specific needs and contexts of SMEs.
Jose Villagran leads the UIIN team on DIGIFABS. Jose is Deputy Manager R&D Projects at UIIN. In the project, he will be the main representative from UIIN and will ensure that UIIN’s responsibilities and tasks are undertaken in time and quality. Jose holds a bachelor’s degree in law and a master’s degree in international trade and economic relations, and works mostly in the management and implementation of Erasmus+ funded projects in the areas of challenge-based learning and university-business collaboration. Jose is interested in internationalisation of higher education, decolonisation of higher education and open innovation at universities.
Along with Jose, other people from UIIN will be taking part in the delivery of specific activities, including Balzhan Orazbayeva (Manager Strategic Initiatives at UIIN) and Dalila de Filippo (Training Coordinator) among others.
The UIIN team hopes to bring solid expertise in university-business collaboration as well as strong project management skills and experience of the coordination of Erasmus+ initiatives and a keen interest in challenge-based learning initiatives to the DigiFABS project.
