Newsletter: English version July 2011

Meeting of scientists, entrepreneurs and business organizations…

Dear Sirs,

In March this year the Institute for Private Enterprise and Democracy organized a meeting to which scientists, entrepreneurs and business organizations representatives were invited. The aim of the meeting was to establish a common assessment of the cooperation between business and science. The participants of the meeting were also asked to indicate the obstacles in this cooperation and to suggest any solutions to develop the cooperation.

What were the participants of the meeting talking about:

The participants of the meeting had an opportunity to talk about many questions regarding the cooperation between science and business. Some very important issues were taken into consideration:

1. defining mutual expectations of business and science;
2. indication of the obstacles in the cooperation of business and science;
3. establishing effective communication methods between entrepreneurs and academic society.

The meeting was also an excellent opportunity to define the ways of effective involvement of entrepreneurs in the higher education process and to consider what both entrepreneurs and scientists could do more and better in order to make the cooperation easier.

What conclusions did the participants of the meeting come to…

The entrepreneurs, members of business organizations and scientists came to several very important conclusions. They defined some issues, which definitely do not facilitate the cooperation between science and business. The key problem is a shortage of cooperation offers from universities to entrepreneurs. The participants of the meeting suggested some solutions which will significantly improve the quality of cooperation between science and business. Among the postulates were:

• Business should have a possibility to suggest the subjects of master’s thesis to the students – most of the student’s researches are impractical and useless for business;
• It is necessary to create the platform of cooperation – currently there is no contact between science and business or the contact is very difficult;
• Entrepreneurs should have an impact on the higher education programs in universities – entrepreneurs want and should have an impact on the education programs – currently the programs do not ensure the knowledge expected and required by business.

Business needs science and science needs new solutions

Better cooperation between higher education institutions and entrepreneurs requires an appropriate strategy, which will support new concepts of management and will create an education offer. The strategy will take into consideration: the best European and World practices, establishing frameworks for an effective cooperation of business and science as well as creating and using software packages supporting cooperation management.

More and more often, both in economy and education process, modern informatics-communication methods are used. It is extremely important to use modern technologies in cooperation of science and business as well. Such solution will definitely facilitate and thus encourage the cooperation. This way the enterprises will easily and effectively influence the education programs and accordingly the higher education will create the employees which the enterprises mostly need.

Therefore the team of the Institute for Private Enterprise and Democracy together with their partners is preparing the software package – a tool set supporting strategic planning. It will significantly influence the improvement of cooperation between business and universities. Management and monitoring using this process will be implemented in cooperation with universities and enterprises. It will ensure more effective, faster and measurable management of cooperation process. Electronic support system will have innovative features.

The software will be introduced in selected universities, available free in the Internet and distributed among European education institutions.

In the framework of the program “Skills for the Future”, four institutions: from Portugal (Gestão Total e Inovação Empresarial - GTIE Consultores S.A.), Italy (E.Ri.Fo.), Turkey (AHI EVRAN ÜNIVERSITESI) and Poland (Institute for Private Enterprise and Democracy) are working on such a model of higher education program which will not only be adjusted to the job market’s requirements but also will reflect real employers’ needs. The project is supporting the cooperation between higher education institutions and enterprises by promoting the best practices in the area of cooperation and by creating and implementing appropriate strategies for this cooperation.

For more detailed information about the project please contact the Polish partner’s office.