The conference was attended by participants from Central and Eastern Europe, who had the opportunity to learn about different cooperation models set up by SMEs, large corporations and universities, to discuss ideas for joint projects, they may look for new cooperation opportunities between institutions of higher education and businesses. The event also aimed to present the cooperation opportunities between the academic and the business sphere and the mutual benefits therein.
Experience shows that through the application of a management approach, the efficiency of research organisations improves and reliance on the resources of university knowledge bases adds a new dimension to corporate research and development activities. Dr. István Szabó, Vice President for Science and International Affairs of the National Research, Development and Innovation Office said the following: “The new Hungarian initiative in the area of the university-based innovation ecosystem is the nationwide series of events organised by the Office to present Territorial Innovation Platforms. The underlying idea is to promote regional organisations all over the country, which are based on University knowledge bases providing, on the one hand, access to direct information on innovation policy, and on the other hand an opportunity to forge or strengthen cooperation between the actors of the local innovation ecosystem and lay down new professional foundations.”
In addition to the plenary sessions, five thematic workshops were also held on technology transfer, joint research carried out in cooperation, setting up spin-off ventures, smart specialisation and state role in industrial parks. In these workshops the best practices from Central and Eastern Europe were presented and participants discussed successful projects. Individual working groups drew up recommendations and best practices which might be put into use by universities, businesses and policy-makers.
The substantive programme was implemented and hosted by the Budapest Business School, which also played a very active role by organising an exciting pre-conference workshop. This event was already about the university of the future, whose role and competitiveness are increasingly inseparable from long-term cooperation between universities and the corporate sphere.
