Digital Creativity for Developing Digital Maturity Future Skills
University of Madeira (UMa) is a state university established in 1988 on Madeira Island, Portugal. UMa is organised into 4 faculties – Exact Sciences and Engineering, Life Sciences, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities – and 2 schools – Health Higher School and Technologies and Management Higher School. Despite being located in a peripheral area of Europe, UMa is an international university aiming to achieving excellence through education, research and service to regional, national and international communities. UMa promotes applied scientific and cultural research, enhancing its ability to establish strategic partnerships with companies and international universities. Scientific research regards Arts and Humanities, Education, Life, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Mathematics, Physical and Engineering Sciences and Social Sciences, and has received financial support from FCT/FEDER and the European Community through INTERREG international projects.
In the context of a small island, the local academic community plays the role and duty to prepare young minds and support local enterprises in developing the skills and strategies to respond to the current and future environmental, social and economic challenges. Madeira island needs more collaborative and interdisciplinary platforms and methods to ideate, test, implement and scale up innovations that can contribute to its sustainable development. From tourism to food production and distribution, from manufacturing to construction, from natural resources monitoring to public sector services and education, digital technologies can play a very important role on this small peripheral territory. Where resources are limited, where the equilibrium between natural resources offering and human needs is under constant threat, it is necessary to prepare future designers and entrepreneurs with the right mindset, capacity to collaborate and generate future sustainable and regenerative systems that can benefit to not just individuals and local economy, but especially the environment and the society relating with it. University of Madeira is participating in DC4DM project as HE partner bringing a variety of expertise from the field of design thinking and innovation, IT, entrepreneurship and management, bioeconomy and sustainable development.
Télécom Saint-Etienne is the engineering school of Université Jean Monnet in Saint-Etienne, and an affiliated school of the Institut Mines Télécom. It is accredited by the French national commission on engineering degrees to confer an engineering degree (diplôme d’ingénieur) in telecommunications. The engineering curriculum requires 3 years of study to obtain master-level diploma. The school offers a first-year core curriculum and then 9 specialized tracks in the second and third year of the engineering curriculum, including computer science, telecommunications, computer networks, electronics, optics, and image processing. The teaching staff is made of 48 permanent teachers as follows: 33 tenured teacher/researcher (23 associate professors and 10 professors), 5 teachers detached from college, and 10 teachers under full-time permanent contract. An administrative and technical staff of 26 persons support the teachers. The pedagogical activities involve 700+ students: 585 engineering master-level student (French “Grandes Ecoles”) and 148 in other curriculum (mainly Master in design and communication and web development). The school is supported by three research laboratories: Hubert Curien (UMR CNRS 5516), Institut Camille Jordan (UMR CNRS 5208), and laboratory ELICO (EA 4147). It participates to the French Institute Carnot Télécoms and Digital Society thanks to the quality of its research partnership with the private sector.
Télécom Saint-Etienne is participating in DC4DM project as HE partner. It leverages its experience in learning labs activities and in SMEs interactions to foster and promote digital creativity. First, Télécom Saint-Etienne learning lab — called IRAM — is a place for interactions and transdisciplinary between Humanities and Social Sciences & Engineering and technology. Its main fields of applications are culture, education, health, IT companies. The learning lab aims at bringing creativity and design thinking processes at the core of the engineering curriculums, and to help professionals and students to better understand stake and issues of the digital age. Second, the school also co-initiated with Centrale Lyon and EMLyon business school an international network of learning lab since 2014. It combines more than a hundred learning labs mostly in France but also in Belgium, Canada and Morocco. Second, Télécom Saint-Etienne experience reflects from its interactions with the private sector, mostly made of SMEs in our region. Those SMEs are structured in a cluster called Digital League (100+ companies) in the digital market area. These interactions also startups from “La Base” — Télécom Saint-Etienne incubator.
Established in 1997 Startup Madeira is the local entity responsible for the development and application of the European Commission’s Business Innovation Centres Program (EC-BIC´s). Startup Madeira’s mission is to serve as an instrument for regional development by supporting entrepreneurs in the implementation of their innovative business project at Região Autónoma da Madeira, from the consolidation of an idea to its practical implementation, providing an environment favourable to entrepreneurship, namely among younger people, and acting as a facilitator and central point of contact for an entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The multidisciplinary team at Startup Madeira provides consultancy, coaching and mentoring through the numerous programs, events and activities. It provides acceleration programs to startups, reunite entrepreneurs, both local and foreign, and it helps through a physical incubator, virtual office and co-work space.
Startup Madeira is a full member of EBN which allows it to provide additional support in the development of innovative projects, such as: exportation to foreign markets, internationalization/transnational cooperation, exchange of experiences, transfer of know-how and technology, as well as contacts with other enterprises supported by the innovation centres. It also contributes to an efficient and prompt connection with other programmes and entities linked to the European Union.
Startup Madeira is participating in DC4DM project as tech-driven SME, in particular by providing the following experience and types of expertise.
– internationalization/transnational co-operation, exchange of experiences, transfer of know-how and technology, as well as contacts with other enterprises supported by the centres. It also contributes to an efficient and prompt connection with other programmes and entities linked to the EU.
– provide support, helping to create conditions that will favour the appearance of micro/small businesses, by bringing to life entrepreneurship, modernization and business innovation. 40 companies monitored monthly by Startup Madeira and about 280 directly supported companies.
– It has participated in several transnational projects in programmes; It has previous experience in running mobility exchange projects: has participated in 4 calls of Eramus for Young Entrepreneurs, It has several years of experience in fostering an entrepreneurship education program in schools; It also streamlines support programs for entrepreneurs and local projects.