Sopu Academy is a proud partner of the 3-year Erasmus+ Project on Soft Skills Training for Knowledge Transfer Professionals. The project will be coordinated by one of the leading universities in Europe, the University of Bologna from Italy.
Check out the project website for the latest news.
The European Union co-funded the project with a contribution of 400.000 € under the Erasmus+ funding program: Key Action 2: Cooperation Partnerships in Higher Education.
The project started in December 2022 with a kick-off meeting. In addition to Sopu Academy, the project consortium has 5 other partner organizations from 4 different countries.
- University of Bologna – Italy
- Jagiellonian University – Poland
- University of Helsinki (Helsinki Think Company) – Finland
- NETVAL – Italy
- ASTP Proton – The Netherlands
Developing Professionals in Knowledge Transfer with Erasmus+ Project on Soft Skills
The Erasmus+ Project on Soft Skills focuses on professional development in the knowledge transfer field. Co-working spaces, maker spaces, contamination Labs, fab labs, and Design Factories are recently emerging platforms to facilitate knowledge transfer activities. That’s why it is important to enhance the collaboration skills of the professionals working in these areas.
The objectives of the project can be summarized as follows:
- improving the soft skills of the professionals in the knowledge transfer field,
- designing a tailored soft skills training programme to be utilized across Europe;
- increasing awareness about the importance of qualitative output measures for knowledge transfer.
The project has several phases such as research, design and validation. The results expected from the project are reports and documents, a self-assessment framework online tool, a Soft Skills Training Programme, and a Toolkit, all of them free of charge and downloadable from the project website.
We also expect impact results in the form of a “new” understanding of the figure of the knowledge transfer professional, as well as more inclusive and collaborative higher education institutions, businesses, and organizations in general. The know-how from the project will contribute to Sopu Academy’s other negotiation skills training programs such as Erasmus courses for teachers as well.
Partners of the Erasmus+ Project on Soft Skills Training
Coordinator of the Erasmus+ Project on Soft Skills: University of Bologna from Italy
The University of Bologna
(UNIBO) was founded in 1088. It is one of the most renowned and prestigious universities in Europe. With around 86,000 enrolled students, around 2,800 teaching professors (full, associate, and assistant), and 3000 technical-administrative staff. UNIBO is the most populated university community in Italy.
The university has 5 campuses in the Emilia-Romagna region: the main and oldest campus in Bologna, plus 4 additional campuses in Cesena, Forlì, Ravenna, and Rimini. Strongly rooted in its territory, UNIBO is the most internationalized of all Italian universities.
Jagiellonian University from Poland
The Jagiellonian University
(JAG) is Poland’s oldest higher education institution and one of the oldest in Europe. In 2022, Jagiellonian University is celebrating 658 years of existence. Today, JAG comprises 16 Faculties, where nearly 4,000 academic staff conduct research and provide education to almost 40,000 students, within the framework of more than 150 different fields of study.
The researchers and state-of-the-art infrastructure make JAG one of the leading Polish scientific institutions, collaborating with major academic centers from all over the world. The university is also home to numerous student research societies, where young researchers pursue and develop their academic interests.
Helsinki Think Company from Finland
Helsinki Think Company
is the entrepreneurial society of the University of Helsinki with two main missions. First, supporting all academic entrepreneurship from student entrepreneurship to research-based innovations. Second, helping take academic know-how to action in general. In short, THINK supports academic entrepreneurship and social innovation by facilitating a community and offers co-working spaces, events, and other services.
Helsinki Think Company values multidisciplinarity, openness, diversity, and positive societal impact. Learning by doing, peer support and respect towards other people and the environment are integral aspects of all THINK activities.
NETVAL from Italy
The Network for Valorization of public research (NETVAL) is an Italian association of universities and public research organizations with 99 members representing over 90% of the Italian public research system. NETVAL currently includes 64 Universities, 15 Public Research Bodies, 13 Scientific Hospitalization and Care Institutes, 3 foundations, 2 agencies, and 1 association.
Founded as an informal network between universities in 2002, Netval subsequently became an association in 2007 and was also open to non-university members. Its mission is the enhancement of public research, which takes place also with the creation of a community of knowledge transfer manager professionals (over 400 in 20 years).
ASTP Proton (ASTP) from The Netherlands
ASTP
is a non-profit organization committed to knowledge transfer among universities and industry. Established in 2000 by a group of leading practitioners, ASTP’s focus is to provide outstanding training and practice that supports members’ special interests, to advocate for the profession on the international stage, and to enable the building of professional networks. Also, ASTP wants to further improve the quality of impact that public research has on the economy and society.
In sum, ASTP’s mission is the promotion and professionalization of knowledge transfer practice and practitioners. ASTP strives to shape the future profession of knowledge and technology transfer while increasing the attraction and credibility of the profession.
The disclaimer: This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This material reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
