Acceleration of cooperation between the academic institutions (in widening countries) and non-academic community, towards sustainable entrepreneurship, based on innovation process management, will be realized as five-step iterative process, corresponding to each of the project objectives. The steps are oriented towards objectives and created based on SWOT analysis of academic institutions in widening countries, aimed to exploit their strengths, meet the opportunities, overcome their weaknesses and avoid the threats they are facing. Dominant key words, proceeded from SWOT analysis, include: sustainability, sustainable and responsible innovation, sustainability reporting, Industry 5.0, human-centric technology.
Step 1.
The academic institutions in these widening countries have to take an active role in approaching the business sector. This implies that enhancing knowledge and skills of academic researchers, precisely the ones that will be seconded (talents) from widening countries, especially in the field of R&I and technology transfer (objective O1), is an important objective to meet. During the USE IPM project, this objective will be achieved by the realization of short-term secondments composed to equip seconded personnel, also referred onwards as talents, with the necessary knowledge and skills to be useful partners to the business entities and valuable part of sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Step 2.
Establishing new (two, at FEUN and UT) and improving the existing EI centres (two, at UBL and USK) at academic institutions in widening countries is a base for accelerating A2B cooperation. These centers will be an infrastructural framework for achieving the project’s objective O2: Raising capabilities of academic institutions in widening countries for becoming valuable partner in sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Step 3.
Enhancing career prospects for young USE IPM trainees for R&I (objective O3) is considered to be very important for the project sustainability, since it assumes the development of 50 young people (young USE IPM trainees) at an early stage in their professional careers in each widening country at FEUN, UT, UBL and USK.
Step 4.
Trainings for presenting and explaining the logic and the elements of the innovation process management will be provided for business representatives (business USE IPM trainees) by the talents, within consolidated EI centers. These trainings will improve business USE IPM trainees’ knowledge and skills in the field of innovation process management, sustainable entrepreneurship and solving real-world problems using rigorous, scientifically grounded methods, thus boosting entrepreneurial and innovation process management skills of business USE IPM trainees from non-academic sector in widening countries (objective O4).
Step 5.
Creating innovative solutions with sustainability effects (objective O5) represents the final destination of all activities planned for the project duration, since it should be embodied in the set of actions implemented by USE IPM towards other beneficiaries via cross-sectoral teams for creating new innovative solutions, led by the experience gained during the secondments.