HEInnovate is a self-reflection tool for Higher Education Institutions who wish to explore their innovative potential. It guides you through a process of identification, prioritisation and action planning in eight key areas. The self-assessment is available in all EU languages.
HEInnovate is not a benchmarking tool. It diagnoses areas of strengths and weaknesses, opens up discussion and debate on the entrepreneurial / innovative nature of your institution and it allows you to compare and contrast evolution over time. You can have instant access to your results, learning materials and a pool of experts. HEInnovate can be used by all types of higher education institutions.
HEInnovate is an initiative of the European Commission in partnership with the OECD. It is free, confidential and open to anyone to use. Read more.
Being an entrepreneurial higher education institution depends upon individuals, and innovative ways of doing things.
Entrepreneurial leadership and accountable governance are crucial to developing an entrepreneurial and innovative culture within an HEI. Such leadership defines entrepreneurship as a strategic priority and takes entrepreneurial and innovative practices from one-off experiment to an integrated approach that is core to how the HEI undertakes teaching, research and knowledge exchange.
The organisational capacity of an HEI drives its ability to deliver on its entrepreneurial strategy. If an HEI is committed to carrying out entrepreneurial activities to support its strategic objectives, then key resources such as people, funding and investments, expertise and knowledge, reward and incentive systems need to be in place to sustain and grow its capacity for entrepreneurship and innovation.
and Learning
Entrepreneurial teaching and learning involves exploring pedagogies, practices and flexible learning pathways to stimulate entrepreneurial mindsets in an inclusive and sustainable way. While the idea of creating a start-up remains a powerful and versatile pedagogical tool, entrepreneurship education is not just learning about how to transform an idea into a sustainable business. It is also about being exposed to entrepreneurial experiences and acquiring the skills and competences for developing an entrepreneurial mindset and equipping students to be able to contribute to addressing challenging issues such as sustainability and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
HEIs can help students, graduates and staff consider starting a business as a career option. At the outset it is important to help individuals reflect on the commercial, social, environmental, and lifestyle objectives related to their entrepreneurial aspirations and intentions. For those who decide to proceed to start a business, or other type of venture, targeted assistance can then be offered in generating, evaluating and acting upon the idea, building the skills necessary for successful entrepreneurship, and importantly finding relevant team members and getting access to appropriate finance and effective networks. In offering such support, an HEI should ideally act as part of a wider business support ecosystem rather than operating in isolation.
and Capability
HEIs are already deploying digital technologies, however the uptake and integration varies among and within institutions. HEIs should make the most out of the opportunities presented by digital transformation and consider digital technologies as a key enabler of innovation and entrepreneurship. An HEI’s digital capability is defined as the ability to integrate, optimise and transform digital technologies to support innovation and entrepreneurship.
and Networks
An entrepreneurial and innovative HEI proactively connects with its ecosystem (intended as an array of interlinked actors pooling skills and resources to pursue a common goal) to deliver social, cultural and economic benefits. The capacity to connect with entrepreneurial ecosystems and networks represents an important catalyst for organisational innovation in the HEI. It also helps the advancement of teaching and research, and transforms the HEI into an important actor in regional development and issues related to territorial cohesion.
A sustainable entrepreneurial HEI integrates the international into the design and delivery of education, research, and knowledge exchange by introducing new questions, approaches and alternative ways of thinking. Through considering international societal challenges, including the UN SDGs, the entrepreneurial HEI is also better equipped to support its ecosystem.
Entrepreneurial and innovative higher education institutions need to understand the impact of the changes they bring about. The entrepreneurial HEI combines institutional self-perception, external reflection and an evidence-based approach. An HEI that monitors the impact of all activities connected to the entrepreneurial and innovation agenda generates valuable information and data to be used to improve its own performance. Metrics should span beyond spin-off creation, the volume and quality of intellectual property generation and research income generation. Assessment activities should focus also on graduate entrepreneurship, skills and competence development, teaching and learning outcomes, talent retention, contribution to global, national and local economic development or the impact of the institution’s broader entrepreneurial agenda.
The steps below guide you through the features and content of HEInnovate. By clicking through the steps, you can gain an overview of how to use HEInnovate for an individual self-assessment completion and for carrying out group self-assessments. You can explore how to organise your HEInnovate workshops and join various HEInnovate events and webinars. You can also read about the resources, other initiatives and projects that are featured on HEInnovate.
in numbers
You can view and download case studies that showcase different institutional approaches and practices along the eight dimensions of HEInnovate,
and user stories about the experiences of various HEIs undertaking the HEInnovate assessment.
- Case studies
Gamification plays a special role in entrepreneurship teaching at Aarhus University and in the EIT Food Master’s programme in Food Systems. Digital & physical games are a speciality of an entrepreneurship professor from Aarhus University. In several courses he has been using both physical and digital games for targeted purposes. Three games played an important role in online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic: LeapInTime is a patent game developed specifically during the pandemic to tackle online team learning about intellectual property. Savvygoat requires teams to fulfil tasks for...
- Case studies
Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” offers several study programmes at different degree levels that combine sustainability and entrepreneurship: A bachelor’s programme in Biomanagement and Sustainable Development, a master’s programme in Sustainable and Responsible Governance, and a continued education programme in sustainable leadership. The programmes respond to the United Nation’s agenda to fulfil the Sustainable Development Goals as well as to the European Green Deal. They aim to train a new type of specialist in sustainable business development, corporate social responsibility as well...
The expert group is an important driving force behind taking HEInnovate forward.
In this section you can read the profiles of our experts and contact them.
Read the latest HEInnovate news and see our upcoming events.
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This month’s HEInnovate webinar “How transnational education (TNE) can help your HEI to become more entrepreneurial” will take place on Thursday, the 23rd February at 5pm CET. In this webinar we will explore how transnational education links to the HEInnovate dimension of the Internationalised...
Given the success of the past training activities, we will hold two training sessions this Autumn to provide information and advice on how to make the most of HEInnovate. The training is run in cooperation with the European Commission. The sessions are aimed at participants who are interested in...
11 partners from 4 different European countries (Portugal, Spain, Denmark and Austria) got together under the Knowledge Alliances action, funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission, with the sole objective of achieving the development of sustainable product-services within the...