TECH-CLINIC SST: how students and SMEs can successfully work together
The TECH-CLINIC SST project aimed at raising awareness of senior students to the real problems of the SMEs from the SST Industry thus establishing links between university students and transport SMEs by providing solutions for their technological problems.
TECH-CLINIC SST project showed young people that SST is today an innovative industry, quite active in the development and application of new technologies, showing them lines of opportunities in the educational system, R&D organisations and enterprises, and in particular high-tech SMEs, to explore the potential of job creation in the surface transport sector. The project itself was based on the experience and knowledge of partners coming from previous European initiatives and on the expertise of three European Universities to provide SMEs with an unique opportunity to have a team of university students tutored by experienced professionals to help them solving their research problems. The TECH-CLINIC SST initiative had many strategic objectives: - to raise awareness of students about the work opportunities in the STI industry by offering them the opportunity to have real work experience in this field; -to contribute to the promotion of entrepreneurial spirit among students helping the development of the confidence, knowledge, critical thinking, skills and understanding of young people towards surface transport industry; -to give the SMEs the opportunity to participate actively in the process of finding the best solutions to meet their specific knowledge needs and make them aware of the importance of the contribution that highly skilled young people can offer them in terms of knowledge and of how their input contributes to increase SMEs’ competitiveness level and development. Two main activities were performed during the project’s life cycle: - 90 senior students were given the opportunity to work closely with 9 Surface Transport SMEs (from Germany, Hungary and Sweden) by solving specific knowledge needs of this sector; - 6 Cafè Scientifiques, interactive events involving young students and stakeholders from the SST sector to discuss “hot topics” and future trends of the Surface Transport in Europe, were organized on each partner's country (Germany, Hungary, Sweden, Portugal, Spain) to raise awareness of young people about the importance of surface transport in our society Moreover, 15 Technological Clinics, composed of multidisciplinary working teams of Msc and PhD senior students to address real problems faced by SMEs from the Surface Transport Industry, proved to be a very effective method to share opinions and knowledge or to create methods of resolution and to solve problems of diverse complexity. PRESS4TRANSPORT is funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7)
Cafè Scientifiques and Technological Clinics, involving more than 250 students and 108 SMEs, have been used to foster knowledge transfer between enterprises, universities and students and to contribute to solve problems that had been raised by involved enterprises. All these activities led to a very strong impact of the project first of all on SMEs, which fostered relationships with the universities attracting highly qualified young students which helped to map their specific knowledge needs. On the other hand, students experienced real work in Surface Transport Industry and had the opportunity to apply the knowledge acquired in University in real world problems. Also EU economy benefited of this initiative: it helped to increase the employment rate and to bring together the actors of the “Knowledge Triangle”. For sure, TECH-CLINIC SST resulted to be a pilot project that can be adopted as current practice in future projects.
PRESS4TRANSPORT is funded by the European Commission's Directorate-General for Research under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7)