Work Package Description

This part of the project involves the training and development of University staff in relation to the knowledge, skills and competences required to design and establish an Enterprise Incubation Unit within each participating University. Creation of a resource base for student learning, academics, graduates and early stage entrepreneurs, to support local enterprise development activities.

Outputs

Incubation training seminar workshop
A two-day business incubation workshop led by the University of Innsbruck under the leadership of GITA Steering Committee member Alexander Knapp took place in April 2015. You can read more here.
To obtain insights into some of the discussions that took place during this workshop around developing an entrepreneurial mindset in students, watch this short video.
Incubation Participant and Management Exchange Programme
Each beneficiary has developed an “Incubation Action” and “Incubation Teams” database to systematically record start up activity and related training activity.
The total number of Incubation Actions recorded during the funding period exceeded 300 and ranged from mentoring, professional development training and start-up workshops with diverse relevant themes (for example ideation, pitching, branding, business continuity) to networking events and webinars. The number of participants ranged from 1 to 3000.
The number of Incubation Teams across all newly established GITA Growth Hubs amounted to 217 during the implementation phases. Businesses were diverse ranging from food and drink, herbal medicine, retail, agriculture, fashion, and automotive to digital service providers and technology.
Network of Enterprise Incubation Units by sharing Best Practice
Local Growth Hubs and Incubation units have been integrated into the GITA Learning Network portal to publicise activities nationally , whilst the network portal itself acts a signposting service for start-up advice, support for business and entrepreneurship education, funding and investment opportunities, business plan competitions and national networking events under the umbrella of the GITA consortium partnership and the newly formed National Association that will oversee future dissemination activities.