Date: 30 Apr 2014
Location/venue: Room C101 Cottesbrooke Building Park Campus The University of Northampton, England
The Pathways to Employability team at the University of Northampton’s Business School is exploring ‘what lies beneath’ tutors’ and students’ engagement with work based learning. Three separate studies explore 1) learners’ perspectives of employability training, 2) tutors’ conceptions of employability and 3) students’ conceptions of reflection. Attendees are invited to consider these findings and share ideas for innovating work based pedagogy. More...

By Theophilos Argitis. Canada unveiled a C$20 million ($18.1 million) funding program today to help businesses create partnerships with universities and research institutes to bolster the country’s lagging innovation record.
Greg Rickford, Canada’s science and technology minister, announced the voucher-based pilot program named the Business Innovation Access Program at an event in Brampton, Ontario. The program is designed for small- and medium-sized businesses and will run over two years, according to a statement. More...

Seminar Series
This new series of seminars will have a strong focus on teaching and learning research and evaluation including case studies and empirical investigations of innovation in practice. Topics will cover a broad range of teaching and learning innovations often focusing on the use of technology in higher education, but not exclusively so. The seminars will be presented by a range of academics from both within the University and from other Australian and international universities. These seminars are open to any member of the University and public. They are designed to stimulate discussion and reflection around teaching and learning innovation in higher education. The seminar format will include plenty of time for questions and discussion. Seminars will run fortnightly on Wednesdays between 1pm – 2pm.
On-line registration is now available (see below seminar list).
Information on past seminars is here (lecture captures are available for some of these seminars).
For queries regarding the Innovations in teaching & learning seminars, please contact Linda Corrin tel: 9035 9685 email: lcorrin@unimelb.edu.au
Seminars
The schedule for our 2014 seminar series is below. Semester 2 will be advised later in the year.

Registration.

Barcelona (Spain) has won the 2014 “iCapital” prize for the European Capital of Innovation, the European Commission announced yesterday.

The Barcelona Open Data portal opens up all public sector information in standardized digital formats so that anyone can reuse the data however they want.

The Factory of the Sun is an environmental education facility that integrates and showcases a number of services relating to renewable energy, urban environment, and sustainability.

Barcelona Activa is a municipal company that promotes quality and future-oriented employment and businesses. It hosts 115 companies in its Business Incubator and Technology Park, introduces people to new technologies in its Cybernarium, and offers training and coaching to job seekers and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Open Education Europa is making its own contribution to innovation in Barcelona through our partnership with the Open Education Challenge. The Open Education Challenge aims to develop, strengthen and fund innovative education startups. 

The iCapital prize is worth 500 000 Euros, which will go towards scaling up and expand Barcelona’s innovation efforts.
Website: European Comission Press Release.

EUA was involved in two sessions at the European Commission’s Innovation Convention this week in Brussels (10-11 March). As part of the EU’s Innovation Union flagship initiative, the Innovation Convention aims to provide a platform for different stakeholders to debate and inform policies that will contribute towards the building of a research and innovation eco-system in Europe that can support this objective.
EUA contributed to two of the fringe sessions held in parallel to the main programme organised by the EC. Professor Maria Helena Nazaré, EUA President, took part in a session on “The European Research Area (ERA) Partnership as backbone of the European innovation eco-system(s)” which included presentations from all of the research stakeholder organisations (SHOs) involved in the ERA stakeholder platform with the European Commission. More...

La Commission européenne met à disposition le « Tableau de bord de l'innovation 2014 ». Il montre que la France se place dans le groupe des « suiveurs de l'innovation » et reste le seul pays de ce groupe à se situer « sous la moyenne européenne ». Pour conclure, la Commission relève que « l'Europe est en train de combler son retard en matière d'innovation par rapport aux États-Unis et au Japon », mais « les écarts de performance entre les États membres de l'UE restent très importants et ne se réduisent que lentement ».

En savoir + > Le tableau de bord de l’innovation 2014.

Nouveau titre légal, le brevet unitaire européen va faciliter les démarches et réduire le coût de la propriété industrielle. Les précisions de Sylvie Caligara, adjointe à la déléguée régionale de l'INPI Lorraine.
Eureka.Lorraine : Quels avantages offrira le brevet unitaire européen ?
Sylvie Caligara : Il ouvre une nouvelle voie pour la protection de l'innovation. Dans ce domaine, rien d'aussi important n'a été mis en œuvre depuis plus de vingt ans. Le brevet unitaire va simplifier les procédures pour les déposants européens et réduire le coût de la protection. Auparavant, pour bénéficier d'une protection dans plusieurs pays européens, l'inventeur devait obtenir une validation dans chacun des pays visés. Cela impliquait des frais, notamment de traduction. Le brevet unitaire représente désormais un seul enregistrement, une seule annuité et aucun frais de traduction. Il assure une protection automatique et uniforme dans 25 des 28 Etats membres de l'UE. Ce nouvel outil va faciliter l'accès des PME à une protection à moindre coût. Son entrée en vigueur devrait avoir lieu en 2015. Suite...

By Amit Chakma. Contrary to some of the predictable commentary before and after the latest federal budget was brought down earlier this month, it was hardly a “do-nothing” plan. Indeed, only after the initial coverage had faded did it become clear that Budget 2014 had taken some very important steps that were overlooked at the time: Canada is finally getting serious about innovation.
With its $1.5-billion commitment to establish a Canada First Research Excellence Fund, the government — and university leaders who advocated for it — is signaling that our country’s brightest minds will be more strongly supported to excel at knowledge creation. More...