Building an Integrated Model of Postgraduate Training

Our focus on postgraduate training is to foster cross-cultural collaborations in applied research in socio-economic and entrepreneurial innovation, involving universities and research institutes in the EU and India.
We are developing an overarching framework which inter-links the postgraduate and doctoral training programme with the project workshop and seminar programme, R &D activities, and the exchanges of researchers, The project workshops provide a forum for piloting new courses and training modules. Visiting researchers contribute to the widening the knowledge base through focused seminars and extending the project network through public lectures and visits to enterprises. By integrating exchanges of researchers with the ongoing processes of joint R & D projects, joint seminars, workshops and network forums, and by extending the university network to entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial organisations, the project provides an integrated model for university collaborations in applied research and postgraduate training. The network acts as a facilitator of transfer and exchange of course models and course materials across the partner institutions, as well as transfer of knowledge on models of postgraduate developments within the project network. The idea of transfer of knowledge and exchange of experiences between University research and enterprise application also promotes and cultivates the model of learning while earning. The project network contributes to this model through the developing of workshop and seminar based intensive training courses integrated into distance and collaborative learning activities within the university network. This model form a central component of the development of a virtual innovation network which will complement academic and entrepreneurial networks and will provide a distance learning and knowledge transfer resource, thereby contributing to the sustainability of existing collaborations and providing new possibilities of practical cooperation and joint actions between academics, entrepreneurs and other social actors. This collaboration is rooted in our belief that the establishment of a direct relationship between university and socio-economic applications is central to the fostering of proactive entrepreneurial cultures