Blog

  • CHIC: Spreading Spark* to Gdansk and Split

    CHIC: Spreading Spark* to Gdansk and Split

    By Ingeborg Sofie Bogen

    The goal of this specific work package in the CHIC project is to spread this concept to both the University of Gdansk, and the University of Split.This gave the Engage team the chance to hold workshops at said universities, giving the students a kick-start to start their own student-to-student mentoring services.The goal of the trip was to give students an introduction to both Spark*, and the organizations core value, as well as give them the tools to become mentors and start their own organizations.

    Discussion and reflections

    During the Workshops the students in both Split and Gdansk got the chance to understand the fundamental ideas behind Spark*, learn about mentoring – Spark*s core activity, and also getting the chance to discuss how they want to build their own organization. A big part of the workshops were focused around discussion and reflections from the students at the two universities.

    When spreading Spark* we wanted to focus on clearly communicating the important core values that shape Spark*. During the workshops it was therefore important to focus on these core values. Spark* is a student-to-student service, where students get the chance to meet a student mentor who can share their knowledge with them. This is part of what makes the mentoring service low threshold, as Spark* is supposed to be a place for students with any ideas to develop their entrepreneurial mindset. In addition, Spark* does not only benefit the mentee, but also the mentor. During this part of the workshop – the students were given the chance to reflect around the value of Spark* for both mentees and mentors, and exactly what value Spark* offers students. The students focused on relevant experience for both the mentor and mentees, as well as the value of putting theory into practice. Students in both Gdansk and Split had many relevant reflections, and seemed to really understand how this concept could be valuable at their own universities.

    Mentoring is the core activity at Spark*, and was also a big part of the agenda during the workshops. The students participating in the workshop were trained to become future mentors at their own Spark* organizations. This included discussions around what tasks a mentor has, and what the role of a mentor should be. It is also important for the students to get the chance to put this theory into practice. The students got the chance to discuss real life issues that mentors face through a case assignment. They also got the chance to try and set up a first mentoring session, and gained even more practical experience with being a mentor.

    When trying to set up their student-to-student mentoring service it is important that the organization is adjusted to the student environment that it is going to be a part of. Every environment will need to have a Spark* that meets the demand among students at the relevant university. This means catering to exactly what the students need in order to develop their own business ideas. The students therefore got to discuss exactly how they could adapt their organization to their own student environments. This included trying to imagine their dream innovation ecosystem, and also reflecting around the role of Spark* in this ecosystem. The students also got the chance to plan how they wanted to shape their organization moving forward, as well as discuss other important questions that are relevant for the setup. This includes reflecting around how Spark* can attract students with potential business ideas.

    Building the entrepreneurial mindset

    During the workshops, Spark* NTNUs sponsor TrønderEnergi also talked about the value of Spark*, and why it is attractive for businesses to sponsor this kind of initiative. This included targeted branding among students, changing established mindsets, finding and developing talent among students and the development of new technology. This gave the students an interesting look into how valuable a concept like Spark* can be.

    The students at both universities were very interested in learning more about Spark* as a concept. Some students wanted to be future entrepreneurs themselves, and some students loved working with people – and wanted to become mentors. During the workshops the students also discussed relevant challenges when trying to set up Spark* at their universities. The Engage team really learned about how these university are different, and the importance of how the Spark* organizations need to be adapted to their unique university cultures.

    The next step for this project is for the students at both universities to start their organizations. This includes both arranging practical things and structuring their organization. The students must also adjust their organization on the way, and make sure that it is an organization that meets the needs of students interested in exploring entrepreneurship. Trying mentoring in practice, and getting to mentor real-life student start-ups will also be an important step for the students as they are starting their own Spark*. We are excited to continue to help build the student-to-student mentoring services in both Gdansk and Split.

    The overall goal of this project is to develop an organization that in the end benefits students at both universities. The student-to-student methodology is all about building the entrepreneurial mindset and developing entrepreneurial skill sets among students that are both mentors, and mentees. Being either a mentor or mentee is an important learning process for the students, and gives them relevant experience to become change agents in the future.

    Read more about the CHIC-project here.

    Spreading Spark*
    As a part of the Climate-KIC project CHIC – Creating Holistic Innovation Capacity, one of the work packages focuses on spreading Spark*. Spark* is a free student-to-student mentoring service at NTNU Trondheim. The organization focuses on offering mentoring for students with an idea, and through this mentoring building the entrepreneurial mindset and skill set among the students. This concept is found to be quite valuable at NTNU with the following results from 2021:
    – 570 student projects have been mentored since the beginning in 2014
    – 420 000 euros have been given out in funding to the student projects provided by TrønderEnergi
    – Currently 30 employees, 70 active startups and 70 alumni startups

  • The need for innovation in the transportation sector

    The need for innovation in the transportation sector

    When talking to the people who build and facilitate transportation in Norway, an overwhelming majority say that they need innovative and entrepreneurial competence in the industry, leader of Konnekt Basit Mohammad says.

    By Stine Vedvik

    Earlier this month, Konnekt hosted an intensive workshop in collaboration with Engage Centre for students to explore the future of technology in transportation. The students got presented multiple issues related to how transportation can reduce its impact on the environment in a tougher climate. In teams of four, the students came up with innovative solutions with the help of supervisors from Spark* as well as professionals from the transportation sector. The concept “Waymaker” won the cash prize, which is an idea for a software to optimize new roads.

    The importance of student collaboration

    Leader of Konnekt, Basit Mohammad, says that a majority of people in transportation say that they need competence on innovation and entrepreneurship in the industry.
    – They need people that can think in new ways and that dares to make changes. This is also important for students to realize, says Basit. He states that the industry needs interdisciplinary competence, for people to work together across professional environments to come up with solutions together.

    Konnekt works to educate students on what is happening in the transportation sector and what challenges the industry is facing, as well as connect businesses and students together for collaborations. This workshop is an example of a such collaboration, in addition to collaborations on bachelor- and master theses, summer internships, and so on.

    – We’re under the impression that people are positive for what Konnekt stands for, which is to motivate collaboration for the entire transportation sector, communication manager for Konnekt Petter Aanonsen says. He experience positivity both from the businesses, academia and students by facilitating collaborations such as workshops. 
    – We see that it is easier to get perspective in this sector in a wider aspect, in contrast to when a single business is looking for something specific, Petter says.

    Thinking outside the box

    The general theme for this workshop was how transportation can reduce its impact on the environment in a tougher climate. Senior Engineer in Statens Vegvesen, Hans Westerheim, says that events such as this workshop is important because some of the people that have been in transportation for years might have a more conservative way of thinking.
    – It is interesting and important to attend these kind of events, because students are thinking outside the box, Hans says.

    Hans believes it is important to incorporate sustainability to the transportation sector.
    – To bring the environment and sustainability perspectives into transportation is something that is very important, and there might be a lot of grey-haired people in the industry that don’t regard this as important. This generation [of students] has grown up with there always being an app or technology to solve problems, and therefore I think it is important to get their insights, Hans says.

    “Waymaker”

    Finja Tietjen and Dagmar Coelle was part of the team behind the concept “Waymaker” which got awarded the cash prize at the workshop. The idea behind the concept is a software to optimize ideas for new roads.
    – We want to build a software that enables us based on geological data, traffic data, data of existing infrastructure, to optimize ideas for new roads. And we have different parameters for that. For example the cost, how much pollution are we going to produce, how much are we going to improve the traffic, but also how much land we are going to use, says Finja.

    The software will provide a foundation for discussion, because it will provide a list that compares different options based on the parameters of the program.
    – We also want to incorporate new ideas, for example have different types of roads that this model incorporates, Dagmar says. This could entail to reuse old streets, to focus on heavy roads mainly for trucks, or focus on light roads that can be easily torn down.
    – So if the road is not used anymore or not used in the same capacity, you can make it smaller so the environmental impact is limited.

    Finja Tietjen and Dagmar Coelle are both physics students. Both of them are exchange students from Germany and interested in the environment.
    – I always want to try new things, especially now that I’m here as an exchange student. Workshops like this one is a great opportunity to experience new things and think about topics that you wouldn’t otherwise, says Dagmar. The setting of this workshop was something they both enjoyed.
    – I really like this setting. You get a problem, a fixed amount of time, and get put in an interdisciplinary team. I think this way is how to generate the best ideas, Finja says. Their team consisted of different academic backgrounds, which they saw as useful for different perspectives and productive discussions on the topic.

  • SUPER-Linked; The future of education

    SUPER-Linked; The future of education

    – We believe that by incorporating real business problems in education it will better prepare the students for working life and give them a better understanding of how their field is used in business context, says Håkon Haneberg, leader of Super-prosjektet

    By Hedvig Skjelbred Svabø

    Monday November 1, students, educators and businessmen came together at Super-Linked, a workshop meant to form the future of education. This night opened for a discussion on how companies can facilitate cooperation with the university for future education to help students work with relevant issues. Their goal was defined as concrete and testable suggestions from business can lay the foundation of student work in future classes and how business can take part in guidance and assessments. The night focused on innovation through new ideas meant to pave the way for future education.

    The workshop was made up by different collections, with collection 1 asking how syllabus or lectures can be changed to meet the project`s goal by including business inn future classes. Collection 2 asked how exercises or exams can be changed to meet the goal to include business.

    The workshop opened for interaction between different fields and helped us navigate how we can incorporate business in education so that the students will be better prepared for working life

    Ingrid Berg Sivertsen, project leader and adviser at Engage

    The groups worked through individual idea generation before presenting their ideas to the rest of the group. Following the presentations, they collectively settled for one idea from each collection to further develop into a complete concept to be presented before an audience at the end of the workshop. Key words for the workshop were innovation, teamwork and brainstorming all part of the entrepreneurial spirit.

    Most of the presented concepts focused on how to include questions from business as part of the assessments throughout different courses including the benefits for both business and students on the matter.

    Dag Håkon Haneberg in SUPER All Photo: Scott Bekke

    It is important for us as employers to get employees that are familiar with solving business questions and the complex challenges that we meet every day.

    Ulf Dahl Ryen, head of region Mid/North at TietoEVRY

    One group also concluded that failing is an essential part of learning and should be included in cooperation between education and business. This is because the right answer in theory is not always the right answer in business and that other factors might be important to assess in order to find the right solution.

    I feel that we as students need to learn how to fail, we learn more through failing then we do through memorizing the right answer, we need to fail more in order to learn.

    Fredrik Gran Jansen, 5th year Cybernetic student.

    Some classes at NTNU have already incorporated a cooperation between business and education, such as” MV3010: Forskningsoppdrag for bedrift” where media and communication students get real life issues to solve through a research assignment. Through this class the students get to know how to answer questions from business as well as business getting real challenges resolved.

    I have struggled with seeing my classes in a business context, I miss the practical aspect and learning how translating it to business.

    Fredrik Gran Jansen, 5th year Cybernetic student.

    The interest of business for such a cooperation is that it prepares the students so that they are better equipped for working life.

    It is important for us to give input to better the education in the way we currently see needed in business and that will benefit the students as future employees.

    Ulf Dahl Ryen, head of region Mid/North at TietoEVRY

  • How startups can strategically influence legitimacy-building

    How startups can strategically influence legitimacy-building


    – Legitimacy is not static, it is developed through a process. Startups can influence this process, which means that they can be strategic about how they build legitimacy, says Ph.D. candidate Karolina Lesniak in Engage.

    By Stine Vedvik

    Karolina Lesniak is a PhD candidate at NTNU and has a background in interdisciplinary cultural studies and entrepreneurship and innovation. During her second master at NTNU she became interested in how some startups make successful companies and how others fail. – This was something that led me to the research I’m doing now, to get more insight on topics connected to a successful startup, says Karolina. 

    Karolina’s current research examines how startups strategically influence the process of building legitimacy.
    – Legitimacy is not static, it is developed through a process. All entities, also startups, can influence this process. This means that they can be strategic about how they build legitimacy, Karolina says. Through her research, Karolina is trying to figure out how those strategies evolve through time, and how startups adjust those strategies to different stakeholders depending on who they work with.
    – It can be investors, customers, or the general public. And most importantly how they combine individual tactics, how they develop framing of who they are, how they use already existing support and endorsement, Karolina says. She is trying to figure out how all these individual tactics are used in the coherent strategy.

    Why legitimacy?

    – The main word is ‘legitimacy’. The term comes from sociology and political science, and refers to a situation when some entity become accepted and gain popularity in already existing systems. This entity can be a company, an organization, a person, or simply a new idea or concept. In the case of startups, they invent a new product or service, and in order to realize those ideas they need to get access to resources. These resources can be skilled employees, financial resources, customers, and general support. To acquire all the resources they need, startups need to “justify” why they are appropriate part of existing environment – build legitimacy, Karolina says. 
    – Bigger themes like sustainability transformation, energy transition, medical technology and innovation in health services could really profit with more insight on legitimacy, according to Karolina. New ideas within these areas often require change in behavior, developing new values, norms and attitudes. – I truly believe that if we look into innovative startups we can really learn from them how they manage to build acceptance for something new, Karolina says. 

    – The main word is ‘legitimacy’. The term comes from sociology and political science, and refers to a situation when some entity become accepted and gain popularity in already existing systems.

    Karolina Lesniak

    A holistic approach towards legitimacy

    Karolina’s research is based on qualitative, process studies. Through following technology startups over a longer period of time with frequent interviews, Karolina was able to get detailed and fine-grained data, and she got to observe the holistic process of building legitimacy. This is important, because previous studies are often focused on the individual tactics for building legitimacy and don´t take into account what happens on a daily basis.
    – I don’t focus on one single mechanism, I try to holistically follow the whole process and see how it evolves and what elements are on different stages, Karolina says. – Legitimacy is built in micro-steps, so therefore this approach to research the process of building legitimacy is very valuable. 
    – I think this holistic approach to building legitimacy is also valuable because research tends to have almost a tunnel vision and focus on how communication activites are used in building legitimacy, like for example having an amazing story about the company, or how the company uses framing or argumentation, and so on, Karolina says. Something she found in her studies is that startups combine legitimacy strategy with general company strategy. Strategies for attracting customers, for example, played an important role in the overall process of building acceptance and support for the startups. What’s more, sometimes companies would need to skillfully adjust their internal strategies to reach their legitimacy goals. 

    Karolina Lesniak Photo: Scott Bekke

    Towards a framework on building legitimacy

    Through her research, Karolina is trying to identify how to put all these individual elements into a coherent framework that startups can use flexibly and adjust to their needs. – The main contribution of this research would be the framework of strategic legitimation, meaning how we can build some kind of model or recipe for startups to use when they face building legitimacy, Karolina says. She would like this framework to be easy to follow, something that describes the process and can be actively used and adjusted to their needs.
    – I think what is needed is knowledge with a practical approach on how startups can get active support, and how they can successfully introduce their innovative ideas. 

    Bigger themes like sustainability, energy transition, medical technology and innovation in health services could really profit with more insight on legitimacy.

    Karolina Lesniak

    – This framework might have a very practical value because the tricky part with legitimacy is that it’s hard to realize that one is legitimate. We only notice when we stop being legitimate, when someone doesn’t grant us legitimacy. This means it is easy to forget and to take legitimacy for granted. One might think that because one investor was convinced the company is legitimate, the company will be legitimate for everyone. This is not the case, this is something one has to work continuously with, Karolina says. In this sense, Karolina believes her research can be valuable to help both established entrepreneurs in addition to students. When asked about who would benefit from this kind of framework, Karolina responds: -The framework would be applicable to basically any startup that is somehow innovative.

  • The roadblocks towards entrepreneurship

    The roadblocks towards entrepreneurship

    – A lot of students with a background in social science might not believe their field is relevant for the innovative community, says
    Benjamin Bekken. He is creating a startup as a social science student.

    By Stine Vedvik

    On September 30th, Spark* hosted their annual Join a Startup Night (JASUN). This is an event for student startups to pitch their ideas to fellow peers, as well as being an event for students interested to join one of the attending startups. One of the students presenting their startup idea this year was Benjamin Bekken, a social science student currently pursuing his Master Degree in media and communication. 

    Social science students and the innovative community

    Being in his fourth year of his education, Benjamin wishes he was introduced to the innovative community at NTNU earlier in his studies. He believes that social science students might not be aware of the opportunities they have, and that they might think that their professional backgrounds are not relevant to the innovative community. 

    I believe that the social science students are not aware of the opportunities they have

    Benjamin Bekken

    Benjamin believes this attitude is common among social science students, and that these students might not acknowledge the value of their competence in the innovative community. One of the measures Benjamin believes could draw more social science students toward thinking entrepreneurial is by introducing the students to the field earlier in their education.

    By somehow incorporating entrepreneurship to the curriculum for bachelor students in social science, these students might be introduced to the opportunities in earlier and might get an interest in entrepreneurship

    Benjamin Bekken

    Benjamin has a great experience with the innovative community at NTNU, and encourages students that have an idea for a startup to seek out the opportunities on campus. His advice is to start as early as possible to get the most out of all the resources available. 

    A passion for content creation

    When Benjamin was younger, he started creating videos that he posted on YouTube. He got a lot of views, and saw that there was a market for the kinds of videos he posted. Later Benjamin started his education in media science, while he also worked for a communication bureau. He got interested in entrepreneurship because of the opportunity to create something of his own based on what he is passionate about, which in Benjamin’s case is media and communication.

    The opportunity to create something of my own that I am passionate about is what has drawn me into entrepreneurship.

    Benjamin Bekken

    While studying media science and working with content creation, Benjamin and his peer got the idea for WePost. He noticed that small businesses often had content of low quality posted to their social media, if they posted anything at all. That’s how he came up with an idea for a business model that tailors the needs of the customers based on a subscription. This way the customers get good quality content for their marketing based on their own needs.

  • Grønsj: A workshop in circular economy

    Grønsj: A workshop in circular economy

    By Marcus Stensland

    Associate professor at Engage, Marianne Arntzen-Nordqvist opened with these words at the workshop “Grønsj”. As a part of the week-long recycling festival in Bodø called “Gjenbruksuka”, Engage, Bodø commune and Kraft teamed up to offer a workshop that focuses on new ways of thinking.

    – I think the problems arounds circular economy and reusable products are often overlooked, but I feel it is very important to focus on.

    Therese Meyer

    The festival, which saw several activities and events happening around Bodø, was created to showcase arenas where the people of Bodø can learn about recycling and circular economic principles. This is to encourage using belongings longer and reducing waste. The project group behind the festival is Bodø commune, Iris Salten, Nord University, and Red Cross.

    Showcased existing projects

    Grønsj started with a short seminar by Julie Hinderaker Hagevik from Bodø commune, who emphasized the importance of reusable and circular thinking, and how we can use innovation to solve numerous issues around the matter. She also showcased some already existing projects in Bodø which heavily rely on circular thinking, like the food saving service “Toogoodtogo”.

    Participants were then split into groups to compete against each other. The goal was to come up with an innovative product or service that builds upon the principles of reusability and circular economy. The winning team would receive a prize of 5000 kroner.

    Think green

    The workshop welcomed several participants, all eager to learn about circular economy and new ways to re-use their personal items. We spoke to one of the teams to get a closer view on how they think regarding the problem. Torbjørn Skjørholm reflects on the workshop.

    – I think this is an excellent arena to meet others with the same interests as myself and find interesting ways to think green. I also think it’s exciting to see that people are interested in the same things despite coming from very different backgrounds.

    Torbjørn was teamed up with Alexander Irgens and Therese Meyer, who both were motivated to learn more about the matter.

    – I saw an ad online for the workshop and I thought it seemed interesting, so I thought why not go? I love getting some insight into what circular economy means and the process around it, Irgens said.

    -I think the problems arounds circular economy and reusable products are often overlooked, but I feel it is very important to focus on, Meyer adds. 

  • On a path to achieve gender equality in the entrepreneurial world

    On a path to achieve gender equality in the entrepreneurial world

     

    By Hedvig Skjelbred Svabø

    Their goal is similar to ours at Engage center, as it is described as to motivate and encourage women to choose entrepreneurship, present the tools needed to succeed and to raise awareness at NTNU regarding the gender differences. Their vision is to achieve gender balance in entrepreneurship both off and on campus.Studies show that a lot of women are not taking steps towards becoming entrepreneurs even though research show an equal amount of men and women wanting to explore entrepreneurship.

    “It is not about women not wanting to explore entrepreneurship, but a mix of different factors. First of all there are still systematic differences that play into less women in the entrepreneurial world for example the lack of tradition as well as marketing directed towards women in the field”

    Nadia leader of “Boost henne”

    Boost helps with this process and their feedback concludes that their presence and community help through them relating to other women. Seeing other women succeed, as well as networking and speaking with each other contribute to more women embarking on an entrepreneurial adventure.

    ”Women are less willing to take risk and may need to feel more secure and achieve perfection before embarking on the journey of becoming an entrepreneur.”

    Nadia leader of “Boost HENNE”.

    The rebrand

    Now four years after the founding of “Kvinneprosjektet” (the woman project), they have undergone a change of identity and on September 14th 2021 “Kvinneprosjektet” relaunched to “Boost HENNE”(boost her). Team leader Nadia said the following about the rebrand;

    “The need for a rebrand is first a result of the name “Kvinne prosjektet” being frequently confused with “Jenteprosjektet ADA” (The girlproject ADA), which made it difficult for us to communicate with and recruit women to participate in our organization.”

    Nadia leader of “Boost henne”

    Along with the rebrand, a new infrastructure also got established. This included setting permanent guidelines for what boost as an organization is today, as well as what they stride to be in the future. Alongside the changes they made internally through different work processes in Spark, they also breached out externally through consulting with the University I NORD, us at Engage center as well as different professional fields to create their guidelines. This concluded to their decision to stride to be a including community, approachable and open for both genders, even though the primary audience are women.

    “The word woman and the term project also contributed to the rebrand by not being in line with our brand. We are no longer considered a project but have earned the title organization.  Following the word woman can exclude male audience and support which led to the decision of a more including and sustainable name for the future”

    Nadia leader of “Boost HENNE”

    They also wanted their name to embody the entrepreneurial spirit, playfulness and creative joy which are core terms in affiliation to the organization. 

    After considering different names they finally settled with “Boost HENNE” which they felt truly embraced what the organization stands for through communicating their wish to strengthen or carry out female entrepreneurs and therefore being aligned with their core values. The name boost also carries well with the other entrepreneurial organizations Start and Spark. Start is the organization meant to inspire, whereas Spark will provide counseling and help in the first steps of building a business. Boost fall in between the two, by their wish to both engage and motivate women, to not only feel inspired, but boost them to taking actual steps towards entrepreneurship.

    “Boost HENNE” works through three main parameters; To engage more women to become entrepreneurs through arranging events such as “Bedriftssimulatoren”. Such events are meant to inspire and motivate as well as distribute professional input. In addition, they are in the midst of creating a female entrepreneurial network where all women in contact with boost are gathered in a mutual portal as a way to network across the community. They stride to eventually use the platform for distributing dynamic content such as tips, befriending, debate and feedback. This process has just begun and will be centered in future work.

    The final parameter is counseling and aid to women wanting to start up businesses, which they work through a cooperation with Spark. Girls approaching “Boost HENNE” can get help being guided through facilitating to the appropriate bodies and that they are taken cared of at spark by given an counselor to guide them in the right direction.

    All photos: Aurora Kolstad

    Current projects and changes

    Going forward “Boost HENNE” will put their efforts towards one big upcoming event; “Bedriftssimulatoren” (business simulation). As the name conveys the event will give female students the opportunity to simulate how building a startup actually is, or at least how it is to develop a business idea. All female students at NTNU are welcome to enter and there is no need for any previous knowledge about entrepreneurship or any business ideas. They welcome all studies and embrace the diversity in both fields and years. Through the event the contestants will learn how to go from generating ideas to market testing to pitching a final product or service to potential business developers.

    With the rebrand, boost has also seen a need for expansion from three to four member. 

    To having a larger impact on campus, they need to become more visible, so they reach all of their potential audience. As a result, they have hired a marketing and PR team member which will optimize social media presence and market such events as “Bedriftssimulatoren”. They hope this will help with gaining new visibility throughout NTNU, so they can interest women in different studies and fields to explore entrepreneurship and as a result erase the gender difference in the entrepreneurial world.

  • Student Investor Day 2021

    Student Investor Day 2021

    By Marcus Stensland

    At Student Investor Day, the goal is to gather the leading student entrepreneurs at NTNU. Eleven startups took part, and the participants got the opportunity to present their startup and meet leading investor networks from Trøndelag and Norway.  

    This is what Pro-Rector at NTNU,Toril Nagelhus Hernes said at this year’s Student Investor Day.

    In collaboration with Sparebank 1 SMN, three prizes were also awarded, “Best business idea,” “Best business plan,” and “Bærekraftsprisen,” with a total prize of 150 000. 

    In addition, the winner of the “Best Business Plan” won participation at Stage Two in Berlin, a pan-European startup competition for the best startups spinning out of leading European universities.

    The reason behind the creation of Student Investor Day is simple. Stian Bongard at NTNU’s School of Entrepreneurship explains.

    – NTNU’s School of Entrepreneurship has long wanted an event where student startups are associated with relevant investor networks. The startup phase of a venture is usually a capital-intensive period, especially for students who are still studying or have recently graduated from university, he says.

    Routing back to the quote from Pro-Rector Hernes earlier, Student Investor Day was held in the newly opened innovation hub at NTNU, called ‘The Mine’.

    The Mine is Norway’s biggest space dedicated to student innovation. Established to help students materializing their entrepreneurial ideas, it also acts as a meeting point for students and businesses.

    The hub officially opened on September 2nd, and is located at campus Gløshaugen in Trondheim.

    Below you can see some videos from the event (in norwegian).

  • Can we evaluate entrepreneurship education?

    Can we evaluate entrepreneurship education?

    By Torgeir Aadland, Co-director Engage and Associate Professor, NTNU

    The popularity of action-based, authentic and self-directed entrepreneurship education is prominent in many educational systems around the world today. Some entrepreneurship education implements and utilises incubators, makerspaces and the closeness of the entire world through the use of digital means in the educational offerings. As such, students have the possibility to investigate, pursue and experience endless opportunities. And as educators, we have endless outcomes to assess.

    A result of the many outcomes is that evaluation and assessment of entrepreneurship education are discussed frequently among scholars. A short time ago, I participated in a forum where the question was raised again – should we assess our efforts as educators in entrepreneurship? And how should we do it? The first part I find easy to answer, but the second is a challenge. Are we educating entrepreneurs whose main purpose is to start new ventures again and again? Are we educating intrapreneurs? People in support roles for other entrepreneurs? Or just change agents that could take many roles and shine at various points in time?

    Focus on students’ intentions?

    Needless to say, all of the above require different approaches to assessment. If we simplify and say that the outcome should solely be entrepreneurs with new start-ups, we bite way more than we can chew. Way more. I still miss seeing any education with more than 50 percent of their student working in their own start-up upon graduation. If we rather focus on students’ intentions, I fear that the students’ last weeks’ results influence the outcome. Supportive customers, peers or mentors could boost students’ positive attitude. The same could a perfect product performance. Or sales! However, high intent is not the same as a successful entrepreneur. Nor a good one. The academic results could be below average, while the intent is high. And all of these individual outcomes could be influenced by the students’ experiences as entrepreneurs.

    As such, our community still has to research and develop tools and procedures for assessment in entrepreneurship education. I think we can do this, but then we have to move beyond the individual and outdated measures, like exams or students’ intentions.

    Torgeir Aadland

    I believe we need to rethink our view on assessment. Entrepreneurship education is too complex to only rely on one outcome measure, but at the same time, we cannot force ourselves to investigate all of our students’ outcomes and results. However, we could start with a baseline – the foundation all entrepreneurs need, like an understanding of opportunities, markets and resources. General knowledge, perhaps. We could then move on to investigate the students’ skills – how they have worked with their own experiences and entrepreneurial activities. And in the end, we can build on the prior with an assessment of students’ experiences, for instance through their reflective thinking. This way, we can explore whether students have the knowledge, skills and mindset needed to become the change agents we strive to educate.

    Individual student’s experiences

    However, while this appears to be a straightforward job, we still lack an understanding of the needed knowledge, skills and mindset to become a successful entrepreneur. It is also a challenge to design good and efficient assessment tools, especially the more we move towards the individual student’s experiences and reflections. This part requires that the educator involves herself in and understands the student’s entrepreneurial efforts. Needless to say, this will expect much of us as educators, and perhaps more than we can afford. As such, our community still has to research and develop tools and procedures for assessment in entrepreneurship education. I think we can do this, but then we have to move beyond the individual and outdated measures, like exams or students’ intentions. We need a mix, but we need a good mix, and right now, this is an ongoing and unfinished work. I think this topic will be discussed at my next conference, too.

    Read more about Torgeir Aadland research

  • How entrepreneurial methods can support student teams to work with sustainable innovation.

    How entrepreneurial methods can support student teams to work with sustainable innovation.

    By Sigrid Westad Brandshaug and Elli Verhulst

    An example of how student teams can be encouraged and supported to act, interact, challenge, embrace and reflect while working to solve problems related to sustainability issues.

    The number of sustainable challenges is growing, whereby higher education has an important role in preparing students to be able to work with such complex problems (Zhou et al., 2020). Entrepreneurial methods are thereby mentioned to support the development of the needed skillset (Filser et al., 2019). In January 2021 we had the opportunity to present and test entrepreneurial methods to a class of master students in the course “Sustainable innovation in the industrial cluster Arctic Cluster Team”.

    This was an Experts in Teamwork village at NTNU managed in collaboration with Engage. The students worked in interdisciplinary teams to solve real-world problems, while they were also practicing and developing their teamwork skills. Due to corona, the course was digital. Although all communication was on Zoom, we observed students showing great engagement, participation and knowledge sharing. Based on student feedback and own reflections we want to share what we believe contributed to the positive learning atmosphere in the course, as this may be teaching strategies that can be adapted and applied by other educators as well, especially in courses where the aim is to support students to develop entrepreneurial skills and a mindset to become change agents. Since the strategies are related to the Engage framework, they will be presented as examples of the five concepts:

    Challenge – Trough cooperation with external partners providing real-world challenges, the students were expected to propose solutions that add value to different stakeholders. For many students, this was a new way of thinking: “aren´t school assignments for the purpose of grading?”. However, they found this challenge highly motivating. As one student put it: “We can actually contribute with something that has a sustainable impact!”

    Interact – Cooperation and interaction with external partners, but also between the students was at the core of this course. At the beginning of the course, actions were initiated and structured by us as teachers, but after the first week, the students were in charge of their project and process. This resulted for instance in a session where the students made their own structure for presenting their project to another group. They kept sharing feedback, ideas and knowledge for several hours. At a certain point we just had to stop them, after all, it was Friday afternoon…

    Act – All groups were engaged by going through using creative processes on projects in iterative cycles: researching, developing, testing, receiving feedback and learning. Each partner introduced their case, but the students worked on specifying and developing it further as a group. Ownership of the idea was very important. As an example, one team iterated on their project idea for several rounds and ended up with a solution quite different from the case description. However, their external partner found it both useful and innovative.

    Embrace – For some students this was their first experience working on an open-ended task of this kind, which they experienced as highly challenging. However, we tried to support them through the process, especially in the early phase of the project. First, by providing tools to stimulate creativity as well as exercises. Some exercises helped the teams to open up for different perspectives, while other exercises aimed to support the teams to prioritize between these ideas. Secondly, we normalized the chaotic process early in the course through acknowledging emotional responses of uncertainty, frustration and anxiety, and by emphasizing the potential of learning and innovation in this chaotic phase.

    Reflect – Individual and group reflection were integrated as a daily routine at the end of each course day. Situations related to the students’ project development and team collaboration were openly discussed and used as a basis for new actions and ideas of improvement, and just as important, for supporting the transfer from experiences to learning. The students found it difficult in the beginning, but after some rounds, they appreciated the “session of reflection”, and found it both interesting and useful.

    We believe that these structures and facilitation of both the students´ project development process and team process could be valuable in a variety of other courses in higher education that aim to integrate entrepreneurial methods. Student feedback and the course results show us that the students learned a lot and that it also was a fun experience, which seems to trigger their interest in acting entrepreneurially in teams with others in the future.  

    Read more about the EiT village (norwegian)