Universities in Innovation Ecosystems - Higher Education Provides Knowledge for Individuals, Working Life and Society

Abstract

important both for an individual's ability and for the development of society as whole. Higher education aims to develop both the human capital and the excellence needed to create new jobs, economic growth, and prosperity in the EU. The recent literature on innovation research emphasises service innovations that arise from the combination of different knowledge, skills, ideas, and resources. Thus, it is important to create open and networked innovation ecosystems where higher education institutes, citizens, private and public sector innovate together. All this requires new collaborative innovation models outside the traditional service research areas.

This article describes the development work on higher education pedagogy at Laurea University of Applied Sciences, which aims to reform and develop approaches that link the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) level 7 higher education more closely with RDI activities, as well as strengthen the role of UAS as facilitators of co-creation and shared knowledge-creation processes in open innovation ecosystems.