Driving innovation and entrepreneurship development in Ukraine

Last week the Tempus partners gathered in Kyiv to discuss the results of the NEFESIE project in 2015, highlight the future activities and plans for joint projects.

The representatives from five Ukrainian universities and European higher education establishments together with the Tempus partners met in Kyiv for the regular meeting last week. The gathering was called to share the results of the outgoing year and outline the action plan for the future.

A key topic discussed at this meeting was the launch of a course on innovation and entrepreneurship for the best Ukrainian students. Each of the five universities from Ukraine will nominate five students to make two-week trips to both Sweden and Portugal, where they will learn from the best European professors. The student teams consist of the best students from the IT Eureka contest.

The trip to Sweden will be hosted by Linnaeus University, the coordinating institution of the Tempus program. Within this trip, Sigma will organize one full innovation day in Växjö, where different companies and entrepreneurs will be invited to explain how startup and innovative thinking work in reality.

“We see the upcoming Tempus trip as a great learning opportunity for the Ukrainian students. Our goal is to share with them the knowledge from leading professors in entrepreneurship and the business insight from successful startups and entrepreneurs,” says Gösta Sundberg, Head of the Tempus project and senior lecturer at Linnaeus University. “We aim to show the students how they can develop innovative thinking and bring their ideas to life.”

“Instituto Pedro Nunes in Portugal has a very strong startup incubator. I believe the academic staff there can help our young specialists grasp the idea of being an entrepreneur and innovative startup better than anyone else. When it comes to new assignments, the Ukrainian students tend to use the technology they have worked with before. They are usually afraid to try something new. The main goal of this Tempus initiative is to bring them out from the comfort zone, to show that innovative approach can be applied in every area and every technology, to teach the students to think outside the box,” says Nataly Potapova, Training Manager at Sigma Software.

Niklas Malmros, President at Sigma Technology Solutions, adds that the company is very proud to be a part of the project:

“As a partner of Tempus, we have been participating in the development of entrepreneurship among Ukrainian IT students for about five years. The company aims to create a favorable ecosystem so that future IT specialists can develop their business ideas and become brilliant examples of successful startups in the future,” he says. “During the Tempus trip to Sweden, our company is planning to host the Sigma Technology Day for young people. We will invite them to our office to share business approaches to innovative thinking development.”

For more information, please, contact Niklas Malmros.