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Department of Management - DISA

TechForward

The Tech Forward call is open until March 17, 2025, at 10 a.m.
March 10 at 9 a.m.: Q&A Online Session.
Find out all the details in the announcement and apply!

TechForward Student Program

Rif. Pa 2024- 22855/RER  / Numero progetto / CUP: J31J24003680002

TechForward Student Program establishes a Higher Education Course dedicated to master's students of the Universities of Emilia Romagna, who, through a project approach, identify potential application areas of technologies developed within the Universities and Research Institutes of the Emilia Romagna region.

The goal of Tech Forward is to develop the entrepreneurial mindset of students and researchers while ensuring the exploitation of innovative technologies developed by research groups at the University and Research Institutes and their application to solving the needs of society.

The project aims to make Emilia-Romagna a region of knowledge by promoting higher education and incentivizing young people to stay there after their studies, potentially creating new businesses that employ the technologies under consideration. This strengthens the connections between higher university education and opportunities for specialization and professionalization.

Being conducted entirely in English, TechForward includes initiatives to attract international students and promote collaboration between entities and institutions nationally and internationally, enhancing the strategic relationship with CERN Geneva. This includes seminar and networking activities to increase the visibility and international dimension of the educational offerings. The project aligns with the regional smart specialization strategy, promoting skills in key areas such as digital and ecological transition.

The program's methodology, the Tech to Market developed by the University of Bologna, is a hybrid model based on the human-centered approach of Design Thinking and other Tech-Driven Innovation methodologies.

Over 16 weeks, inter-university and multidisciplinary teams of students examine revolutionary technologies to identify their potential and develop relevant solutions to solve societal, human, and ecosystem needs. Six multidisciplinary teams of five master's students from different universities in the region will be supported by local coaches, enhancing the knowledge of the universities' researchers during scheduled design sprints.

The students will connect with researchers, both those who developed the technology and other experts, to gain a technical understanding of the technology; with professionals from different industries and users, to understand the potential impact of the technology in different contexts; and finally, they will develop various ideas in an iterative process and check with users which applications have the most potential.

Tech Forward is proposed as a tool for:

- The enhancement of students' soft skills and entrepreneurial skills

- The enhancement of cutting-edge technologies developed in the region's universities and research centers

- The integration of regional expertise into multidisciplinary teams through the conjunction of research and cross-Ateneo multidisciplinary student teams to bring technical, business, design, and humanities perspectives, among others

- The involvement of students in the university's entrepreneurial start-up initiatives

- The potential increase in the number of spinoffs

- The exploration and validation of potential markets- Increased awareness of investment choices

- Increased capital attraction for universities and spinoffs

Project owner: Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, Department of Management, Innovation Area, Education Area 

Promoters: Università di Ferrara, Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Università degli Studi di Parma

Implementing partners:  AlmaCube, FAM 

Starting date 28.02.2025 - End date 28.08.2025 

The TechForward project is being implemented thanks to European Funds from the Emilia-Romagna Region.

TECH FORWARD - COLLIDING INNOVATION

Ref PA 2024-23127/RER - Tech Forward - Colliding Innovation / Project number: / CUP J31J24003690002

CERN Ideasquare Collision Week

During the week at CERN Ideasquare, the TechForward project provides a series of structured activities to maximize student learning and innovation:

  • Workshops and Seminars: Students will participate in workshops and seminars taught by CERN experts, researchers, and scientists. These meetings will cover Design Thinking, technological innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology transfer.
  • Ideation and Prototyping Sessions: Student teams will be involved in brainstorming and ideation sessions to develop innovative concepts. They will then work on prototyping their ideas using tools and resources available at Ideasquare.
  • Meetings with CERN Scientists and Engineers: Students will have the opportunity to meet and interact with various researchers. These meetings will help validate ideas and better understand the potential of technologies.
  • Visits to University Technology Laboratories. Throughout the program, students will be able to arrange visits to the universities' laboratories referencing the identified technologies.
  • Lab visit: researchers will arrange a guided tour of the lab, presenting the context within which the identified technology was developed.
  • Technology presentation: the research team will organize a deep dive session for the project team on the technology, designed for a multidisciplinary audience. Interactions and a hands-on “hands on” approach will be encouraged where students can ask questions and fully understand the technology potential.

Technology Deep Dive in Bertinoro (FC).

Students and researchers will exchange technology expertise at the Bertinoro University Residential Center (Ce.U.B.) for a week.

  • Seminars: Students will participate in seminars given by researchers from partner universities on the fundamentals of technologies. Since these are multidisciplinary groups, this activity is essential to align all students with a foundation for understanding the potential of various technologies.
  • One to One Meetings: Students will be able to meet and interact with researchers of their technology. These meetings to better understand the potential of technologies.

Models, Approaches, and Implementation Methodologies:

  • Design Thinking: The program uses the “Tech to Market” model developed by the University of Bologna, based on the human-centered approach of Design Thinking. This method helps students develop innovative solutions from the needs of users.
  • Tech Driven Innovation: Students will apply technology-driven innovation methodologies to explore the potential of technologies developed in universities and research centers in the region.
  • Stakeholder mapping: During the Deep Dive, students will produce a map of stakeholders and potential users of technologies together with researchers. This activity is instrumental in defining the interviews and insights to be conducted during the project.

This combination of activities, methodologies, and resources aims to create a stimulating and productive environment where students can develop entrepreneurial and technical skills, explore new ideas, and contribute to technological innovation in the Emilia-Romagna region.