The project
The EMBRACE project is to promote CSE in HEI educational programmes and improve students’ competences, employability and attitudes contributing to the creation of new business opportunities dealing with social change inside companies as well as promoting collaboration among companies.
Today’s knowledge-driven global economy demands greater emphasis on addressing the issues of social inclusion, social equality and engaging society in research and innovation processes to generate solutions responsive to societal needs. Such aspirations can only be achieved if there is open collaborative, cooperative engagement between the quadruple helix of actors in any given society. The foundation stone of developing such an inclusive, collaborative, socially aware entrepreneurial society is: Education. To facilitate and fulfil these goals, there are three dimensions to the European Corporate Social Entrepreneurship curriculum (EMBRACE) project, resulting in EMBRACEedulab
The First Dimension
The first dimension is to establish, within the framework of the Social Business Initiative, a favourable climate for social economy stakeholders to be aware of the need to identify actions to increase the visibility of the necessity for Corporate Social Entrepreneurship and the development of a more socially aware entrepreneurial society in regions. This awareness building will be achieved through the consortium’s access to a unique horizon scanning mechanism that identifies disruptive technological and societal trends.
The Second Dimension
The second dimension is the co-design, co-creation, co-development and co-implementation of an innovative, multidisciplinary European Corporate Social Entrepreneurship Curriculum (ECSEC) to be incorporated into HEI education programmes across all disciplines. The output of such a curriculum will be more rounded, employable graduates capable of contributing immediately to the intrapreneurial and social responsibilities of their employers.
The Third Dimension
The third dimension is the establishment of a sustainable environment that facilitates the exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge between HEIs and enterprises; resulting in the creation of new business opportunities dealing with social change both within and external to organisations.
Together, these dimensions generate a scheme of transversal skills learning and application throughout HEIs which are transferable to industry and business communities – the EMBRACEedulab. The legacy, therefore, of the EMBRACE project is the multidisciplinary EMBRACEedulab - a set of tried and tested educational programmes and stakeholder collaborative engagement methodologies and methods to facilitate embedding social corporate entrepreneurship within regions.
Project Aims and Objectives
The main goal of the EMBRACE project is to promote CSE in HEI educational programmes and improve students’ competences, employability and attitudes contributing to the creation of new business opportunities dealing with social change inside companies as well as promoting collaboration among companies. The project is designed to achieve the following specific objectives:
SO 1.
Promote social (intra)entrepreneurial competences and skills facilitating the introduction of social innovation ecosystem in higher education institutions;
SO 2.
Create a sustainable environment to promote social (intra)entrepreneurial mind-set among higher education actors (students, researcher, graduates and teachers);
SO 3.
Involve businesses and entrepreneurs in education as providers of practices and lessons on Corporative Social Entrepreneurship cases;
SO 4.
Foster links between HEIs and enterprises establishing a sustainable collaboration aimed at identifying common needs and, through mutual knowledge exchange co-develop, collaborative cooperative solutions to these needs embracing a social approach;
SO 5.
Address social challenges through innovative learning methods that promote the continuous and close collaboration between enterprises and education institutions;
SO 6.
Introduce a multidisciplinary Corporative Social Entrepreneurship curriculum to inculcate entrepreneurial learning across all HEI disciplines;
SO 7.
Build a collaborative space to develop social (intra)entrepreneurship activities between HEIs and enterprises to deal with sustainable socio-economic and green development.
Finally, the project aims to fulfil the following operational objectives
OO 1.
Analyse the delivery of Corporate Social Entrepreneurship skills and competencies in HEIs in order to define the gaps and obstacles
OO 2.
Assess the Corporate Social Entrepreneurship processes, procedures and practices in enterprises, identifying relevant cases and good practices using a unique horizon scanning mechanism collating and assimilating thousands of relevant documents
OO 3.
Define a framework of key competences and skills for developing and embedding Corporate Social Entrepreneurship
OO 4.
Integrate competences and skills for Corporate Social Entrepreneurship in a multidisciplinary, transversal curriculum of higher education
OO 5.
Build a collaborative, cooperative and open learning/working area to promote the development of Corporate Social Entrepreneurship competences, involving enterprises and higher education organisations.
Within the framework of Knowledge Alliance actions and objectives, the EMBRACE project is designed to support the following activities
Boosting Innovation
Boosting innovation in higher education, business and in the broader socio-economic environment: EMBRACE project through its university-business collaborative and cooperative consortium will co-design, co-develop and co-implement a new European curriculum on CSE – the ECSEC
Developing Entrepreneurship
Developing entrepreneurship mind-set and skills: the ECSEC will be applied throughout higher education programmes in partner countries (and beyond), aiming at increasing graduate employability, creativity and new professional paths.
Stimulating the Co-Creation
Stimulating the co-creation, flow and exchange of knowledge between higher education and enterprise: the EMBRACE university-business partnership will actively collaborate in all the pre-designed project activities and tasks, facilitating the knowledge transfer and exchange.
Enabling HEIs
Enabling HEIs to produce more rounded, employable graduates capable of contributing immediately to the intrapreneurial and social responsibilities of their employers.
Establishment of a Sustainable Environment
Facilitating the establishment of a sustainable environment that nurtures the exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge between HEIs and enterprises; resulting in the creation of new business opportunities dealing with social change both within and external to organisations.
Our Partners
The EMBRACE project consortium comprises of 10 European Partners
