The Developing Innovative Sustainable Cooperation Opportunities (DISCO) project aims to strengthen the innovation capacity of European higher education institutions through joint learning, collaboration and knowledge transfer between three partner universities, one non-profit enterprise and one small and medium-sized enterprise (SME), representing the wider innovation ecosystem.

DISCO will stimulate the development of skills in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship through training of students, advisory and coaching support for start-ups and scale-ups, as well as capacity building among scientific and non-scientific employees of universities. The project will achieve its goals by designing and creating new forms of collaboration and experimentation through innovation labs, an observatory and by developing a joint Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), all with the aim of supporting the development of a sense of initiative and an entrepreneurial mindset in the European Union. The project will create three inter-institutional and inter-sectoral communities connecting partner universities, innovators and business, social and government partners.

These communities will initially focus on three challenges: – digital innovation – as an aspect of increasing importance for both economic development and the European labor market; – sustainable innovation, especially sustainable mobility – reflecting the EU’s transition to a greener economy; – global business services – to reflect even closer collaboration to meet diverse service needs at scale. DISCO will facilitate two levels of engagement with new higher education institutions: online information and initial mentoring, and assistance in identifying bottlenecks, innovative partnerships and facilitating the implementation of new solutions. All universities will also be involved in a program of knowledge exchange and open debates.

Team members: prof. dr hab. Łukasz Mamica (Full Professor), prof. dr hab. Marek Ćwiklicki (Full Professor), dr Jakub Głowacki (Assistant Professor), mgr Anna Mirzyńska, mgr Kamila Pilch