1. Virtual Mobility through
Innovation Labs
Hilde Evers
Lieve Mulier
Robrecht Van Goolen
Leuven University College
VISIR, 25-26 March 2014

2. EU-VIP
Enterprise-University Virtual Placements
• Project financed as a LLP project
• Time frame: 01 October 2009 – 30 September 2011
• Partnerships between 16 organizations from 8 countries

3. Objectives EU-VIP
• Investigate and test innovative ways to organize work
placements, providing students and companies more opportunities
to work together;
• Familiarize employers, teachers and students with the use of virtual
technologies;
• Focus on international, European cross-border work placements
instead of local or national placements;
• Boost innovation through the implementation of ICT into high
quality work placements in companies.

4. Steps in EU-VIP
Before

5. Steps in EU-VIP
During

6. Steps in EU-VIP
After

7. Limited student mobility for internships and no support policy
SMEs are important players in today’s economy but underused in internships
But actual situation:
• EU lags behind compared to other major world economies;
• Research and policy agendas are centered on technological innovation
and focused on large companies;
• SMEs are lacking capacity to innovate;
• Non-technological innovations are highly relevant for SMEs;
• Mobility for students is mainly through physical exchange, but internet
opens a wide spectrum of virtual possibilities.
Background motivation

8. Method
Innovation Labs:
“Collaborative platform between HEIs and SMEs with a case-based approach
as an alternative for an international internship”
Approach:
Teams with business students tackled several innovation problems of SMEs:
B2B & B2C markets in various industries by virtual means.
Three objectives:
1. Collaborate between HEIs and SMEs in a virtual way;
2. Offer students a real-life international work situation in a virtual
context;
3. Stimulate business model innovation in SMEs.

9. Participants from Leuven University College & Laurea University of
Applied Sciences:
• Students: 4 Belgian + 7 Finnish
• Lecturers: 2 Belgian + 1 Finnish
Cases:
• De Standaard (Belgian newspaper): market research on youth market
segment
• Rips (Finnish food exporter): Belgian market analysis to export a Finnish
food product to Belgium
Method

10. Different stages of the virtual project
Introductory stage
• Finalizing topic, contents and use of ICT platform
• Each student group had 2 virtual meetings to meet and be introduced to
the cases
Middle stage
• Organizing brainstorm sessions, executing market research, developing
business plans
End stage
• Presentation of business plan to companies
All stakeholders were surveyed in every stage
Method

11. Innovative methodology for all stakeholders by using virtual communication
via video conferencing, Sharepoint, e-mail, Skype and HEIs internal internship
follow-up tool
Students
• Develop innovative business plan for foreign employer
• Develop intercultural skills
• Work with virtual learning tools
Companies
• Discover business opportunities in other countries
HEIs
• Work with virtual learning tools
• Have contact with foreign lecturers
• Learn about other didactic approaches
Benefits for stakeholders

12. Findings
Findings on communication:
Added value:
• Communication with foreign partner without travelling
• Communication is more personal than e-mail
• Good practice for foreign language learning
Pitfalls:
• Technical failures
• Limited knowledge of software
• Misunderstandings because of use of non-native language
• Time difference
Recommendation:
• Need for clear guidelines

13. Findings
Findings on learning outcomes:
Added value:
• Getting experience in long distance working and ICT skills
• Experience of working in foreign company culture
• Entrepreneurial and innovation skills
• Plus on CV
Pitfalls:
• Finding the most suitable students for the project
• Big difference in culture and doing business
Recommendation:
• Innovative ICT tools, international internships and real-life business cases
should be more present in business studies

14. Conclusion
Interesting collaboration between HEIs and SMEs:
• HEIs offer genuine business problems to their students:
learning by working on authentic cases and improving
ICT-knowledge, entrepreneurial and cross-cultural communication
skills;
• SMEs receive innovative solutions to improve business performance;
• Embedded in the curriculum of the business university colleges;
• Transferrable methodology to other HEIs.
Further developments:
• Standardization of the communication through an online platform
Pathway covered by the European LLP project PROVIP
• Expanding the international dimension in Erasmus+
Strategic Partnerships (submission April 2014)

15. For further information:
www.euvip.eu
Hilde.Evers@khleuven.be
Lieve.Mulier@khleuven.be
Robrecht.VanGoolen@khleuven.be
Any questions?