E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novatores project's second meeting of the General Assembly (GnA) was held at the University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten, Austria, on the 9th and 10th of March. The E³UDRES² Ent-r-e-novatores project, which started in October 2022, is an initiative that aims to increase the research capacity of the European university alliance E³UDRES² - Engaged European Entrepreneurial University as Driver for European Smart and Sustainable Regions - and co-create a specific joint research strategy for the alliance.

On Thursday, February 23, the co-creation improvisation Question Factory about Sustainability took place at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA) marking the opening of the Open Innovation Hub. ViA researchers and students, as well as representatives from Vidzeme municipalities participated in the co-creation. The event consisted of three parts - questions, solutions and individual discussions with researchers.

In the first part, participants asked various questions about how ViA researchers could help municipalities to solve sustainability issues in towns and rural areas and how municipalities could help researchers.

“Questions allow us to understand the problem in more detail and help notice the subtleties that should be addressed. They are at the heart of research and innovation. If the question is formulated correctly, the solution becomes obvious,” said Iveta Putniņa, Administrative Vice-rector at ViA and the Head of the E3UDRES2 European University project. “Albert Einstein has said, 'If I were given one hour to solve a problem and my life depended on it, I would spend the first 55 minutes identifying the right question to solve'. In this co-creation, we managed to ask 86 questions that can help the participants of the question factory to further develop new ideas for innovations.”

Yuliia Kovalenko from the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture has been involved in the implementation of the Baltic 100 project thanks to the additional funding granted by the Latvian Council of Science aimed at attracting research personnel from Ukraine. Various socio-economic and demographic data from the Baltic States during the last 100 years have been collected and analyzed in the project, including data at the level of current statistical and planning regions. The gross domestic product of the Baltic States is being calculated, and an interactive database has been created where the collected data will be available to the interested parties.

All of society, including companies and universities, will be increasingly affected by the green transition and the related environmentally aware behaviour, which is why Ülemiste City organised another international business and education network meeting Challenges of Environmental Awareness in Future City. Examples of environmentally aware companies were presented in the project and future talents and campus companies were brought together.

In 2022, Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA) started to implement the project E.I.N.S: E3UDRES2 Entrepreneurship and Innovation Network for Smart and Sustainable European Regions (No. 10043). The project is funded by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT, https://eit-hei.eu/) which is the largest and most influential innovation network in Europe. This is a new initiative that foresees a major role for higher education institutions to strengthen innovation in the regions.

This year, 17 foreign full-time students from countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, Nigeria, and Azerbaijan will start their studies at Vidzeme University of Applied Sciences (ViA). In the autumn semester of 2022, 9 new foreign exchange students from France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Albania, and Moldova were also admitted as a part of the Erasmus+ program. Students will study various courses within the ViA International Study Module.