Category: Travel Stories

This is an article written by a recent intern, Elena; who worked with our office.  Elena is from Romania, currently studying in Forlì, Italy; and worked with our office for a few months as part of her studies. She wrote an article for us to share about her impressions of our office and a reflection on her time working with us.  

It is easy to see that GCU’s Europe Office has enjoyed unprecedented success from the opportunities provided by the European Union; as a result of implementing strategic partnerships with universities, businesses and other organisations within the UK and throughout the world. The Europe Office (TEO) has managed to deliver an appropriate and professional strategy in order to find new partners and convince others to engage in interesting projects. Along with other offices sustaining social innovation and enterprise within GCU, TEO has given the city of Glasgow a boost by attracting different organisations and top researchers to contribute to projects and research in the city, whilst also helping to draw in tourism and support cultural exchange. The projects that TEO coordinates and is involved in aim to promote social innovation through ideas, creativity, diversity and inter-sectoral collaboration; with overriding aims to improve quality of life in Glasgow and the wider world.

TEO has a range of skills and experience through its staff and projects and this makes it a place where professionalism; proactivity; reliability; commitment; and many other qualities can be found combined to produce the innovative approach that the office has.  There is an ideal mixture for an outward looking and engaged office.  One of TEO’s most important assets is that at its forefront there is a leader and not a boss. Working with a leader enables sharing of experience and skills acquired between staff; and abilities are passed on in the team. This boosts TEO’s overall capacity and it leads to a stronger, well prepared and hardworking team. TEO is a place where the team is a team in the real sense of the word. It is a great working environment where the team collaborates, sets common goals and develops together. The inter-disciplinary experience, interpersonal skills, attention to detail and diplomacy; and multi-tasking but relaxed work environment, are the qualities that make GCU’s TEO indispensable and effective; even in these uncertain times.

TEO have continued to be proactive and through risk analysis are aware of feasible scenarios for the office to be sustainable into the future.  To move forward will require the implementation of a new strategy for the office; and different approaches along with consolidation of skills and cooperation with new and established partners. The office continues to support the university’s researchers, partners and academic staff using their expertise and disseminating information to help allay the uncertainty that the University community may be experiencing in recent months.  For the university and project partners, the Brexit result might be an opportunity to become better as individuals by developing new abilities and skills while acquiring new information and work experience.

If leaving the EU will be the outcome for Scotland, TEO has identified alternative funding sources and strategies to be ready for a changing world.  If so, the office may change but TEO will retain its ethos of supporting collaborative research, international university cooperation and constructive dialogue between different countries. Improving standards, as well as becoming more active and visible are some of GCU’s underpinning goals which will continue to help maximise opportunities and offer a higher standard of education for its students.  With or without the EU, it will continue its overarching mission.  Currently nobody can tell exactly what impact Brexit will have on certain sectors because the process is a complex one, as indicated below, made mostly of negotiations which makes it somewhat unpredictable what outcomes will occur.

Source: [1]

After the process ends, UK will no longer offer European added value [1] [2]. But despite the uncertainty, the resources for collaboration will still be accessible, at least for the moment. GCU’s The Europe Office has managed to increase international cooperation outside Europe by engaging in opportunities offered by the EU. In addition to supporting the academic community to access funding streams, it has already led to several successful EU funded projects, including the establishment of Innovation Centres in Latin America and North Africa, and is currently involved in a number of Social Innovation initiatives.  TEO’s revived strategy going forward will continue to work to place GCU at the forefront of EU engagement.

[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32810887

[2] http://ec.europa.eu/chafea/documents/health/hp-factsheets/added-value/factsheets-hp-av_en.pdf

[3] http://www.proyectosupua.es/lifestyles/en/content/project/european-added-value

Hi everyone!

We have been in Denver this week at the NAFSA Conference and Expo 2016.  It was warm and sunny as you can see from some of our pictures!  We met with contacts both new and established and discussed current and potential projects.

There was a range of different workshops and speakers, and many universities from all over the world exhibiting and networking with each other.

For further info on the speakers please see here for the full agenda: https://www.eventscribe.com/2016/nafsa/agenda.asp?h=Full%20Schedule&BCFO=A|GP|MG|O|P|PF|PL|S|SP|W|X|CC|ES|NP

All in all it was a useful and interesting week, and our director Mark even donned full Scottish dress (pictures to follow soon…).

At the end of June one of our projects ‘Strategy For Change’ has an event in Aveiro coming up also.  At this event there will be speakers from a range of organisations; such as freelance entrepreneurs, university professors and researchers and more – from across the world.  It will be an interesting event with speakers and workshops focusing on social innovation, social entrepreneurship, collaboration and co-design and civic participation.

For more information on the event and how to get involved, see the Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/sfcaveiro , Tumblr page: http://sfc-aveiro.tumblr.com/ and keep your eyes on our Facebook and Twitter where we will be posting details of the event.

That’s it from us this week, happy Friday and enjoy your weekends (and the weather!), new post again soon.

Please leave us a comment to tell us what you have been up to, or if you want to chat to us about any projects get in touch on Twitter,  Facebook or by emailing Mark.Anderson@gcu.ac.uk

The last month has been a busy one in the Europe Office!

At the beginning of the month we visited Nairobi, Moi University for a Roundtable meeting for the ENRICH Project.  Discussions focused on the constraints faced by East African countries to developing better, reliable and more affordable low carbon energy.  Discussions went further in to include smart grids, better infrastructure, using local business and innovation, and greater collaboration between public-private-university sectors.

Then there was the HEURO Annual Conference 2016 in Birmingham where Pablo delivered a presentation on our experience of Erasmus+ KA2 Capacity Building projects.

We also hosted an UKRO workshop about MSCA Fellowships under Horizon 2020.  If you would like to know more about this get in contact with TEO through our Facebook, Twitter or by emailing mark.anderson@gcu.ac.uk.

We were in Groningen and we visited the Campus Library at University of Groningen, during our Capacity Building TEACHEX meeting.

Lastly, we were also in Brussels at a Scotland Europa familiarization event.  We heard from Scottish MEPs, Policy think tanks and Scotland Europa staff about the structure of the European Union and the different funding mechanisms available.

For more information about these events and projects, see our Twitter feed (@GCU_TEO), Facebook page (The Europe Office – GCU) and the website links in this post.

We will be in Aveiro, Portugal at the end of June, for the Strategy for Change Project…. keep your eyes peeled for updates about that visit!

Pablo Lopez Alonso, European Projects Manager at The Europe Office, delivered a workshop on Six-Sigma and process management and attended the 1^st International Conference “Energy accessibility & efficiency: the importance of Science, Technology and Innovation support services” in Dar-es-salaam (Tanzania), from 5 to 9 October. These activities are organised under Enrich, a European Commission funded project focusing on capacity building activities with universities and national institutions from Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, in which GCU is a partner.

On the 1 and 2 of October, The Europe Office brought together leading researchers and practitioners at two special brokerage events in Brussels in order to forge new partnerships and projects. The first day focused on Funding Opportunities for Social Innovation in International Cooperation & Development. The event aimed to forge a more effective, transdisciplinary approach to projects under the Horizon 2020, Erasmus+ & EuropeAid Programmes and attracted leading players in the field from across Europe and beyond. The second day centred around Serious Gaming as an integral part of research and innovation under the Horizon 2020 Programme. The event attracted a range of experts in the fields of serious gaming and other specific areas – health, climate change/energy and societal challenges – in order to forge a more effective, transdisciplinary approach to EU project delivery. Over 120 participants attended the events from 15 different countries, including US, Korea and Ghana. As well as representatives of various European Commission funding programmes participants were given the opportunity to hear the latest developments from world renowned researchers such as Tom Baranowksi from Baylor College of Medicine and Christoph Kaletka from the University of Dortmund.