When prototyping or producing a machine or its parts, several methods of manufacturing are used, such as machining, additive manufacturing, laser cutting or welding. These manufactured parts are investigated for their manufacturing tolerances upon production via quality control systems, such as a coordinate measurement machine. However, at the current state of the art, one production machine can only perform its one designated process. Additionally, these machines are generally large and bulky computer numerical control systems. As a result, these manufacturing machines are heavy and non-portable products with high investment costs. For these reasons, small investors or start-ups cannot invest in these machines, or very few of them can invest in only one type of manufacturing machine. The aim of this project is to develop a lightweight, portable and low-cost manufacturing cell that can perform precise manufacturing and quality control. This challenge can only be solved by the collaborative work of interdisciplinary partners. Inspired by this action, Izmir Institute of Technology (IZTECH) has been firmly committed to developing and promoting enabling technologies for robotic and manufacturing systems. However, IZTECH could not fully exploit its technological and innovation potential in this field due to limited resources in research and project management. There is a clear need for concrete partnership between IZTECH and internationally leading counterparts to bring this potential into play, and thus to spread scientific excellence in robotics and manufacturing systems over the European Research Area and industry. In this way, Türkiye's excellence capacity and resources can be improved, and the research and innovation gap between Türkiye and the European Union can be closed in this specific area. As a consequence of this project, IZTECH's reputation and capacity to carry out advanced research are expected to grow due to this collaboration.

(see above)

The Ulysseus European University is one of the 24 selected alliances from the second pilot call for proposals under the 2020 Erasmus+ work programme. The Alliance faces an ambitious 10 years endeavour that will contribute to shape the European Higher Education Area and the European Research Area , and hence the future of Europe. Ulysseus Alliance’s vision for 2030 is to develop an excellency-recognized and internationally attractive open to the world, persons-centred and entrepreneurial European University for the citizens of the future. The process of transformation towards this European University involves the generation of both a territorial and digital Innovation Ecosystem, the Ulysseus Innovation Ecosystem. Understanding our Alliance as one Innovation Ecosystem developing solutions for specific R&I challenges from Innovation Hubs, is Ulysseus unique and distinguishing feature. The Ulysseus Ecosystem rests on two solid foundations: the Ulysseus Community , representing the helix and including the 6 Alliance partners and 95 associated partners ; and the Ulysseus Campus. COMPASS is the flagship for Ulysseus R&I agenda, so its aim is to build upon this vision by establishing Ulysseus as a model of excellence for research and innovation transformation in line with the shared, integrated, long-term joint strategy of the alliance, boosting synergies between the European Research Area and the European Education Area. COMPASS will support the development of strategies and concrete action plans in order to position Ulysseus as an institutional transformation model at research and innovation level. Through COMPASS, the alliance will reinforce their joint long-term vision for research and innovation to drive systemic, structural and sustainable impact at all levels of the institutions involved.

The need for acquiring entrepreneurial and digital competences is not limited to learners seeking careers as commercial entrepreneurs or as employees within the IT sector, but rather extends to “all walks of life” as EU policy makers have repeatedly emphasized [1,2,3,4]. Consequently, the importance of entrepreneurship education (EE) and digital education (DE) as integral part within university studies has been prioritised in recent years [4,5]. Despite those recognised needs on the policy side, attention given to EE and DE in higher education (HE) programmes still remains rather elusive [6,7]. In fact, the Covid 19 pandemic merciless shows that DE, in particular, requires a place at the nucleus of academia and cannot be dealt with as side issue at the dawn of the digital age [4].Ultimately, existing shortcomings with regards to EE and DE within HE causes a sub-optimal exploitation of entrepreneurial potentials as well as a substandard deployment of digital technologies at later stage of careers (in academia or world of work outside HE).Our project “Ulysses Contest – Digital Student Competition on Family Business” (ULYSSES) has been designed to address these deficits. It focuses on university students that are keen to gather practical entrepreneurial learning experiences and want to enhance their digital skills. ULYSSES will provide this combined chance by setting up the 1st digital European student competition that focuses explicitly on family businesses (FB).To put this into practice, sustainable and regional university-industry interaction networks will be built that input well-prepared, complex, and real business challenges into the Ulysses Contest (IO1, IO2, IO4). The competition is based on an innovative virtual learning and teaching platform (IO3) that will be tailored to the functional needs of the contest, as well as to the individual user/target groups (students, educators, family business stakeholder) requirements.As such, ULYSSES will drive change for the benefit of a new form of digital entrepreneurship education within the involved partner institutions and beyond. Moreover, ULYSSES will:a) Propagate the exploitation of the European Frameworks on Digital Competences (DigComp) and Entrepreneurship Competence (EntreComp) inside HEb) Develop scalable online open-educational resources that focus on fostering digital and entrepreneurship competencesc) Catalyse digital readiness and entrepreneurial competence deliverance of involved students and educators Despite demonstrating resilience, optimism and agility, most family businesses have been exposed to unseen health, safety, and welfare challenges by the COVID-19 pandemic by severe disruptions to their core operations. We believe Erasmus+ projects can have a limited impact for mitigating effects of Covid 19. The Ulysses Contest may help by:d) (Re-)vitalising and strengthening industry-university interactions,e) Finding practical solutions to pressing business problems,f) Raising awareness for challenges and skill requirements of FB among academia,g) Introducing FB to a talented pool of potential employees,h) Creating exchange among FB stakeholder on the basis of the Ulysses virtual platform (IO3).Methodologically, the project design of ULYSSES is based on a co-creational industry-university interaction as recommended by the EC (6). The project will be realised within a 2-year long, interdisciplinary collaboration (4 HEI, 2 SME,) and is expected to unfold impact across 4 EU Countries involving 120+ students, 40+ educators, 10+ FB stakeholders.PARTICIPANTS●University of Szeged, Hungary – lead partner, experienced in entrepreneurship education●Management Center Innsbruck, Austria – experienced partner in entrepreneurship education with well-established relationship in the region●Libera Università di Bolzano, Italy – experienced partner with a dedicated centre for Family Business Management ●University of Vienna – experienced partner with a dedicated research group for Family Business internationalization and case study research methodology.●Univations Gmbh, Germany – experienced partner with several lead roles in entrepreneurship education Erasmus+ KA2 projects●Fundus Agentur, Austria – communication and networking agency[1] EC 2014: Entrepreneurship Education. A guide for Educators.[2] EC 2013: Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan.[3] EC OECD 2015: Entrepreneurship in Education.[4] EC 2020: Digital Education Plan 2021-2027.[5] EC 2019: Education & Training Monitor.[6] EC 2018: The state of university-business cooperation in Europe.

The Ulysseus Alliance integrates four European regions (according to EUROVOC) and six diverse universities, solidly rooted in their localities. From the North to the South, from the oldest to the youngest, from comprehensive to Applied Sciences universities, from established, research-based universities to experts in entrepreneurship and academic innovation. This diversity is Ulysseus core strength to accurate create a dynamic and versatile Alliance, constructed upon more than 90 stakeholders’ support, ready to develop an agile, sustainable and proactive community for boosting the four missions of higher education institutions: Education, Research, Transfer of knowledge and Service to Society. To this effect, Ulysseus Alliance encompasses more than 180.000 students, academics and staff. It took Ulysses ten years to reach Ithaca. With the same enthusiasm and determination as the Odyssey’s hero, our Ulysseus Alliance faces an ambitious 10 years journey. Ulysseus joint vision for 2030 is to have developed an excellency-recognized, internationally attractive, open to the world, persons-centred and entrepreneurial European University for the citizens of the future. Understanding our alliance as an Innovation Ecosystem, developing solutions for specific R&D local and regional challenges from 6 Innovation Hubs, is Ulysseus unique and distinguishing feature. By doing so, this alliance ambition is to contribute to shape the European Higher Education and Research Areas, and hence the future of Europe, through a step-by-step approach. The first three years of the Ulysseus University are devoted to designing and co-creating the joint structures, governance and management systems, and launching the activities programs' pilots. At the end of this phase, a new, modern, open and active University will be fully available for European citizens and to the rest of the world, meaningful contributing to our regions RIS3, Horizon Europe missions and clusters, Green Deal and UN SDG.