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CONNECT Project – label of good practice

PeterMaz CONNECT, Project
CONNECT Project – label of good practice

 Good-Practice-LabelThe Europäische Bildungsinitiative (EBI) is a non-profit association that has been awarded for its work in European ERASMUS+ projects with the label of “good practice” three times, now for its participation in the CONNECT Project. The EBI is known for its high technological standard and impact on adult education. One of the EBI’s most successful projects is the CICERO Project, which developed a virtual learning environment to teach digital competencies to adult learners. Another successful project is the InterMedia Project, which investigated using multimedia-based and interactive training materials in adult education. In this project, EBI has been the coordinator.

The CONNECT Project is the latest ERASMUS+ project EBI participated in. It developed an innovative curriculum for students in the computer and information, health, and social sciences background. The CONNECT Project also develops a transnational network of key actors from academia, industry, and NGOs.

CONNECT - Good practice

About the project

The CONNECT project was an education program to engage students from across European countries to enable continuous innovation and entrepreneurship in the European eHealth sector. The project focuses on issues of eHealth innovation and state-of-the-art training and education of students.

Objectives

The project has three main objectives:

  1. Development of an innovative multidisciplinary and cross-sectional curriculum for students from the computer and information, health, and social sciences background, focusing on cooperation between sectors for strengthening the existing knowledge, skills, and entrepreneurship.
  2. To provide an Intensive Study Programme (ISP) to 42 students from computer and information, healthcare, and social sciences backgrounds to facilitate student’s challenge-based learning collaborations by having students develop eHealth applications in the form of a project with real implications in the field of eHealth.
  3. To develop a transnational network of key actors from academia, industry, and NGOs to establish collaborations, exchange best practices, and facilitate long-distance mentorship for students who graduated from the Intensive Study Programme through an online platform, “eHealth Community of Practice”.

Participants

The participants involved in the project can be divided into the following categories:

  • Direct staff of the project: the management team and the steering committee
  • Intensive Study Program Participants (ISP): Students and Teaching staff
  • Consultants: entrepreneurs, industry contacts, and staff active in education and training
  • Indirect participants: persons that will participate in multiplier and dissemination events from academia, healthcare, industry, and other related sectors
Meeting Connect
CONNECT Partner Meeting in April 2022 in Porto.

Partners

Babes-Bolyai University Overview

Babes-Bolyai University (BBU), situated in Romania, holds a prestigious position in higher education in Center-Eastern Europe, dating back to 1581, and is renowned for its academic tradition. As the largest Romanian university, it consists of 21 faculties, hosts around 45,000 students, and employs 3,000 permanent university staff. BBU’s diverse culture is a result of its location at the confluence of Eastern and Western cultures. It leads Romanian universities according to several global university rankings, reflecting its commitment to excellence, education, and research.

Research and Academic Contributions
BBU has a prominent focus on scientific and educational activities, particularly in public health, medicine, and social and economic sciences. It concentrates on the submission and implementation of projects emphasizing research-development-innovation, capacity building, and mobility. BBU, currently coordinating an Erasmus Mundus project, has shown significant capability and experience in academic cooperation mechanisms and various capacity-building projects. It offers distinguished bachelor and master programs in public health and health management, and its active involvement in research studies provides diverse practical opportunities.
International Collaborations and Projects
BBU’s Department of Public Health has been involved in projects valued at over 9 million Euro, collaborating with partners from 30 countries. The department strives to improve public health in Romania and Central and Eastern Europe through interdisciplinary research and practices. It has participated in numerous impactful projects, including the Minority Health and Health Disparities International Research and Training program (MIRTH) with the University of Iowa, and the Increasing Capacity in Research in Eastern Europe (iCREATE) project, together with several universities in Eastern Europe. These projects, among others, aim to address various health disparities and foster international academic and scientific exchange.
Innovative Initiatives and Collaborations
Beyond major projects, the Department of Public Health has undertaken various innovative initiatives in collaboration with international partners. These include the “Quit Together” project with Michigan State University, aimed at preventing smoking relapses post-childbirth, and the “Training stage in the use of arts” (TABLO) project with the University of Canterbury, focusing on employing arts for the benefit of long-term condition patients. These innovative collaborations reflect BBU’s commitment to addressing diverse public health challenges through multidisciplinary approaches and international partnerships.

INIT ASSOCIATION

INIT ASSOCIATION, an NGO established in 2012, aims to nurture and support innovative small businesses in Cluj Napoca. It functions through two brands it owns: Cluj Startups and Freshblood, focusing on the startup community and innovations in the medical field, respectively.

Community Engagement and Education Focus
Cluj Startups, originating in 2014 as a startup founder’s community, maintains its community-centered approach, engaging around 3,000 startup founders and enthusiasts. The organization emphasizes education, fostering an entrepreneurial spirit through collaborations with universities and offering workshops and training to enhance the success probability of new businesses. Cluj Startups helps budding entrepreneurs at every stage, from idea conceptualization to market validation and growth.
Networking and Ecosystem Development
The organization acts as a catalyst in the ecosystem, connecting various stakeholders using its extensive network. Cluj Startups facilitates communication between local authorities, IT Clusters, universities, accelerators, and other NGOs, aiding in organizing significant events like the Startup Europe Summit in 2019 and coordinating efforts through the Manifesto for Startups workgroup to reinforce impact in the startup community.
Investment and Financial Support
Investing has become a crucial focus, with the inception of the Transylvania Angels Network in 2018, aimed at bridging startups in need with investors in Cluj-Napoca. The rapidly growing group, with around 60 active members, has already invested in several startups, ensuring they receive the necessary funding for success.
Freshblood: Innovation in Medical Field
Freshblood, initiated in 2016, concentrates on medical field innovations, having a strong international focus. While its activity areas are akin to Cluj Startups, it distinctly prioritizes international aspects in innovating medical field developments in Europe and in Cluj-Napoca.

University of Porto

U.Porto, founded in 1911, is one of the largest higher education and research institutions in Portugal and for several years now the most sought-after HEI, active in all fields with around 31,820 students (14% international), 2,300 academics (87% with a Ph.D.) and researchers and 1,500 non-teaching staff. It is one of the best positioned PT HEIs in national and international rankings: Times Higher Education 2017 (501-600); ARWU 2017 (301-400); QS 2017/18 (301); Leiden 2017 (143); NTU 2017 (232); and SCImago 2017 (207). It has 14 Faculties, 1 Business School and 35 Research Units located in 3 campuses within Porto. U.Porto is the leading producer of science in Portugal, responsible for 23% of the scientific articles produced in the country. Providing high-quality training and education is of paramount importance to the U.Porto. Being a truly international University, with 4.421 international
students from around 100 nationalities, internationalization is one of U.Porto’s strategic pillars and objectives, allowing the development of existing collaborations, as well as the establishment of innovative cooperation through the creation of active links with institutions from all over the world (more than 2500 active agreements).

Projects
In recent years, the U.Porto has coordinated and been involved in several projects, namely Erasmus+ (particularly International Credit Mobility, Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees, Capacity Building and Strategic Partnerships) and Erasmus Mundus projects, which have greatly contributed to the reinforcement of its internationalization process and generated new cooperation opportunities through the development of projects and initiatives with HEIs from approximately 150 countries. U.Porto is an institution open to the world.

Europäische Bildungsinitiative

The “Europäische Bildungsinitiative” EBI – (in English, European Initiative for Education EIE) – is a Private Non-Profit Education and Training Association located in Wiener Neustadt/Austria. EBI’s mission is to endorse an innovative education, training, and culture approach. Target groups are adult learners, teachers/trainers in Adult Education, teacher trainers, and trainees in the C-VET (and Vet) frame.
The three departments of the EBI are

  1. A training unit,
  2. A technical unit (focusing on the creation of multimedia and interactive teaching content, maintenance of learning platforms, and programming individual solutions in the frame of
    offered training) and
  3. A unique research team.

Conclusion

The CONNECT project is an important initiative to address the skills gaps and mismatches in the European eHealth sector. The project will develop an innovative curriculum, provide an intensive student study program, and develop a transnational network of key actors. The project significantly impacted the development of the European eHealth sector.

Good Practice Awards

This quality label is awarded to projects that excel in the implementation of a project proposal. The quality of the results is assessed on the one hand, and the excellence of the cooperation on the other.

CONNECT – results available

PeterMaz CONNECT, Miscellaneous
CONNECT – results available

Objectives of the Project

Objective 1: Develop an innovative multidisciplinary and cross-sectional curriculum for students from the computer and information, health, and social sciences background, with the main focus on cooperation between sectors for strengthening the existing knowledge, skills, and entrepreneurship, in the first ten months of the project, by an international team of eHealth informal and formal educational providers within partner institutions.

CONNECT-<Course
CONNECT Project: eLearning course module (Click on the image opens the course)

Objective 2: Provide one Intensive Study Programme (ISP) to 42 students from computer and information, healthcare, and social sciences backgrounds in mixed working groups in Cluj-Napoca, Romania in September 2022 in order to facilitate student’s challenge-based learning collaborations by having students develop eHealth applications in the form of a project with real implication in the field of eHealth.

Objective 3: Develop a transnational network of key actors from academia, industry, and NGOs to establish collaborations, exchange best practices and facilitate long-distance mentorship for students who graduated from the Intensive Study Programme through an online platform “eHealth Community of Practice” through the end of the project.

Further Information about the CONNECT Project

The sustainability of the project will be ensured firstly by integrating the open-source Curriculum that will be developed by the partners into the course of eHealth at the Department of Public Health, from BBU, as part of their educational program at the Bachelor’s and Masters’s level. Therefore, one of the intellectual outputs of the project will be transferred to them and other interested higher education institutions in order to create a long-term use for our product.

The “eHealth Community of Practice” online platform will be available for at least three years after the project completion period, constituting a transnational network of members from academia, industry, and healthcare and as a mentorship platform for future health innovators.

CONNECT-COP-Platform
CONNECT Project: CoP Platform

 

 

The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsi­ble for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.

Connect

Universitatea Babes Bolyai
Universitatea Babes Bolyai, Romania

This project focuses on the national priority of “Tackling skills gaps and mismatches” through delivering an education program, which engages students from across European countries to enable continuous innovation and entrepreneurship in the European eHealth sector.

The main focus of the CONNECT project is on issues of eHealth innovation, state-of-the-art training, and education of students necessary on the health market, in the form of a highly and systematically organized formal and non-formal educational program to improve knowledge, develop cross-sectoral skills and competencies, entrepreneurship, and support students’ critical thinking required to improve health care.

Project partners

  • Universitatea Babes Bolyai (RO), Coordinator
  • Asociatia Init (RO)
  • Universidade do Porto (PT)
  • Europäische Bildungsinitiative (AT)

Expected outcomes and long-term benefits

The sustainability of the project will be ensured firstly by integrating the open-source Curriculum that will be developed by the partners into the course of eHealth at the Department of Public Health, from BBU, as part of their educational program at the Bachelor’s and Masters’s level. Therefore, one of the intellectual outputs of the project will be transferred to them and other interested higher education institutions in order to create a long-term use for our product.
The ISP (Intensive Study Programme), with the use of new pedagogies, formal and non-formal methods, and challenged-based teaching and training offered by our partners, will create the perfect enhancement for the students to be creative, innovative, and collaborative and develop digital healthcare prototypes that are feasible to be implemented in the real-life environment in eHealth.
The “eHealth Community of Practice” online platform will be available for at least three years after the project completion period, constituting a transnational network of members from academia, industry, and healthcare and as a mentorship platform for future health innovators.
Another activity that will ensure the continuity of the project will be the “Connect the eHealth Innovation Ecosystems” Conference, which will be organized every two years to increase further and sustain our eHealth network.

Project results

Community of Practice (COP) platform

A community of practice is a group of people who share a common interest or profession and engage in ongoing learning and collaboration to improve their skills and knowledge. They often interact online and offline to discuss best practices, share resources, and provide support to one another. Members of a community of practice are committed to their collective learning journey and are invested in the success of their peers.

This CoP addresses Universities and institutions that are interested in eHealth.
Link: connect.publichealth.ro/

Moodle e-Learning Curse

This course contains the developed eHealth curriculum and was implemented based on multimedia content and interactive elements. It provides a colour code for the modules to keep an overview.
Moodle e-Learning course: moodle.publichealth.ro

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The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsi­ble for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.