The SHINE Project aligns with the aims of the Entrepreneurship Education Collaboration and Engagement (EECOLE) Network which feeds into the work of the OECD Committee for SMEs, Entrepreneurship, and other relevant OECD bodies.

EECOLE aims to help identify the skills bundle characterising the entrepreneurial mindset, as well as good practices and approaches to promote its development. It aims to enhance the connections between HEIs, businesses and other partners in their own communities to foster entrepreneurial and resilient ecosystems.  The SHINE Project commits to support EECOLE by sharing insights and know-how for scaling up entrepreneurship and innovation in Higher Education.

SHINE is an international community of Higher Education professionals and industry experts who are collaborating to create practical know-how about scaling innovation capacity in Higher Education and university-industry collaboration.  

There are four sub-areas of investigation, or conversations, related to Students, Startups, Society and Staff:

1. Students - how to scale up the number of students who are educated about the entrepreneurial mindset, innovation and entrepreneurship
2. Startups - how to scale up the number of startups that are supported from planning, through launch and on to long-term sustainability
3. Society - how to scale up the number of partnerships that generate societal benefits (cultural, economic, environmental and social)
   
4. Staff - how to scale up the number of staff in HE that are engaged in the organisational transformation that will create and sustain a more entrepreneurial HE culture
   

There is a great range of innovative and entrepreneurial activity by European HEIs. We share and celebrate this good practice via our website and events. However, these opportunities are often only available to a small percentage of the total number of students, academics and societal stakeholders. 

If Higher Education Institutions can scale up their innovation and entrepreneurship capacity then they will be able to create greater impact (economic, social and cultural) in the towns and cities, regions and countries in which they are located. The SHINE Project aims to co-create solutions that will overcome the common barriers to scaling up the innovation capacity of Higher Education Institutions.  

SHINE Project Aims

1. To provide regular opportunities for a diverse range of people to share their stories, experiences and lessons learned.
2. To stimulate discussions that are open, honest and realistic about what works and what doesn’t.
3. To capture lessons learned and topics for further investigation.
4. To ensure that discussions lead to recommendations about practical actions (for students, educators, researchers, leaders and policy makers.)
5. To take an entrepreneurial approach to overcoming the challenges of entrepreneurship education.
6. To disseminate insights, findings and practical know-how for the benefit of Higher Education professionals worldwide.
7. To use a wide range of dissemination methods (the SHINE Project website, conference presentations, research papers, videos etc.)

The Project uses the definition of the entrepreneurial mindset devised by the Entrepreneurial Mindset Network.  The definition is distinctive because it is based on entrepreneurial behaviours. As an aid to memory, 1 essential entrepreneurial behaviour is allocated to each of the 7 letters in the word MINDSET.  The definition is relevant not just to entrepreneurs, but employees in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors.

The premise of the webinars is that every participant has the potential to make a valid contribution and the aim is to capture as much of this professional expertise as possible. The diversity of the participants is another important consideration. Examples of the participants who contributed to the SHINE Project webinars include: academics from a diverse range of academic disciplines, PhD researchers, professional support staff (eg enterprise projects coordinator, head of business engagement, head of the international office), entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, managers of SMEs, and incubator managers.

What makes the SHINE Project distinctive is that rather than simply uploading a full video recording after a webinar, a written summary is created, recording the key points made by the speakers and participants, and including links to short video clips of the speakers.  Images of the webinars to date are shown below. Click on any image to read the summary online.  There is also the option to download a PDF of each summary.