Universities play a major role in transforming cultures. Keeping up with the TRUE Interview’s series, this week we introduce you UEx (Universidad de Extremadura). UEx is the Extremadura public university. As José Luis Canito Lobo, Director of the School of Industrial Engineering of the University of Extremadura, points out, the TRUE project has been essential to increased and reinforced connections with its community.
Photo: Universidad de Extremadura
Q: In general terms, what are the benefits that TRUE has helped to implement in your institution or organization?
A: Although I could cite several, I think it is especially important to highlight a better visualization of the importance of entrepreneurship for society. Not only from the point of view of our region, in which this culture is of special relevance, but, furthermore, from the point of view of other places such as where the other TRUE associates are. Second, we can see also an improvement in the ability to transfer ways of working that lead to innovation and entrepreneurship, which not only consists of working with current tools, but also the creation of spaces especially dedicated to working in these areas. In our case, the realization and work in the "Innovation" spaces of our School have been favored. Third, we have a better integration and disposition of the personnel to work in the previous spaces, since they not only see their enormous potential, but they really see their usefulness by integrating into our culture, that of innovation and entrepreneurship. And finally, we have improve the connections among our community thanks to the Agora Network, a virtual space that facilitates the transition from an idea to a project, allowing potential entrepreneurs to make their first idea easier to achieve. I believe that these are the main benefits, although, of course, there are many others, such as the good connections that we have generated with other researchers and institutions with which we work on the project itself.
Q: What are the future opportunities that are opening up in your institution or organization thanks to the impact of TRUE?
A: The most notable may be the collaborations with other institutions that have implemented certain processes in their culture that improved the possibility of entrepreneurship. This, if added to the capacity of the Ágora Network, makes the list of opportunities grow in a way that was previously unimaginable, since it will enable the creation of new ideas that will really be transformed into beneficial projects both for our institution and for society itself in general.
Q: What is the definition of entrepreneurship and innovation for your institution or organization? Is there consistency between this and the values of the TRUE project?
A: For us, innovation and entrepreneurship entail that in order to be possible, actions are carried out that allow a correct and real development of what is intended to be carried out, for this reason we coined the hybrid model that INNOVATION supposes, which is an acronym of the words “ Innovate” and “Action”. In this sense, we always think that all our efforts should really be aimed at our students innovating, revolutionizing and preparing for any sudden change that may be found in today's society, already changing and, as we see today , are becoming more frequent. In this sense, we firmly believe that the actions that are being carried out are totally consistent with the TRUE project, since from the beginning these actions show that we can effectively make the University improve towards entrepreneurship, towards innovating, towards actions necessary so that all our students, while they remain in our centers and even after passing through them, can be integrated into them and are prepared to undertake.
We are looking forward to presenting major impacts in the following weeks, stay tuned for more!