university–enterprise cooperation

1. Preface
As pointed out by the European Commission and Member States (Bonn declaration,
Lund declaration, Modernization Agenda…) universities as key players for the successful
integration of the knowledge triangle, and transition of Europe into knowledge-based
society, need to modernize, to be able to respond better to the market demands. They can do
this by operating in close cooperation with enterprises, social partners, public and private
organizations and supporting institutions, in a word almost the whole business world.
Thanks to university triple role, as source of the highest level of education of students,
providers of quality research and facilitators of innovation, their modernization and
transition to enterprising university has been acknowledged as a core condition for the
success of Lisbon strategy.
The past years have been marked a period of intense activity and change in the Western
Balkan Region in the areas of education and research, as a result of implementation of
different EU instruments and programs, regional and national initiatives and incentives.
As longest-standing EU programme, TEMPUS supports the modernization of higher education
in the partner countries of the Western Balkans, Eastern Europe and Central Asia and the
Mediterranean region, promotes institutional cooperation and focuses on the knowledge
triangle of education, research and innovation at university level, within priority “Higher
education and society”. Experience from previous TEMPUS initiatives and similar projects
shows that there is a little awareness about necessity of university-enterprise cooperation
and its benefits, as well as lack of clear procedures for the establishment of effective and
efficient model of cooperation.
As a response, WBC-VMnet project is intended to promote knowledge triangle integration, to
contribute to enhacement of capacity and modernization of universities in the WBC region,
through establishing effective structures of cooperation among universities and regional
enterprises. The most important result of the project is development and implementation
of the new Western Balkans countries (WBC) model of university-enterprise cooperation,
based on the best EU practice and specialities of the WBC region.
This publication, as a product of joint activity of project partners, presents, first of all,
EU legislative and recent incentives and initiatives, as well as collected good practices
as case studies from EU universities. It also offers opportunity to readers to research
and to find relevant additional information by using web site links of Knowledge Triangle
(KT) structures established at EU universities. In addition, current state of WBC countries
is presented, focusing in particular on existing support structures and mechanisms
established at regional universities, provided with useful links, too. Proposed model,
described in this publication, consists of a set of recommendations and measures. It also
explains some important structures and their organization, needed for establishing a
sustainable and fruitful university-enterprise cooperation.
Public debate on draft version of publication, that is the new WBC model of universityenterprise
cooperation will be undertaken in all WBC countries, in order to build consensus
among stakeholders and key actors in the knowledge triangle, as well as to incorporate
new ideas and changes in printed version of publication, as final. It is important step
for successful implementation of regional model in the future. Evaluation of progress on
implementing the WBC model will continue to be conducted throughout the project life
span, in order to provide ongoing impetus for modernization of regional universities.
9
Preface 1