International Scientific - Practical Training “Fund Raising - Good practices of German universities”

An-Najah National University "ANNU", coordinator of Tempus Project Strengthening Universities – Enterprise linkages In Palestine “STEP”, funded by the European Union, organized a study visit & training workshop entitled " Fund Raising - Good practices of German universities” from Tuesday to Saturday 17-21 May 2016 in Leipzig - Germany, in order to upgrade & build capacities of the staff of the Industry Liaison Offices (ILOs) & and benefit staff, researchers and students in their institutions.

Several representatives from Palestinian partner’s universities, Palestinian Chamber of Commerce (Gaza & Nablus), representative from Leipzig University of Applied Sciences participated in this training workshop.

The workshop was opened with a welcome speech by project coordinator -Dr. Imad ibrik, and the workshop organizer (Leipzig University of Applied Sciences) representative: Prof. Klaus Hänßgen. Dr.Ibrik summarized the main accomplishments and activities have been implemented in the project so far as well as those implemented by the five Palestinian ILOs.

Dr.Imad spoke about the project “STEP” which is a project that aims to achieve a mutual benefit between universities and the private sector and establishing a partnership and a strong network of cooperation between them and to promote scientific research. He spoke briefly about the last achievement and the preparation for the final conference which will be conducted in ANU, Nablus on 2 nd of June, and next steps and activities necessary to be followed after project duration end, also he highlighted that the focus of this project is to sustainably strengthen the relationship with enterprises.

Day 1: May, 18, 2016

•           The participants in the visit from the Palestinian partners arrived to Leipzig on Tuesday, May, 17, 2016 afternoon. The actual study visit activities started on Wednesday, May, 18, 2016 at the Faculty of Informatics and Mathematics, by Prof. Klaus Hänßgen, who gave a brief summary of the agenda of the study visit.

 •           Prof. Dr. Claus Baderschneider (HFTL), delivered a very fruitful presentation on the models of fundraising in the universities. 

 •           Dr. Ronald Billing from the Agency for Innovation Promotion and Technology Transfer-Leipzig delivered a presentation on activities they conduct in the agency specifically related to strengthening the linkages between the university and the local and national enterprises in Germany through addressing and conducting joint research problems. 

 •           Dr.Herald Lahmann, from Fraunhofer-Center (FC): Knowledge and Technology Transfer delivered a presentation on the activities FC is implementing in applied research by university’s staff and students in collaboration with local and national industries in Germany.  •           A lady from the Leipzig Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer delivered a presentation on the projects they are implementing in collaboration with Leipzig Chamber of Commerce, HTWK and other local universities and institutes, Municipality of Leipzig and the local industries. 

 •           A talker from Selbst Management Initiative Leipzig (SMILE) delivered a presentation on an initiative that mainly aims at spreading out the culture of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. SMILE is an interdisciplinary team of experts that founders supported. SMILE works with teachers and coaches who inspire through their outstanding commitment and professional Kompletenz.  To multiply the learning effect and deepen learnings and knowledge requires not only well-developed events. Partners and networks that enrich each other and promote their own projects on, are also of great importance. Supporting institutions include exactly how to external speakers and partners. Events, workshops and seminars on innovation and entrepreneurship worldwide. The talker himself has visited Bethlehem University-Palestine and delivered such awareness lectures. We invited him to repeat his visit to Palestine to deliver some lectures on their experiences in spreading out the culture of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurships to the university’s community (staff and students).

 •           The first day of the visit closed by a filed visit to a lab in which entrepreneurial students from Department of Computer Science work on developing a smart monitoring and control traffic system for Audi autos. 

 Day 2: May, 19, 2016

 •           The day started with a visit to the Saxon incubator for clinical translation (SIKT). A presentation by Dr. Vuk Savkovic is delivered on the SIKT which provides information and advice on all matters of national and international research funding, external funding, the inventor and patent activity, the knowledge and technology transfer and related start-ups and participation in trade fairs. 

 •           Then a visit to Innovation Center Computer Assisted Surgery (ICCAS) was organized 

 •           A filed visit to Innovative Surgical Training Technologies (ISTT). ISTT started as a research project funded by the German Federal Office for Education and Research (BMBF) and since then emerged as a full research group, led by Prof. Dr. Werner Korb. Engineers, economists, computer scientists, psychologists, and educators develop in interdisciplinary teams’ anatomically realistic simulation models and training concepts for surgical training. 

Day 3: May, 20, 2016

 •           The last day of the visit started with a visit to the international office at HTWK where a presentation on the collaboration with international universities, graduate programs offered for international students and opportunities with collaboration in the future with Palestinian universities was delivered by the director of the international office.  It was agreed to keep in touch with people at the international office to explore the opportunities for staff mobility from the Palestinian universities to HTWK.

 •           The last day of the visit ended with a field visit to a spin-off company called LeFx Exist. The company is 3D visualization studio with a wide range of experience and extensive expertise. Their main focus is to offer the most extensive range of applications of the highest quality possible – achieved with the help of various technologies that they have successfully used in an array of projects. 

At the end of the meeting, the consortium agreed on the next final project conference activity in Nablus, ANU on June.

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