Espaitec, the Science and Technology Park of the Universitat Jaume I (UJI), will present the UJI.>LAB project on Wednesday 13 November at 13:00h in the Multipurpose Hall of the Espaitec 2 Building. Its main objective is to bring society closer to knowledge generated by the university community.
The UJI.>LAB project is based on encouraging interactions between knowledge and firms with a novel channel (LABs) to clearly stimulate open innovation activities. This approach is being adopted by many companies thanks to its versatility, agility and efficiency. With design in a creative and innovative environment being a key element, known as UJI.>LAB, the purpose is to facilitate thinking up new ideas by the co-creation and implication of firms alongside the university academic domain (research groups and university community members).
UJI.>LAB will enable prototypes to be created, thanks to its FabLab based on challenges or requirements detected by university teachers (by an ideas competition to meet considered challenges, guide Final Graduation and Master Projects to meet these challenges, and identify opportunities to set up start-ups that work within the company that move in the desired direction).
FabLab are small local laboratories based on digital manufacturing equipped with all the essential machinery, which will allow the considered projects to be completely implemented.
UJI.>LAB will be both the environment where the methodology is designed and the place where it is validated. It will be supported by the LivingLab methodology, which is used by the European Network of LivingLabs (ENOLL) (based on the principles of value, influence, sustainability, openness and realism).
Finally, the development of a challenges management platform to diffuse Final Graduation and Master Projects is stressed, which will include other works conducted by the university community. This is an excellent opportunity for generating synergies between companies and the university.
