From 23th to 25th of April 2014, the University Industry Innovation Network (UIIN) and the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) will host the 2014 University-Industry Interaction Conference on "Challenges and solutions for fostering entrepreneurial universities and collaborative innovation" in Barcelona, Spain.

With more than 300 participants, the conference will be the leading international discussion forum for academics, researchers, practitioners and business representatives on university-industry interaction, where theory and practice are equally emphasised in the programme, which consists out of keynote presentations, track sessions, workshops and sight visits. During this three day conference high emphasis is placed on networking opportunities and creative space, as well as skill development workshops (executive education), delivered by EADA Business School, one of Europe’s leading Business Schools.

Keynote speakers include:
 

• Carl Schramm - American economist, entrepreneur, and former President and CEO of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, author of Good Capitalism – Bad Capitalism
• Bob Cryan - Vice-Chancellor of the University of Huddersfield (UK Entrepreneurial University of the Year 2012)
• Keld Laursen - Professor for Innovation at Copenhagen Business School and Vice-president of the European Academy of Management (EURAM)
• Didac Lee – Board Member (Technology Area) at FC Barcelona and Founder & CEO of Inspirit (to be confirmed)

Workshop Monday
Wednesday (April 23th 2014) has been labelled Workshop Wednesday. Multiple experts and key stakeholders have committed to organising workshops on University-Industry Interaction. The workshops will evolve around skill development (executive education), and most will be delivered by EADA Business School. The workshops that are being organised are:

• Business from Science Workshop
• Productive Creativity
• Financing Innovation in Tough Times
• Developing the Entrepreneurial University
• Acquire public funding – proposal writing
• PhD Workshop (by the conference organisers)

Proposal / abstract submission
We are now calling for proposals/abstracts for presentations, papers, posters, tracks and discussion roundtables on the themes of the conference. We would like to encourage you to submit conceptually or empirically focused proposals as well as practitioner papers (e.g. case studies). All papers will be double-blind reviewed and published in the conference proceedings (with ISBN number), with selected papers being published in our associated journals (e.g. Industry & Higher Education, Journal and the International Journal of Technology Marketing). Proposals can be submitted till the 2nd December 2013. For more information on the Call for Proposals please visit: http://www.call.university-industry.com

Keep an eye on http://www.university-industry.com for the latest news on speakers, conference partners and discussion panels. We are looking forward to welcoming you in Barcelona – the world-famous city of Gaudi and FC Barcelona.