INTERDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION AGENDA PROJECT: STUDENTS MOBILITY PROGRAMME

The main aim of this paper is to continuing with the work developed by Andres and Poler (2014) in the context of the IDEA PROJECT (InterDisciplinary Education Agenda, an essential driver for innovation). IDEA project takes part on Tempus programme (Trans European Mobility Programme for University Students) and consist of 12 project members covering all stakeholders of the knowledge triangle: 10 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), 1 technology transfer centre and 1 manufacturer’s association. Amongst the HEIs there is the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV).

IDEA project address Israeli's National Priorities for 2012. In the light of this, the main activities to cover are:
(i) identify the needs and gaps between industry and academy,
(ii) introduce best practices from EU HEIs,
(iii) support for an interdisciplinary innovation culture in the Israeli HEIs and
(iv) create a sustainable knowledge transfer between industry and academy enhancing research and innovation.

According to this, the UPV, part of HEI instructors, contributes to the knowledge exchange as regards its experience in R&D projects involving the public and private sectors in Spain.

The specific contributions of UPV as regards the IDEA project are to:
(i) participate on the development of the theoretical knowledge of innovation processes,
(ii) introduce an interdisciplinary innovation management program involving academia and industry,
(iii) host training for staff and internship for students in,
(iv) supervise the creation of centres to promote research and innovation in the domains of design, engineering and business, (v) help on monitoring the project performance in a structured and methodological approach, and
(vi) ensure sustainability of the project results within the academic and industrial partners and beyond the span of the project.

The IDEA project jointly with the supervision of UPV and the other HEIs will allow to effectively bridge the gaps within Education-Research-Innovation and support industries to deal with global economic challenges. Besides, academia-industry collaboration will be enhanced in the domain of innovation through the integration of knowledge among engineering, design and business disciplines.

The paper has its main aim on describing the phases carried out throughout the IDEA project, which are grouped in nine Work Packages.
• WP1 Industry-Academy Needs Analysis
• WP2 Executive Briefing And Seminars
• WP3 Pedagogical Development and Integration
• WP4 Mobility Program (Students and Teachers)
• WP5 Foundation Of Innovation Hubs
• WP6 Quality Control and Tools
• WP7 Dissemination
• WP8/9 Management and Sustainability

The paper focuses on the Students Mobility Program (WP4) in which the Israeli students moved to the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) from the 8th September to 21st September, 2014. The activities carried out by the students are described in the paper, and classified in:
• Seminars
• Practice sessions
• Workshop with UPV students
• Students’ project development
• Students’ project presentation
• Industry Visits

References:
[1] Andres B. and Poler R. (2014) Interdisciplinary Education Agenda Project: Improving innovation through Academy-Industry Collaboration. Proceedings of ICERI2014 Conference. 17th-19th November 2014, Seville, Spain. pp. 3007 – 3015
[2] IDEA-Tempus (2014) InterDisciplinary Education Agenda. http://tempus-idea.org.il/idea_wp/