UPRC team members have extensive experience in educational technologies innovation activities from both R&D and entrepreneurship perspectives. Thus, they will contribute in the design and development of digital learning resources on EdTech entrepreneurship as well as help in the co-creation of the rich library of resources about the EdTech space. The UPRC team has strong and established links with the local EdTech industry, Greek business accelerators (e.g ACE), organisations that run business plan competitions (e.g. National Bank of Greece Business Seeds, MITEF Greece), investment funds financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) with EFSI backing (e.g. BigPi, UniFund) universities and intermediaries. These links will be utilised to further promote the project idea to specific target audiences as well as invited key players of the Greek Entrepreneurship ecosystem interested in EdTech to actively participate in the Community of Mentors. CoSyLlab members have proven that they have the ability to build and leverage robust collaborative networks in the EdTech space, creating value to all stakeholders. UPRC team has collaborated in the past with all EdTech project partners with great success.

CYENS focuses on Interactive media, Smart systems and Emerging technologies and aims to become a Centre of Excellence empowering knowledge and technology transfer in the region. It is a joint venture between the three public universities of Cyprus (University of Cyprus, Cyprus University of Technology, Open University of Cyprus), the Municipality of Nicosia, and two renowned international partners, the Max Planck Institute for Informatics (Germany) and University College London (UK). The Research Centre aims to become a hub across the three continents bordering Cyprus facilitating the local scientific, technological, and economic growth of the region. It sets out to meet the challenge with a total funding of more than 50 million Euros for the first 7 years, from European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (H2020 – WIDESPREAD – 2016-2017 – TeamingPhase 2), the Cyprus Government through the Directorate General for European Programmes, Coordination and Development, the European Structural and Investment Funds, the project partners and multiple other sources. The Centre integrates the Visual Sciences, Human Factors and Design, and Communications and Artificial Intelligence, in a tight synergy that provides a unique interdisciplinary research perspective that emphasizes an “Inspired by Humans, Designed for Humans” philosophy. RISE brings together a big proportion of the related educational and research capacity of the country across an intellectually diverse set of research areas (e.g., computer vision and graphics, psychology, human factors, design, education, communications, e-health, artificial intelligence and machine learning) in close collaboration with industry.

PIA is a private enterprise established in 1991, dedicated to education, management in learning and development of software. Company employs 20 experts and is an umbrella organisation for cooperating experts, especially for projects in the fields of education. From 2009 to 2013, PIA has run one of the most significant educational projects in Slovenia and has contracted more than 1000 experts and teachers from various fields of education. One of the primary focus on this project was teacher improvement, and PIA supported self-evaluation techniques with questionnaires and a dedicated software platform.

Pia d.o.o. also have experience in international cooperation, have been involved in several EU programmes, CARDS projects in Balkan and commercial projects in the USA.

Pia d.o.o. Velenje has experience:

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- Training in entrepreneurship and coaching of young entrepreneurs from 2009

- Development of entrepreneurship training programmes and workshops

- 24 years of developing educational software, 18 years working on Open and Distance Learning (ODL), 42 created ODL courses (http://home.odos.si/vsebine)

- 20 years of cooperation with Ministry of Education and Sports of Slovenia

- Active participation in the Leonardo da Vinci program from 1997, 6 projects led and successfully finished, involvement in several other projects (https://www.pia.si/o-podjetju#mednarodni-projekti )

- Ten years of working on Quality Assurance in Vocational Education, the experience of creating supported software in QA

- Particular expertise in supporting EU projects with collaborative software and tools for managing projects

- Knowledge in preparation, development and implementation of large-scale software for different Ministries of Education in Balkan area (Ministry of Education of Montenegro and Canton, Ministry of Education of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ministry of Education of Slovenia)

- Expertise in the implementation of ISO standards into schooling organisations

- Curricula and training programme development as proven in the project Technical Support to Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Montenegro, which developed the first draft of the National Qualification Framework (NQF)

xEdu is the leading European accelerator that works with start-ups creating transformative learning solutions in the education sector. Based in Finland, we maximize upon the expertise of our nation’s superior educational system and pioneering tech and gaming scene and combine it with our dynamic global network of innovators, educators, entrepreneurs, and investors.

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From product development to market entry and internationalization, we offer broad assistance including coaching, mentoring, EdTech investor connections, and real-life testing environments for research and development.

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Since 2016, xEdu received more than 800 applications from 80 countries from EdTech companies. It accelerated 72 companies from 15 countries with the results that 95% of our portfolio companies are still going forward and 75% of them have gotten funding after joining the accelerator. Overall more than 20 million euros of risk capital was collected by our portfolio start-ups and hundreds of new jobs created worldwide by the star-tups after joining xEdu.

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xEdu employes from 2 to 5 people directly and subcontracts a network of around 50 coaches and mentors. It works closely with the main local startup ecosystem players (such as NewCo Helsinki, Slush, Education Finland, FiBAN etc.) as well as global EdTech ecosystem players (such as European EdTech Alliance, WorldDidac, GSV Capital, LearnCapital, RethinkEducation, BrightEyeVentures, UNTIL etc.).

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Since 2015, xEdu initiated the creation of EdTech ecosystem in Finland and launched the public-private partnership model for co-creation with schools. It is a founding partner in creating the EdTech Finland association, the Nordic EdTech Alliance, the Nordic EdTech Award, and the European EdTech Alliance. xEdu is a producer of the yearly XcitED conference as an EdTech-focused side-event of Slush with 1000 attendees and 50 EdTech start-ups showcasing. xEdu is the first Finnish (and the second in whole Nordics) accelerator that has been accepted to the Global Accelerator Network.

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Specific areas of expertise:

-All phases of an EdTech start-up development

-Setting up and managing models for co-creation between EdTech start-ups and schools

-Accelerator management

-EdTech ecosystem building

-Investing in EdTech

-Social impact and its measurement in EdTech start-ups

-Entrepreneurship program curriculum building

GrantXpert Consulting is a Cypriot-based SME, with a cumulative expertise of more than 25 years in European and national funding programmes. The GrantXpert team has extensive expertise in providing training and consulting services to local and EU organisations on available funds, in implementing research work on entrepreneurial and other educational topics and in the development of innovative educational programmes.

The company was formed in 2009, following the obtainment of a start-up grant by the national programme “New women entrepreneurs”. Since then, the company has helped a large number of Cypriot (private and public) companies, non-profit organisations, research and academic organisations and municipalities in receiving funding from European and national programmes. The funding obtained by these organisations assists in developing innovative products and services for the international markets, increasing their competitiveness, growing further, engaging in research projects, implementing innovative practices, enhancing their personnel's qualifications and skills and hiring new employees. In the past 10 years GrantXpert has helped a number of Cypriot and EU organisations to receive more than 20 million EUR from funded programmes.

The Greek Universities Network GUnet is a non-profit civil company founded in September 2000. GUnet’s members are all the Universities in Greece (20 Universities and 16 TEI). The mission of the company is to promote, facilitate and coordinate the use of advanced information and communication technologies (ICT), services and applications in the Greek academic community for supporting the Greek higher education institutes in their mission and in general, research and education in Greece.

More specifically, GUnet’s aims include the following:

a) The development, support and management of the academic network of all Universities and TEI in Greece.

b) The coordination of the diffusion, promotion and development of advanced network services and applications in the academic and research community of the country,

c) The provision of advanced ICT and e-learning services to its members and third parties (institutes, foundations, industry).

d) The participation in R&D projects in the areas of networking and e-learning technologies, services and applications aiming at maintaining the Greek academic network at the state-of-the-art.

e) The collaboration with respective academic, research and educational networks of other countries.

GUnet provides e-learning services to its members (all the Greek universities and TEI) and its project partners through its Center for e-learning and Multimedia (mc.gunet.gr), and the learning management systems Open e-Class (openeclass.org) and OpenDelos (opendelos.org). It also supports the National Search Portal for OpenCourses (opencourses.gr) and provides guidelines on how to create open courses (opencourses.gunet.gr).

Since 2012, GUnet coordinates the development of Opencourseware and open educational resources by its members at the national level.

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GUnet was the winner of the 2016 Creative Innovation Award given by the Opencourseware Consortium (ocwconsortium.org) to recognize outstanding innovations that bring a new approach to Open Education

LearnLaunch is an education technology start-up accelerator that is based in Boston, Massachusetts. LearnLaunch Accelerator provides the most promising EdTech startups worldwide with funding, a team of mentors, personalized intensive coaching and all the tools needed to grow a successful EdTech startup. Also, the Accelerator offers immersive training bootcamps for groups of EdTech entrepreneurs from abroad. The goal of these bootcamps is to explore the market entry potential and opportunities in the US.

Since its inception in 2013, more than 1,000 EdTech companies from across the world applied to participate in LearnLaunch investment programs. To date, LearnLaunch Accelerator has made 66 investments in EdTech companies driving change in different aspects of education. In the past two years, delegations of EdTech entrepreneurs from France, Israel, Canada and Australia participated in immersive bootcamps.

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The Accelerator has a deep expertise in building entrepreneurial EdTech ecosystem and creating support systems needed by edtech entrepreneurs to navigate the space and be more impactful. As of today, LearnLaunch network accounts more than 8,000 people including educators entrepreneurs, learners, investors and industry professionals. The Accelerator and its partner organizations supports grows and supports this community through numerous conferences, workshops and meetups, both in-person and remotely.

Τhe Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg – Heidelberg University of Education - is designed to train and qualify prospective teachers and other educational professionals for a wide range of teaching careers in elementary, secondary, special needs education and professional education and lifelong learning. The course of studies at the University of Education is completed with a final State Examination (till 2015) respectively Bachelor of Arts (from 2015/2016) and Master of Education (from 2018/2019).

The University of Education also offers training to other types of educators, including cooperative bachelor and master degree programs in pedagogy for engineers to attain a qualification for teaching in vocational schools. Further programs include Early Childhood Education (B.A.), Health Promotion (B.A.), Educational Sciences (M.A.), E-Learning and Media Education (M.A.) as well as Engineering Education (M.Sc.). Approximately 300 permanent instructors teach more than 4,300 students at the University of Education, where (teacher) training includes basic education and pedagogy, subject-based knowledge and subject-specific teaching skills. Instruction at the University of Education is, from the very beginning, strongly linked with practice. The Heidelberg University of Education is running a Professional School for further education of educational professionals and a Scientific Academy to train various academic professions.

In 2016 the University was awarded “UNESCO Chair on World Heritage and Biosphere Reserve Observation and Education”. In 2018 the University of Education started the network project “Transfer Together” which cooperates with various institutions in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan area including a support for educational startups. In 2018 a Center for Sustainability in Education was initiated. Several scientific and cultural projects, as well as cooperation with universities abroad and at home complete the profile of the University.

The University of Beira Interior (UBI) is one of the most recent public universities in Portugal but it is also a landmark institution in the educational, research, innovation, business, entrepreneurship and informatics fields. Over the years, the evolution of the number of educational programs and the number of students has been increasing, having surpassed the 7000 students from across the country and 300 from all over the world. Aiming to provide a solid educational and scientific background to his students in different fields of knowledge, UBI presents 27 first cycle programs, 47 second cycle programs and 26 third cycle programs.

The university presents various learning and research facilities, structured in 5 Faculties – Faculty of Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Letters and Faculty of Health Sciences - and 14 research units that had been carefully implemented and range from

aeronautics to computing, electro mechanics, health, mathematics, optics, education, psychology, telecommunications, textile and paper materials and management and entrepreneurship.

R&D is one of the strategic and most important issues in UBI. Outstanding quality and expertise is widely recognized regarding our researchers.

Our research units and services are strongly committed to reach high levels of achievement, both in teaching and research, for the benefit of the whole community. Results range from knowledge transfer, entrepreneurship, international R&D projects and consortia, up to spin offs based on the research findings of graduate students and researchers of UBI. As such, in UBI it is emphasized its integration in several R&D projects and consortiums and in the establishment of partnerships with other universities and firms, mainly through its internal office CFIUTE which is the office responsible for bringing the university to the market and industry. Additionally, it has the UBImedical and is a main member of PARKURBIS which are science and technology parks, focused in the knowledge transfer.

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