BLENDS Online Kick Off: Moving Universities and Cities “Into Something New”

BLENDS (Boosting Learning in Entrepreneurship through New and Deepening Alliance Synergies) is funded through the EIT Higher Education Initiative (EIT HEI) of the European Institute of Innovation & Technology and supported by theClimate-KIC. The initiative supports higher education institutions in strengthening their capacity for innovation and entrepreneurship, linking education, research and business in what the EIT calls the ‘Knowledge Triangle’. Coordinated by Erasmus University Rotterdam, BLENDS runs from 2026 to 2028 and brings together the ten UNIC universities, the10 UNIC city municipalities, the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP), the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship.
  

“Cities and universities need each other” 

Opening the day, UNIC Alliance Coordinator Professor Semiha Denktaş placed BLENDS in the context of cities. The challenges facing urban communities are complex and transcend borders, and concern affordable housing, climate action, health and well-being, inclusion, mobility, digital governance, urban regeneration and economic renewal. Universities can help address these challenges by producing expertise and research and through cooperation with industry and public institutions. 

“A university is not only a campus. It is an essential part of an urban ecosystem. To solve urban challenges, universities and cities must work together. This is why UNIC matters.” 

Professor Denktaş also returned to the roots of the word itself. Innovation comes from the Latin innovationem: in, meaning “into”, and novus, meaning “new”. Innovation literally means moving into something new, moving into change, which perfectly summarises BLENDS’ ambition.

 CityLabs at the centre  

At the core of BLENDS is the UNIC Centre for City Futures and its network of local CityLabs. These living laboratories bring together universities, cities, students, researchers, public authorities, businesses, and citizens to work on concrete urban challenges. Through BLENDS, Oulu and Bilbao will act as Lighthouse Cities, running a challenge-based innovation loop with at least one validated proof of concept each, while the other UNIC cities join as Fellow Cities learning alongside them. Additionally, an open call for inter-regional innovation partnerships and CityLabs is planned. 

From Learning to validated solutions

The project has a clear roadmap: entrepreneurship education is scaled across the alliance, with shared learning pathways and recognised micro-credentials for students and staff. Ideas are tested against real urban challenges in the CityLabs, before moving towards technology transfer and international scaling through a new Alliance Technology Transfer Hub. Throughout this process, partners will develop a shared approach to measuring the impact of innovation, so that what works can be shared with other alliances when the project concludes. 

Following presentations by Project Coordinator Professor Jason Pridmore, UNIC Alliance Programme Manager Mathias Reckmann, Climate-KIC's Kate Martin, and BLENDS Project Manager Marco Aperti, the floor opened to the BLENDS team. 

"Where is innovation when you look at your desk right now?" asked Marco, kicking off an afternoon of conversations on the different dimensions of the project, how positive local impact can be multiplied across the alliance and, ultimately, what concrete changes BLENDS should create.

What’s next 

The partners will meet in person for the first time in Rotterdam on 11 and 12 November, on a trip that will include visits to companies and CityLabs and work on cooperation roadmaps between UNIC and the EIT communities. Over the coming years, BLENDS will open conversations on transformation, innovation and the future of European cities, with the ambition of creating clear pathways from university learning and research to city-validated solutions, start-up development and wider European innovation opportunities.  

Get involved

Are you working on entrepreneurship, urban innovation or knowledge transfer within the UNIC alliance or one of its cities? Want to learn more about BLENDS and explore how your work could connect to this initiative? Get in touch with the BLENDS team!