Green ideas start to mature in the Startup Lab

University of Tartu Startup Lab started international collaboration in the field of entrepreneurship training focusing on students’ green and sustainable ideas validation and implementation.  

The Green HExagon project, launched in November, supports students’ green topics idea development in an online pre-incubation programme. All teams get support from international experts and mentors. In addition to entrepreneurial knowledge and skills, the programme includes seminars on future competencies, e.g. leadership and teamwork. The project supports also the development of teaching staff of partner universities on the topics of entrepreneurship education, including start-up idea validation and green economy. 

For developing competencies of students and teachers, the project will provide digital materials and a virtual learning platform that links the green economy community. 

According to Maret Ahonen, Startup Lab Manager, the project welcomes all students who value sustainable thinking and are looking for green business ideas and solutions. “The work in the project is team-based. In addition to workshops, teams can test their ideas under the guidance of international experts of partner universities and meet at the bootcamp in Austria”, added Maret Ahonen. 

During the project meeting at the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, partners learned about the local university, its business incubation, and the Czech business support system. In addition, discussions on problems and opportunities how to develop students’ entrepreneurship education were held. In conclusion, partners unanimously recognized that face-to-face contact is significantly more effective than online. Although our activities are quite similar, we have so much to learn from each other in order to improve the quality.

Project Green HExagon is funded by the Erasmus+ programme. UT Startup Lab’s collaboration partners are the University of Latvia, the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague, and Wiener Neustadt Applied University in Austria. Project period 15.11.2022 - 15.11.2024.

Contact: Piret Arusaar, Project Manager
Startup Lab, School of Economics and Business Administration piret.arusaar@ut.ee