Project duration: 1 April 2018 – 31 March 2022
Objective
The OpESEE master’s degree programme will support entrepreneurs and release highly qualified mechanical engineers aiming to run their own businesses in maintenance engineering related to raw materials operations in the ESEE region. Local and western European machine suppliers, mining and engineering companies require agents in the mining regions, who are connected to both, the ESEE business market and the network of supply companies.
The solution (technology)
The ESEE region (East & South-East Europe) is of undisputed importance to the European Union from a political point of view (cohesion, regional development, candidate countries and potential candidates) and from an economic point of view. The security of supply, the economic value and employment of local people is often part of the public discourse. Moreover the ESEE region is of particular interest due to its unique geological and raw materials potentials. The high topicality of this situation is confirmed by the fact that the European Union takes this relevance in its commodity strategy and in its strategy for the Danube Region.
For the ESEE region we see a high potential to create start-ups in this area after a solid education for students. Within the framework of the master programme, students are networked with branch industries and create further business opportunities through early contact and by building a trust base. Thus, the programme contributes especially to the business development activities of EIT RawMaterials CLC East, generating and rooting a potential of upcoming entrepreneurs to be further supported by respective KIC acceleration programmes before these students may leave their countries towards the West.
The OpESEE (Open ESEE – East & South-East Europe) master’s degree programme will create highly qualified mechanical and process engineers from the ESEE region with a specialisation in maintenance for raw materials services for the ESEE region.
This project has implications for the regional development of the ESEE region. The countries of the ESEE region not only include EU candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro), but also countries which are eligible associated countries for the upcoming EIT RIS activities. We encourage people who either intend to leave or have already left their countries to find better prospects in Western Europe, to either stay in or return to the East & South-East Europe region. The shortage of skilled workers is an important issue also in the ESEE region, especially among engineers. With the OpESEE we want to prevent the brain-drain of local people and improve the economic development of their home region. The aim is to use the full potential of creative ideas and inventions from the ESEE region and to make the innovations happen where they originate. This shows the broad impact and economic importance of this project. Hence, the programme may become a significant part of the local service offering portfolio of the upcoming “EIT RawMaterials Hubs” to be established in RIS countries as well as of the revised ESEE Strategy of CLC East. With respect to the proposed rESErvE Upscalling project (Mineral Potential of the ESEE Region) that intends to create the basis for investments and new exploration projects in the ESEE region, the OpESEE programme contributes to these objectives fundamentally by ensuring the manpower of the required specialists. Another collaboration with other KIC proposals is the planned integration of the Dubrovnik International ESEE Mining School (DIM ESEE) as optional summer school for OpESEE students.
With this project we foster a culture of innovation at the ESEE region’s higher education institutions, boost entrepreneurial thinking and promote new start-ups in this strategically important region to avoid the brain-drain of highly qualified engineers.
This can lead to an economic recovery for the ESEE region and it is also very likely that joint ventures and cooperations with industrial partners from other European regions will be established.
The master programme in maintenance engineering will develop all the required key competencies for young entrepreneurs and result in new ideas and innovations in the field of mechanical and process engineering and further in the commercialisation of these ideas and new technologies.
The OpESEE is offered by a consortium of five universities located in the ESEE region (University Miskolc, Ovidius University of Constanta, Technical University of Kosice, National Mining University (NMU Ukraine) and University of Sarajevo) and three universities located outside of the ESEE region (Montanuniversität Leoben, Trinity College Dublin, Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg), complemented by a strong list of non-academic partners active in mining, material science and mechanical engineering.
Through this programme we want to harvest the full potential of the ESEE region and its universities to drive innovation and thus make a big contribution to EIT RawMaterials’ future contribution to the EU innovation landscape. We consider the OpESEE master’s programme as a project with increasing returns in the medium term, where through the multiplication (or snowball) effect increasing possibilities of entrepreneurship, job creation and economic stabilisation in the region are likely.”
Partnership
- Technische Universität Bergakademie Freiberg (TUBAF), Germany (Lead Partner)
- Aluinvent Limited Company, Hungary
- Kuhn Holding GmbH, Austria
- Liebherr-International AG, Germany
- Montanuniversität Leoben, Austria
- National Mining University (NMU), Ukraine
- Ovidius University of Constanta, Romania
- Technical University of Kosice, Slovakia
- Trinity Dublin College – The Provost, Fellows, Foundation Scholars, and the other members of Board, of the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, Ireland
- University of Miskolc, Hungary
- University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Zeppelin GmbH, Germany
For more information, please visit the project web page.
