1. Home
  2. Connect
  3. Partnering with Us
  4. GROWTHhub
  5. Entrepreneurship Educators
  6. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Community of Practice

GROWTHhub

GROWTHhub

Entrepreneurship & Innovation Community of Practice

 

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Community of Practice Purpose

The purpose of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Community of Practice is to help the community of interested academics and practitioners to improve learning & teaching, research and next practice in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation domains in the University. The Community of Practice is essentially interested in helping to bring ‘best and next’ practice entrepreneurship and Innovation education to all Faculties in TU Dublin. This will be done in a research- informed manner and will be guided by the EU Commissions ENTRECOMP competences framework.

By constantly improving standards of Entrepreneurship and Innovation educational practice in TU Dublin,  graduates will be better equipped to deal with the increasingly VUCAH (Volatile, Uncertain, complex, ambiguous and Hyperconnected) environment that they will encounter in their future careers. Irrespective of the change driven by environmental and technological changes (e.g. Sustainability agenda, Digital world -Generative AI, AR/VR, Metaverse etc), future society will require highly skilled and adaptable graduates with entrepreneurial mindsets and education who have the knowledge, skills, abilities and resilience to discover, create and capture value in their chosen domains – be it commercial, social, cultural or community.   The Community of Practices ambition is to help bring the University to the point where no graduate of the University will leave the University without taking at least one module in an entrepreneurship and Innovation related module during their time at the University. This ambition is entirely consistent with the University’s entrepreneurship strategy as set out in its 2020 document ‘Dare to Discover’.

The Community of Practice activities is aligned to two of the pillars of the TU Dublin strategy:

  1. People: Entrepreneurship supports “nurturing bright minds, creativity and ambition” and the University’s objective to create “a place of imagination and inspiration”. It reinforces the development of entrepreneurship as a competence to create value in a range of contexts including economic, cultural, social, and environmental”.
  2. Planet: The EntreComp competences include ethical and responsible decision making, supporting the University intent to develop “responsible global citizens”. Entrepreneurship skills are directly relevant for preparing students with the skills to develop or participate in the development of initiatives to tackle global challenges.

In addition to aligning with these strategic pillars, the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Community of Practicedirectly supports the TU Dublin Entrepreneurship Strategy Dare to Discover and its Entrepreneurship Education pillar by supporting the enhancement of teaching, learning and assessment practice in this area. This includes enhancing innovation and quality of practices for inclusive Entrepreneurship education and sustainability related Entrepreneurship education.

 

Members

 

Dr Anthony Buckley is Head of Discipline for Entrepreneurship and Innovation in School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship.

 His research interests centre on the enterprise (Stand up, Start-up & Scale up) domains with particular emphasis on Entrepreneurship processes (Traditional & Digital) & Innovation management, in addition to Research & Evaluation methodology in the enterprise domain. Tony’s research is published in international academic journals such as the Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Evaluation Journal, European Management Review, Industry & Higher Education and the Electronic Journal of Business Research methods (EJBRM). Peer – reviewed academic conference publications (Proceedings) include: The ICSB World Entrepreneurship Conference, The European Conference on Research Methods (ECRM), The International Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ICIE), The European Conference on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (ECIE), The International Conference for Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Regional Development (ICEIRD), The Triple Helix Association Conference (THA), EURAM – European Academy of Management conference and Research in entrepreneurship and small business (RENT) conference. Tony also won Best Paper awards at the European Evaluation Society Conference (EES) in 2014 and at the ISBE Conference (2018) in the Technology Entrepreneurship track. In addition, he was awarded a Teaching Fellowship in the College of Business (2014) to research Entrepreneurship and Innovation learning outcomes. Tony has supervised four PhD’s to completion so far and has one student due for completion in 2023. Tony co-authored a pioneering book ‘Digital Entrepreneurship – Disruption and new venture creation’ which was published by Edward Elgar in Spring 2022.

An experienced international educator, trainer and business consultant, Tony has delivered education and training on innovation management in the Middle East, Central Asia and Europe. He has also consulted on a European Union (EU) knowledge transfer project (ICTentr) with leading Universities in Vietnam. He also delivered design thinking and digital entrepreneurship workshops to client companies of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in Hanoi. Tony was also part of the TU Dublin consulting team working on the EntrAL EU Erasmus + programme which seeks to introduce entrepreneurship education to the Albanian education system at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. 

Prior to joining TU Dublin, Tony had a distinguished career of over twenty two years in business and entrepreneurship/SME support. He worked for the Irish Trade Board (Now part of Enterprise Ireland) in Dublin and New York as a Marketing Adviser, for Nissan as a Marketing Director, for Meteor Mobile as a Director of Marketing, for Publicis PLC as a Senior Account director and for Glen Dimplex Group as its first Group Export Director and as the inaugural Chief Executive of Glen Dimplex Exports LTD. He also held senior leadership roles in a number of SME’s in the print and design sectors. In addition to his academic leadership role in TU Dublin, Tony has served in a voluntary capacity as a board member and the inagural secretary/treasurer in the association for key account management (AKAM) – a global association for the advancement of the profession of Key Account Management.

Paul O’Reilly is the GROWTHhub project lead.  GROWTHhub is funded by the HEA Human Capital Initiative Pillar 3. Prior to establishing GROWTHhub, Paul held a number of leadership roles at TU Dublin, including Head of School of Management and College of Business Head of Research. Prior to GROWTHhub, Paul has a successful record leading the design and delivery of innovation management programmes including with enterprise (e.g. Technology Ireland Skillnet, Chambers Ireland, Workday, etc.).  Paul is a member of the NSAI ISO56000 Innovation Standard National Committee and the InterTradeIreland Innovation All-Island Forum.  The GROWTHhub mission is to encourage a growth and entrepreneurial mindset among our students and enterprise-based learners.  To achieve this, Paul is leading a programme of work that builds on the existing University entrepreneurial systems in the following ways:

  • Providing all students with access to experiential entrepreneurship education co-curriculum initiatives, including accredited entrepreneurship programmes, internships, accelerators, and one-to-one supports.
  • Supporting the development of new and innovative entrepreneurship education pedagogical approaches and activities through cross-University faculty bursaries and faculty training programmes.
  • Developing initiatives to build growth mindsets in enterprise, both at the level of employees and leaders.
  • Creating opportunities for students to engage with successful entrepreneurs and innovation leaders who serve as role models and provide one-to-one student advice and mentoring.
  • Establishing high quality learning spaces and resources including active learning and ideation spaces, content creation resources, and makerspace supports.

Dr Etain Kidney, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship

Professor Tom Cooney is Professor of Entrepreneurship in the School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship.  His contribution to Entrepreneurship education has been recognised by his international peers, including receiving the ECSB-BLI European Award for Best Learning Innovation in Entrepreneurship Education (2021). Tom is Director of the TU Dublin Institute for Minority Entrepreneurship and is as EntreComp Champion.  Tom has authored several volumes of Entrepreneurship case studies and has led training in case study preparation.  Tom brings to the CoP access to a wide network of leading Entrepreneurship educators. As the founder and former chair of INTRE (Ireland’s Network of Teachers and Researchers in Entrepreneurship), Tom is well networked nationally among Entrepreneurship educators, and having engaged in a number of EC funded Entrepreneurship Education projects he also brings an active network of active Entrepreneurship education experts and potential to develop new research funding applications.

In addition to the Lead and Supporting Facilitators, many of the Supporting Applicants have been actively engaged in developing and sharing good practice in Entrepreneurship education.  For example, several shared their innovative teaching approaches at the GROWTHhub Entrepreneurship Education Share and Learn Symposium, with Dr Lucia Walsh and Dr Ziene Mottiar receiving best track presentation prizes.  Others have contributed to Entrepreneurship Education events or are GROWTHhub Bursary holders.  This demonstrates a commitment to teaching and learning innovation in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation domain, and critically for the success of the Community of Practice, a willingness to share learning.

 

  • Alex Gibson, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Beatriz Pascual, GROWTHhub
  • Brian Naughton, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Cormac McMahon, School of Accounting, Finance and Economics
  • David Gaul, School of Global Business
  • Dr Alacoque McAlpine, School of Business Technology, Retail, and Supply Chain
  • Dr Christina Ryan, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Dr Claire McBride, Enterprise Academy
  • Dr Colm O’Kane, School of Mechanical Engineering
  • Dr Daire Hooper, School of Management, People and Organisation
  • Dr Deirdre Duffy, Enterprise Academy
  • Dr John Crowe, School of Business Technology, Retail, and Supply Chain
  • Dr Lucia Walsh, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Dr Lucy McKeown, School of Global Business
  • Dr Niamh Imbusch, School of Management, People and Organisation
  • Dr Serge Basini, School of Management, People and Organisation
  • Dr Shane Mangan, School of Biological, Health and Sports Sciences
  • Dr Tara Rooney, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Dr Ziene Mottiar, School of Hospitality Management and Tourism
  • Edicleia Oliveira, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Garrett Keenaghan, School of Architecture, Building and Environment
  • Gavan Cleary, GROWTHhub
  • Gloria Rull, GROWTHhub
  • Hilda Burton, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Isabelle Killane, School of Mechanical Engineering
  • Jennifer McDonnell, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Kevin Delaney, School of Mechanical Engineering and Enterprise Academy
  • Niall Minto, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Niamh O’Hora, School of Media
  • Oliver Herbst, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Robert Hickey, School of Mechanical Engineering
  • Saad Ahmed, School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship
  • Sylvia Gavigan, EUT+ Alliance

Membership

The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Community of Practice has adopted the European Commission EntreComp Entrepreneurship Competences Framework as an organizing and guiding framework. 

The EntreComp framework is used for supporting entrepreneurial learning in different settings – this may include civil society, companies, education, youth work, communities, start-ups and among individuals. The EntreComp wheel offers an overview of the different yet interconnected competences. At its very simplest level, EntreComp is made up of 3 competence areas: Ideas & Opportunities, Resources, and Into Action. Each area contains 5 competences, and together these make up the 15 competences that individuals use to discover and act upon opportunities and ideas.  These competences will be used by the CoP to engage new members and organise sub-groups.

Adopting this framework essentially means that any lecturer seeking to develop any of the fifteen Entrepreneurship Competences included on the EntreComp Framework will potentially benefit from participation in the proposed CoP. Further, the CoP takes a broad view of Entrepreneurship in that it hinges on the creation of value in cultural, environmental, social, and economic contexts.  This means that lecturers may be interested in becoming involved in the CoP from a wide range of Schools.

Therefore, taking account of the EntreComp organising structure and the broad definition of Entrepreneurship, the proposed and target membership is from across the University and breaks down into the following groupings that each of which has an interest in building entrepreneurship and innovation related learning outcomes on their programmes or on TU Dublin programmes in general:

  1. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Lecturers: The core membership of this group is made up Entrepreneurship and Innovation lecturers in the Faculty of Business, and in particular the School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship.
  2. Non-Business Lecturers: This is a wide-ranging group and a group that is likely to drive growth in the proposed CoP. It comprises lecturers in non-business disciplines whose teaching supports the achievement of learning outcomes from across the EntreComp framework of entrepreneurship competences.    
  3. TU Dublin specialist units: This group is made up of staff from GROWTHhub, the Enterprise and Engagement Unit, and the EUT+ Alliance team.

GROWTHhub is the HEA HCI funded project that is charged with developing the entrepreneurship education ecosystem across TU Dublin Faculties and Schools as well as supporting staff to develop and implement new entrepreneurship education pedagogies and learning experiences.  The TU Dublin Enterprise and Engagement Unit is located in Partnerships and leads entrepreneurship training initiatives such as New Frontiers and partners with GROWTHhub in the delivery of student entrepreneurship accelerator programmes.  EUT+ participants are members of the TU Dublin team working on this international alliance initiative.  They have previously been involved in implementing climate action entrepreneurship initiatives including ClimateLaunchpad.

As listed earlier in this application, the initial membership comprises 38 faculty from 14 Schools and other units across the University.  It is anticipated that this will increase further, particularly as there will be further rounds of the GROWTHhub Entrepreneurship Education Bursary Programme and the roll out of GROWTHhub designed Certificate in Designing and Delivering Entrepreneurial Competencies in September 2024. Future bursary winners and participants on this CPD programme will be introduced to the CoP and invited to join. 

 

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Community of Practice Goals

 

 

 

  • Establish an effective communication platform for issuing requests for collaboration, sharing resources, promoting activities and events, sharing resources, and for facilitating effective and easy communications across the Community of Practice.

 

  • Engage with membership to confirm a statement of purpose and priorities for the Community of Practice

 

  • Issue a TU Dublin wide invitation for faculty and other staff to join the Community of Practice.

 

  • Identify priorities for the remaining GROWTHhub Entrepreneurship Education Bursary calls. This will be based on a consultation with Community of Practice

 

  • Establish a shared repository for Community of Practice members and others to disseminate and access teaching, learning, and Entrepreneurship Education resources. This repository will include original contributions from CoP members.

 

  • The Community of Practice was officially launched on 29/4/2024 and the launch slides are included with the application.

 

  • Host a Community of Practice Share and Learn event and showcase.

 

  • Establish a green entrepreneurship and inclusive entrepreneurship special interest groups.
  • Establish an Entrepreneurship and Innovation Education Innovation Award to recognise innovation in the development of new pedagogies.

 

  • Based on the EntreComp framework of entrepreneurship competences, establish staff development initiatives to support non-business faculty design and develop Entrepreneurship learning outcomes into their programmes.
  • Help establish a sustainable research centre in Entrepreneurship and Innovation Education.
  • Contribute to the establishment of a TU Dublin model of Entrepreneurship and Innovation education.

 

2024/2025 Key Activities:

Key activities for the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Community of Practice in 2024/25 include the following:

  1. Establish a Community of Practice Communication Platform. The Community of Practice will establish a 'real time' communication channel for members. This will initially be a dedicated Teams Channel. This will allow Community of Practicemembers to update each other on developments in their area in 'real time' and to seek advice or assistance from group members. It will also highlight possible time limited funding/research/promotional/learning & teaching opportunities.
  2. Establish an Entrepreneurship and Innovation Education Repository. A repository will be established where members of the Community of Practice will be able to directly upload entrepreneurship and innovation education materials. This may be materials prepared by themselves or by others. The repository will include reports from the GROWTHhub Entrepreneurship Education Bursary projects, Candidates from the CPD Certificate in Designing and Delivering Entrepreneurship Learning Outcomes will also be invited to share their assessment projects (i.e. lesson plans focused on specific entrepreneurship learning outcomes.  GROWTHhub resources will support the development of the repository and CoP members will be surveyed as to their preferences on its design.  The repository will also include presentations from the annual GROWTHhub Entrepreneurship Education Share and Learn Symposium.  To build a critical mass of resources in the repository, GROWTHhub will commence uploading resources from June, 2023. 
  3. Entrepreneurship and Innovation Module Mapping: A mapping exercise of entrepreneurship and Innovation module provision across TU Dublin will be undertaken. Data collected will be used to identify where there is scope for improvement and updating of provision, how the Community of Practice can contribute to the University’s intention to and will also be used to identify lecturers that can be invited to join the Community of Practice.
  4. GROWTHhub Bursary Project Share and Learn Event: As a condition of their bursary awards, bursary awardees are required to participate in initiatives to disseminate their bursary project outcomes. The Community of Practice and GROWTHhub will organise and host a Share and Learn event where GROWTHhub funded bursary projects are presented in a forum intended to initiate discussion and dissemination.  This will be loosely modelled on the successful GROWTHhub Entrepreneurship Education Share and Learn event that is delivered in collaboration with the European Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship which in 2022 had twenty Share and Learn presentations.
  5. Community of Practice Meetings: The Community of Practice will have two substantiative meetings per semester, one of which will be designed around a leading guest speaker who will focus on ‘next practice’ and teaching innovation in the domain. See launch  Entrepreneurship & Innovation Community of Practice Slides.

 

Potential Impact on the Student Learning Experience

 

How do I get involved in the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Community of Practice?

 

Human Capital Initiative, Government of Ireland & GROWTHhub logos