Enterprise Academy / Convene Fellowships Call for Expression of Interest
The Enterprise Academy Fellowship programme supports staff wishing to co-create skills and innovation solutions with enterprise, which are aligned to TU Dublin’s strategic goals. Funded by the Human Capital Initiative, Enterprise Fellows will be seconded from their regular role on a full-time basis for one semester. Staff in academic faculties, professional services, research or innovation centres are eligible to apply.
This Call for Expressions of Interest is for Semester 2 of the 2023/24 academic year. The roles will be full-time assignments for up to 5 months (from January 22nd to June 21st). Up to 5 Full Time Equivalent Fellowships will be funded. A panel will be put in place from which vacancies may be filled over a 12-month period. The secondment will be at the current pay grade of the successful candidates.
For full details please read the Expression of Interest Enterprise Academy Convene Fellowships.
How does the Enterprise Academy Fellowship work?
Fellows support TU Dublin's aim of developing the most connected university by cultivating a network of discoverers, creators and entrepreneurs and engaging with people for University-Enterprise engagement.
The Enterprise Academy Fellowship provides time out to pause intense schedules, explore, experiment and deliver skills and innovation solutions for enterprise. Fellows will be immersed in a ‘velcro’ ecosystem where staff and students from enterprise, academia, professional services, innovation, research and our international partners come together for the common purpose of innovation, talent and skills development. Fellows will be based in their host organisation and in the Enterprise Academy, an “internal incubator” for TU Dublin, which will help staff translate between enterprise needs and academic solutions, align projects to the university strategic plan, navigate our complex systems, integrate our collective expertise and co-create solutions around priority enterprise needs.
What does the Enterprise Academy Fellowship provide?
Leveraging the best practice of prior fellowship colleagues, the 2023/24 Fellows will be supported throughout the innovation lifecycle to deliver skills and innovation solutions for enterprise. Mainstreaming and delivery remains the responsibility of the home Faculty, School or Unit and all projects need the firm commitment of the relevant line manager from the outset.
The Enterprise Academy will provide:
- Full semester secondments with backfill to the home School/unit (to a maximum value of €25,000)
- Ground-breaking educational models for Accredited Talent Development
- Tools and techniques for effective discovery
- Coaching through the full innovation lifecycle, from ideation to mainstreaming
- Curation of high-quality online content to support skills solutions
- Assistance with securing funding (Springboard, Innovation Vouchers, and other funding applications)
- Navigation of internal and collaborative quality assurance processes
- Cultivation of enterprise ecosystems including Enterprise Faculty in priority sectors
- Communities of practice around common challenges, joining the dots across our education, research and innovation strengths
- Professional development plans including coaching and training as entrepreneurial educators
- National/international market development and sector-facing intelligence
- Championing business process transformation within TU Dublin for university-enterprise engagement
What kinds of Fellowships will be supported?
We welcome ideas from staff under the broad theme of co-creation of skills and innovation solutions with enterprise within some key parameters.
- All Fellowships must have clear and achievable deliverables which are aligned to relevant objectives of the faculty or unit and the TU Dublin strategic plan. In this call, priority will be given to Fellowships that can be completed within the semester time frame and which are building on a relevant track record (e.g., prior work in Springboard, Skillnet, or similar schemes).
- A key goal of the Enterprise Academy is to ‘join the dots’ across our academic, professional services, research and innovation communities. We want to make good ideas bigger and more impactful by convening university-enterprise ecosystems around them and with our partners in the UCD Innovation Academy. In this initial Call, priority will be given to Fellowships that demonstrate this ambition.
- The Enterprise Academy is supported by an investment of €17.5m from the Human Capital Initiative, in partnership with the UCD Innovation Academy. As such the Enterprise Academy Fellowships must assist with meeting the specific objectives and targets of the HCI Pillar 3 funding (See Appendix B). Priority will be given to proposals that address skills and innovation needs in one/more of the following sectors (ICT/FinTech, Tourism, Food & Drink, Creative & Cultural, Social Enterprise, MedTech and Pharma). Fellows may be asked to progress relevant aspects of the Enterprise Academy project as part of their secondment where relevant.
- As above, a key consideration for project selection, will be alignment with the Faculty and University Strategic intent.
Process for Application
Please complete the Expression of Interest below and email by the closing date to recruitment@tudublin.ie. The closing date for receipt of expressions of interest is 5pm (Irish Time) Monday, 20th November 2023. Late Applications will not be accepted.
Shortlisted candidates will be asked for a 10-minute presentation on the following title: “How my proposal meets the Enterprise Academy Fellowship Evaluation Criteria” . For further information about these posts please contact claire.mcbride@tudublin.ie.
Enterprise Academy Fellows
To date, the Enterprise Academy has awarded nine Fellowships across a variety of projects and sectors.
In September 2021 we welcomed our first cohort of Enterprise Fellows: Deirdre Ryan, Andrea Curley, Mariia Perelygina, Graham O’Neill, and Lorraine Carmody. They worked on a wide range of projects in sectors ranging from ICT and Tourism, to Food Science and Environmental Health.
In January 2022, a second cohort of Enterprise Fellows joined us: Sylvia Healy, Seán McHugh, Deirdre Kennedy, and Ciara Walsh. Visit the Enterprise Academy Fellowships to find out more.
