Call for proposals — The European Investment Bank Institute proposes a new EIBURS sponsorship under its Knowledge Programme
Date: 2015-07-17
Institutions: European Investment Bank
Subjects: EU programme, European Investment Bank, cooperation in the field of education, education grant, higher education, innovation, patronage, university research








C_2015233EN.01000501.xml










17.7.2015   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 233/5





Call for proposals — The European Investment Bank Institute proposes a new EIBURS sponsorship under its Knowledge Programme
(2015/C 233/07)
The European Investment Bank Institute channels most of its research grants through its Knowledge Programme, consisting of two different funding schemes:






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EIBURS, the EIB University Research Sponsorship Programme,










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STAREBEI (STAges de REcherche BEI), a programme for financing young researchers working on joint EIB-university projects





EIBURS provides grants to university departments or research centres associated with universities in EU, candidate or potential candidate countries working on research topics of major interest to the Bank. EIBURS sponsorships, of up to EUR 100 000 per year for a period of 3 years, are awarded through a competitive process to interested university departments or research centres with recognised expertise in the selected area. Successful proposals entail the delivery of a variety of outputs that will be the subject of a contractual agreement with the European Investment Bank.
For the academic year 2015/2016, the EIBURS programme is seeking proposals on one new research theme:

How can larger organisations also be innovative organisations?

The objective of the research project is to examine how established organisations can best use projects and/or initiatives as the basis for successful radical innovation, and to then develop a range of approaches, common tools and techniques that can support those innovation projects or initiatives.
Many established organisations are built around their ability to replicate existing processes efficiently and securely, and/or to make incremental innovations to existing products and services. As cycles of change become more compressed, organisations may increasingly turn to alternative approaches to achieve more radical innovations or changes.
This study would focus on how organisations with stable core processes can also encourage radical innovation and change. The research should concentrate on execution — how can established organisations best implement change once decided? The study would identify models for radical innovation and change within established organisations, and then use these as a framework to propose tools that the organisation should adopt to foster such innovation.
The first stage would review the range of models for radical innovation that have been envisaged or implemented within established organisations and it should include lessons on effective implementation based on empirical evidence.
The second stage would focus on different approaches to implementation, once a desired strategy or outcome has been selected. It should examine:






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whether particular approaches are more successful in generating particular innovation outcomes and










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to what extent organisations can control the desired outcome by influencing the supporting and inhibiting factors, and what is the role of uncontrollable external factors and chance.




The analysis should also take into account factors such as company culture, and the wider business environment.
The third stage would build on insights from the first two stages and focus on developing:






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diagnostic tools for identifying the best approaches for particular business types to implement particular types of innovation and










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innovation support tools that organisations can use to support successful implementation of different models for innovation.




The project may involve any additional activity that the university centre would consider important for successfully undertaking the research and disseminating its results, including:






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organisation of seminars and other dissemination activities










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creation of databases and










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surveys.




Proposals should be submitted in English or French by 30 September 2015 24.00 (CET). Proposals submitted after this date will not be considered. Proposals should be sent by email to:
institute@eib.org

For more exhaustive information on the EIBURS selection process and on the EIB Institute, please visit: http://institute.eib.org/