1. International Project - Development and implementation of innovations - green technologies in the form of vertical gardens including micro-farming
Agnieszka Klucznik-Tӧrő together with a Partner institution from Norway – Green Transformation AS, and a group of colleagues have successfully applied for the Norwegian Fund grant co-financed the 1M project (nr NORW.19.01.04-02-0046/20-001). The activities include the development and implementation of innovations in the area of environmental technologies – that combine: Art, Design, Architecture, and Landscape Architecture.
Its activities include:
1) DEVELOPING INNOVATION, the research effort has focused on developing new solutions and products in the area of vertical gardens, including micro-farming for both external and internal structures.
The aim of developing innovations has been to prepare the prototypes, which will then be commercialised. This task consisted of:
- RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (R&D) WORK carried out both independently and jointly with the R&D institute and should result in 5 innovations, including 4 innovative products and 1 innovative solution.
2) PRODUCTION and SALE.
2. International Project WINGS -Entrepreneurship & Networking
The project’s aim has been to create a strong, recognizable & sustainable EU-wide network & online platform for facilitating the access & share of existing learning & training offers to support women entrepreneurs.
The WINGS project was financed by the European Commission with a budget: of €0.6 million (KA3 ICT MULTILATERAL NETWORKS programme, Lifelong Learning Programme: Comenius, ICT and Languages, No: 543208-LLP-1-2013-1-AT-KA3-KA3NW). The aim of the project was to disseminate initiatives related to female entrepreneurship in order to generate awareness for their sustainable impact and expand their areas of activity; to create a strong, recognizable pan-European networking group and an online platform designed to facilitate access to existing training and educational offers to support entrepreneurship.
Our objectives:
· to develop a unique EU network to facilitate ICT systems for learning, supporting & training women entrepreneurs bringing widespread visibility & maximizing the exploitation of innovative good practices in the field;
· to strengthen the linkages between EU women entrepreneurs, project managers, learning communities, multipliers &society encouraging the knowledge &experience exchange via a multi-lingual EU one-stop-shop online platform, where valuable &innovative EU learning opportunities can be found & accessed in one place;
· to foster new business opportunities by creating a Virtual Market for E-commerce & facilitating international networking.
By achieving these objectives, WINGS has created a cluster to strengthen the mainstreaming of new technologies, educational practices &training EU – wide, sustaining a valuable knowledge–sharing environment.
To fulfill project's main aims & objectives a set of specific objectives was planned:
- Development of a multi-lingual EU one-stop-shop platform integrating existing learning & training offers to support women entrepreneurs categorized in modules according to the topic / geographical location of the valued offers gathered;
- Definition of specific criteria to collect EU good practice initiatives & innovative project results in the categories of training, e-learning & self-study materials, e-coaching & mentoring of women entrepreneurs;
- Implementation of a Virtual Market Place fostering E-commerce opportunities for EU women entrepreneurs providing additional market access &visibility for their companies &products;
- Increase awareness & appreciation of WE among EU members, also highlighting its relevance as a source of new employment;
- Facilitation of a more inclusive environment for migrant women that want to start a business in a foreign country, dedicating a special module in the online platform to address their needs with the gathering of topic-related information;
- Mainstreaming in all phases of the project assuring at least 50% female staff working in the project, including women entrepreneurs & migrant specialists in partnership;
- Facilitation International Roundtables aimed at project teams & coordinators, multipliers, associations, NGOs & policymakers to share knowledge & experience in producing a long-term strategy for the progress of women entrepreneurs across the EU;
- Increase awareness of IT importance for knowledge sharing, networking & doing business among EU women entrepreneurs;
- Use of ICT & innovative tools for the promotion of the project results, networking workshops, and project meetings.
3. Consultancy project for start-ups
Agnieszka Klucznik-Tӧrő together with the International Center for Entrepreneurship, Henley Business School, Wrocław University of Economics, and Climate-KIC Poland, invited start-ups from the Wroclaw Region to take part in a project with a consultancy program.
The aim of the project was to support start-ups, especially with a value proposition development and its adjustment.
The project was free of charge for entrepreneurs and took place in Wroclaw, Poland, between 2017-2020.
The form: a short summer school, which combined teamwork, workshops, and short experts’ talks.
Learning Outcomes for Entrepreneurs:
Entrepreneurs have had a chance to be supported by an international team of experienced coaches, professional consultants, and open-minded students of entrepreneurship.
Each start-up was accompanied by one working team, which offered its full capacity to identify the weak area(s) of a start-up, analyzed it, and came up with proposition(s) for the improvement(s).
Entrepreneurs worked in a workshop style with students and coaches in a stimulating process that led to entrepreneurs having a sharper focus on the venture plans and a stronger confidence in the words they use to explain their venture ideas to ‘outsiders’.
