Behind MegaStrat
The Background
The rapid pace of innovation in today’s high-tech industry, particularly the mobility and production sector, puts significant pressure on companies to deliver timely and competitive solutions. This is especially true for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this complex multi-industry environment, relying solely on trend analyses is no longer sufficient to anticipate future developments. The high-tech nature of this sector makes it susceptible to long-term technological, societal, and cultural changes, encompassing various dimensions of uncertainty. Technological advancements bring challenges such as identifying viable use cases for new technologies and the interdependence on complementary inventions. This challenge is even more pronounced in sectors like production, where changes can be costly and resource-intensive due to established investment pathways and dependencies. The need to adapt to emerging technologies and evolving market demands is essential for companies to maintain their competitiveness and success in the mobility industry.
The Mission
The primary aim of the MegaStrat project is, to empower high-tech SMEs operating in the mobility and production industry to leverage the potential of specific opportunities presented by megatrends. This is achieved by translating high-level futurological trends into actionable long-term strategies and initiatives that can provide these SMEs with a competitive edge in a future time frame spanning more than 10-20 years. The project seeks to bridge the gap between futuristic trends and practical implementation, enabling SMEs to proactively plan and adapt to future market dynamics, technological advancements, and societal shifts. By equipping SMEs with comprehensive and forward-thinking strategies, MegaStrat aims to position them at the forefront of innovation and sustainable growth in the long term.
Given the significance of vocational education and training in driving innovation within SMEs, the project’s primary objective is to collaboratively design the MegaStrat Curriculum and Online Course specifically focused on the development of long-term opportunity forecasts (LTOFs). The aim is to create a comprehensive educational resource with which training bodies such as innovation hubs, Vocational Education Training providers (VETs) and Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) can educate (future) strategists on LTOFs and thus supports SMEs in leveraging LTOFs for strategic decision-making.
The Consortium
The MegaStrat consortium represents a mix of complementary expertise adding methodological knowledge, skills and competencies for LTOF development to the existing portfolios, and providing scenarios for decisions on strategic long-term future investment. Educating a workforce aware of the importance of LTOF development and equipped with the necessary skills to develop those scenarios, it aligns with their aim to boost innovation, business and science cooperation, and/or to develop innovative offerings which provide a sustainable competitive advantage.
bwcon – Germany
bwcon GmbH (bwcon) has been founded in 2014 and is the commercial branch of bwcon e.V, a network with more than 700 members composed of startups, SMEs and corporates from the fields of energy, mobility, production, health. Today bwcon is Baden-Württemberg’s leading facilitator for innovation in the technology sector. Being more precise, bwcon coordinates the technology transfer from research to industry by starting with early stage concepts at universities such as the Opportunity Recognition Workshops for PhD candidates and researchers from the ICT sector. bwcon also organizes summer academies, hackathons and idea factory workshops for students with various modules relevant for sensitization on entrepreneurship such as design thinking, effectuation, business modelling, prototyping or the lean startup method. For established companies, bwcon offers services that support them in their innovation strategy.
Eolas S.L. – Spain
EOLAS S.L. offers services and support to enterprises, organizations and entities in 3 main areas, for a wide range of demands and needs from support for projects, business development and consulting to innovation. EOLAS S.L. is founded by a team of professionals with more than 20 years of experience in idea generation, identification of financing schemes, proposal preparation, partner search and management of international, European, national and regional projects. It combines the knowledge and experience of in the field of economics, innovation and enterprise organization with engineering, allowing the company to integrate both the technical coordination as well as the economic aspects of project management.
Hochschule der Medien – Germany
Hochschule der Medien (HdM) in Stuttgart is a public higher education institution (funded by the state of Baden-Württemberg) that trains media specialists for companies, organizations and institutions. It covers a broad spectrum of media expertise; for example from printed media to electronic media or from library science to advertising. About 30 accredited Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programs mirror this diversity. At the moment, more than 5000 students are registered at the university. As a University of Applied Sciences, HdM has a special focus in academic training with strong connections to regional and national businesses.
University of Southern Denmark – Denmark
The University of Southern Denmark is the 3rd largest university in Denmark. It has five faculties with 31,000 students – 20% of whom are international – and 3,400 employees distributed across five regional campuses. The Department of Business & Management (DBM) is a department under the Faculty of Business and Social Science. It’s Centre for Integrative Innovation Management is bridging two faculties: Social Sciences and Engineering. The Centre adopts a cross-disciplinary approach because understanding and promotion of innovation from the initial idea to commercialization requires the combination of engineering, management and marketing.
Asociacion de Idustrias de Conocimiento y Tecnologia – Spain
GAIA’s mission is to boost the development and growth in the Engineering, Consulting, Electronics-IT and Telecommunications sectors, and to favor the assimilation and efficient usage of the sector’s technologies, with the aim of collaborating in the development of the Information and Knowledge Society. Also, it is a regional Cluster and it promotes the Networking with the key stakeholders within the Basque Country, and policy and ICT Deployment to the industry within the region. GAIA represents the ICTA sector (Knowledge and applied technologies industries), which constitutes a competitive advantage to accelerate the transformation of companies, territory and society with the aim of positioning Basque Country in the New Economy.
Green Innovation Group – Denmark
The main goal of Green Innovation A/S is “making green business good business”. Green Innovation Group A/S noticed that there is a need for cooperation between municipalities, ministries, foundations, agencies and large companies to achieve this objective and find more sustainable alternatives for their organization. The company thus provides services which help to accelerate the green transition by matching real needs in the private and public sector with green innovative solutions. This comprises the connection of green startups and incumbents to fuel green innovation change. Green Innovation Group A/S operates in 8 EU partner countries.