EXPAND

• Principal investigator: Lisa Hehenberger
• Research group: Esade Entrepreneur Institute (EEI)
• Funding body: European Commission

About the project

EXPAND will develop a toolbox for implementing ‘Challenge Based Idea Accelerators’ and run a first Idea Accelerator focused on homelessness. The toolbox is aimed at higher education teaching staff and will enable a practical new method responding to the need for more civic engagement, developing new problem-solving skills and stimulate social entrepreneurship in students.

The proposed project builds on the creativity of students combined with design thinking and challenge-based education to tackle societal challenges, with a focus on homelessness in the pilot programme. It will bring together students, innovators, creative thinkers, tech people and the higher education world, in particular, to join forces and bring heavyweight social challenges in the spotlight.

The main outputs of the project will be:

• An ecosystem map.
• The challenge-based idea accelerator programme itself.
• The toolbox aimed at higher education teaching staff.
• The business cases resulting from the first idea accelerator.
• Reports with insights on the local ecosystems working on homelessness.