Hanze University of Applied Sciences recently became the epicentre of collaboration in healthcare innovation thanks to the hosting of the International Program 2025, focused on Healthy Aging from a Global Perspective. The initiative, which ran from 27 January to 7 February, concluded a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) on eHealth applications, culminating in the joint presentation of cutting-edge eHealth solutions by students from eight different countries.

The programme, organised by Hanze’s School of Healthcare and Nursing, brought together 356 students ─including 62 international participants─ and  included, together with other universities, three key institutions, partners of STARS EU: Hanze University of Applied Sciences, Bremen University of Applied Sciences (Germany) and  Aleksandër Moisiu University (Albania).

Addressing global health challenges with eHealth

Throughout the programme, students explored the question ‘How can healthcare professionals contribute to the prevention of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) through specific eHealth solutions?’ working in multidisciplinary teams that analysed the target populations and designed innovative interventions in the field of digital health. In addition, in their final presentations, they showcased eHealth applications aimed at addressing global health risks, and in particular cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory diseases or diabetes.

A global learning experience

This experience not only served to expand the participating students’ knowledge of eHealth and digital health, but also to improve their communication and problem-solving skills, crucial skills that the next generations of health professionals must master.

In addition to highlighting the good atmosphere and the connection established between the different groups of students during the activity, some of the participating students, such as Jule and Luisa noted, emphasized that experiences of this type are “quite revealing”, as they allow them to share and learn about the healthcare systems in other countries.

Due to the growing role of technology in healthcare, initiatives such as the one developed at Hanze are essential to train future health and nursing professionals to address the major health challenges facing the 21st century.

Last week, from the 4th to the 8th of December, the Intensive Week of the STARS EU Blended Intensive Programme took place at Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen.

The BIP was hosted by two professorships Entrepreneurship in transition from Alexander Grit and International Business from Diederich Bakker. It is part of the research agenda how to create engaging international business education across European Universities and how to involve a wider academic audience. The idea is that Blended Intensive Programs will be part of regular education practices at the universities and that they take place every year. During the week several gatherings took place whereunder the execution of the learning game and a learning seminar.

Simulation game TOPSIM Startup
Playing an online management simulation game about thirty students and teachers from different STARS EU universities competed in groups to become the best start-up in the surfboard industry. One aim of the BIP was to provide a comprehensive, real-life entrepreneurship project and to impart relevant knowledge through action learning as part of an intercultural and interdisciplinary team experience.

The simulation game “TOPSIM Startup” was used as an online management simulation, prepared, guided and followed by lectures, workshops and coaching by teachers from the participating universities. During the execution of the game, students and lectures learned all the stages of developing a business: from business idea to market research, business model, business plan, financing, start-up, management and leading their business to the first years after start up.

Prof. Dr. Stephan Form, from HSB Hochschule Bremen who led the simulation game, explained that “the students not only learn how to develop a startup but also how to deal with the market and their competitors. That is usually a very exciting experience for students. Not only learning more about the way a company functions, but as well as it comes to teams dynamics, working together in international teams, making efficient and effective decisions with the team that consists of different backgrounds and characters which can be a challenge too.”

Hugo Álvarez Galón, student of University of La Laguna (Spain), emphasizes the strong dependency of the competitors in the market. “We invented a startup with a focus on ‘high quality surfproducts with friendly materials because we want to give our company an image of excellence and quality. Although we lead the game so far, we may have to reduce our costs if we compare it to competitors who have the same vision.”

The BIP was organized as an Erasmus + Blended Intensive Programme and consisted of both virtual and face-to-face components; the coordinating and host university was Hanze University Groningen. The BIP “Start Up Simulation Game” is an initiative of the EU Thematic Interest Group (TIG) STARS “Entrepreneurship & Innovation”.

Contact
For more information about the content of this Blended Intensive Programme you can contact Prof. Dr. Stephan Form, Professor for Management and Accounting at HSB Hochschule Bremen.

Twenty five students from eight universities in seven European countries will complete this week at the University of La Laguna the in person part of a BIP course on Smart Grids promoted by the STARS alliance.

Specifically, the course is one of the results of the Thematic Interest Group on Energy Transition coordinated by the ULL. This teaching proposal had a course load of 6 ECTS credits and was structured in four modules: Sustainable low-carbon technologies in the electricity system; Digitalisation (and sensorisation) of electricity grids; Modelling and computation of power systems; and Operation and control of (micro) smart grids.

In the first session of the course, held today Monday 12 June in a classroom of the School of Engineering and Technology, these European students were welcomed by the Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and Cooperation, Inmaculada Pérez; the Director of the Secretariat for Mobility and Cooperation with Europe, José Sigut; one of the professors of the course, Santiago Torres; and the coordinators of this BIP: Benjamín González, from the University of La Laguna; and Ângela Ferreira, from the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (Portugal).

During the welcoming ceremony, the academic authorities thanked the students for their effort to come to Tenerife, a distant destination for many of the participating people. Professor Benjamín González also valued the commitment of these students to this project because, as he pointed out, the energy transition is one of the most immediate challenges facing society, and the young people who are taking this training today will be the experts who will have to solve it in the future.

During the week that these students remain at the University of La Laguna, they will participate in various group problem-solving activities, presentations by guest speakers, and also visit different university facilities, such as the BiblioLab, and external ones, such as the Technologic Institute of Renewable energies (ITER).

Apart form ULL, three other intuitions belonging to the STARS EU alliance have also participated in the organisation of this BIP, such as the Hanze University of Applied Sciences (Holland), the Crakow University of Technology (Poland) and the Bremen University of Applied Sciences (Germany). They have also been joined as co-organisers by the Slovak University of Zilina.

Although this BIP course is promoted by STARS EU, its call was open to institutions outside the alliance. Thus, students from two Polish institutions (Cracow University of Technology and Konin University of Applied Sciences), one Czech (University of Hradec Králové), one Hungarian (University of Nyíregyháza), one Finnish (Novia University of Applied Sciences), and the co-organisers Bragança Polytechnic Institute, University of Zilina and University of La Laguna attended the meeting at the University of La Laguna.

The STARS EU Alliance offers five BIP during the 2nd semester 2022/2023 in the following topics:

• Challenge Based Innovation (6 ECTS credits)
• Circular Bioeconomy (6 ECTS credits)
• Cybersecurity (6 ECTS credits)
• Emotional Education (6 ECTS credits)
• Smart Grids (6 ECTS credits)

BIP are short and intensive training programmes, including online cooperation by combining physical mobility with a virtual part, and promoting and using innovative ways of learning and teaching, research-based and challenge-based learning.

The virtual part will allow the participation in teaching/training of experts from all partners. The physical short-term mobility will allow the face-to-face cooperation of teachers and participants.

Students can maintain their study plan at home institution and include the BIP training as parallel activity. The short-term physical mobility will constitute the only period outside their home institution. Students will credit the BIP at their study plans.

Physical mobility support

The individual support to students and teaching staff for the physical mobility should be provided by the sending organisation, that can use their own regular Erasmus funds for mobility. Short-term student mobility grants are now allowed for BIP within the new Erasmus+ programme.

For more information about the STARS EU BIP for the 2 nd semester 2022/2023 please see the following PDF file:
Blended Intensive Programmes available at the 2 nd semester 2022/2023

Students from the STARS EU partners and also from other Erasmus HEIs can still apply to one (and only one) of these BIP and receive ECTS credits.

BIP for Teachers
In addition, it also has been designaed a BIP program especifically intended for teaching staff, called “Unlocking Imagination”  and will address contes as transdisciplinary creativity fields and approaches; methodologies fostering individual and group creativity potential and Design, implementation, and evaluation of creative
processes, among others.

ABoth students and teachers applications can be  formalised at www.ipb.pt/bip

Applications at www.ipb.pt/bip

The Erasmus+ face to face week of Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) took place in Bragança (Portugal) from 23^rd to 27^th of January.

Students from the four STARS EU partners -Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB, Portugal), Hanze University of Applied Sciences (HUAS, The Netherlands), Silesian University in Opava (Czechia) and University of La Laguna (Spain)- had the face to face component of BIP – Challenge-Based Innovation course 2022/2023, together with other participants, as Universidad de Almería (Spain), Kaunas University of Technology and Šiauliai State University of Applied Sciences (Lithuania), and Medical University Wroclaw (Poland).

The partners professors of IPB, HUAS, SU, and ULL enabled the students to develop their projects ideas, with workshops about interviews, storytelling concept and the perfect pitch. This on-site week was the last stage of a semester of work involving different institutions and external business partners.

Students had the opportunity to improve their ideas being challenged, which resulted in a week of creativity and problem-solving skills. The last day, all the groups presented their Final Pitch, were they reported all the outcomes from the entire semester, and could realize the high increase of knowledge curve in a few days.

The next edition BIP – Challenge Based Innovation group, the online component, will start in April of 2023, and the face to face week is booked to the last week of June of 2023 broadening the participation of professors and students to other STARS EU partners.

The city of Bragança, (Portugal) hosted a Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) on Embedded Systems Applications from 9th to 13th of January, in which students from three STARS EU partners, the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB, Portugal), the Hanze University of Applied Sciences (HUAS, The Netherlands), and the Bremen University of Applied Sciences (HSB, Germany), together with the University of Oradea (Romania), met physically and shared this formative experience.

The teaching partners of IPB, HUAS and HSB, and from CEFET-RJ (Brazil) enabled the students to assemble and program robots with the aim of developing a prototype to perform a competition. Using a challenge-based learning methodology in STEM, students were motivated while enhancing their creativity and problem-solving skills as it could be proved.

Challenges were divided into robot manipulators and mobile robotics based on real competitions form the Portuguese Robotics Open. The Embedded Systems Applications BIP will continue for its 2 nd edition the next September 2023 enlarging the participation of teachers and students to other STARS EU partners.