| - Aktiviteter og handling |
The key focus points for the project in this respect will be:
1. The project process
2. The project financial management process
3. The teacher training
4. Establishment and running of GameBiz Business Incubators 5. GameBiz Business Model
6. The competence database
7. The international company network
The first 2 items above form the basis of all other results. Without good project management, there will be no good products. The project management principles will be presented by the promoter at the kick-off meeting, and consensus by all parties is a goal. To evaluate achievement, satisfaction of the way that Viden Djurs coordinates the project, all transnational partner meetings and online meetings will be evaluated, and partners will be encouraged to voice any reservations they may have as to the project management.
As to teacher training, 2 workshops are planned for the teachers who are going to function as incubator mentors. The idea is to introduce the GameBiz Model to the teachers in the first workshop – then they return to their institutions to establish their GameBiz Business Incubators, run them for a period, make their first experiences, and then come to the second workshop, where they swap experiences, ideas, and methodologies – and in addition get the remaining theory needed to complete their work with the GameBiz Incubators. It should be stressed here that the establishment of a GameBiz Incubator does not necessarily equate to, for example, the provision of office space or any other resources not costed in this project proposal. A GameBiz incubator set up could, potentially, be the incorporation of a relevant assessed piece of coursework in a module which then leads onto, by the structure it enforces, the students to consider the set-up of their own company after graduation, or for relevant HE institutions, during their placement year. For the evaluation; there will be a gauge of the end user satisfaction – the end users being the teachers involved in the training courses. The methodology will be questionnaires combined with focus group interviews with a representative group of participants (upper-secondary as well as university teachers), and the indicator of achievement will be whether all the planned GameBiz Incubators are actually established – and running in some way.
The GameBiz Business Incubators have more than one target group. One is the institutions of education that have established the incubators to promote entrepreneurship in their educations – and another target group are the students who set up companies in the incubators. This will be reflected in the evaluation. One evaluation will gauge whether the inclusion of business incubators in the curricula of the partner schools has had the wanted effect as regards: closer cooperation with the surrounding world of work, promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in the school, establishment of new companies by students and supported by the incubators and their mentors.
The other evaluation will focus on the students who set up new businesses. Did they feel they got the needed support, and was it a crucial factor for them that they could start their company in an incubator environment designed specifically for the games industry? Here the project has set a very tangible indicator of achievement: at least 8 companies will have been established across the partnership at the end of the project.
The GameBiz Business Model will be adapted from research made by the participating universities and tested in the incubators (triple helix model). Here indicators of achievement will be: did the model work as intended for the new small SMEs, and is it sufficiently dynamic in its form to be updated to reflect market and distribution channel changes?
Indicators of achievement for the competence database will be quantitative as well as qualitative: focus group interviews with selected relevant end users to gauge user friendliness and quality of the database – and an assessment of the actual number of entries into the database.
The international company network comprises the companies attached to the umbrella organisations as well as the new small companies established during the GameBiz project period. The goal of the project in this respect is that the GameBiz companies get exposure in the relevant markets, and that this helps them get assignments for their companies. Therefore, in the GameBiz project design, we have included multiplier events, where the GameBiz companies meet “the establishment” in the trade. The teachers working as mentors in the GameBiz Incubators will also participate in these events as it is important that they also build up strong networks in the trade – this will help them empower new start-ups in the incubators. Here, the indicator of success will be quantitative: the project will make questionnaires to find out how many contacts have been established in the international company network during the project period.
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| - Projektets Metode |
Project Management:
Time: September 2014 – September 2016
Project coordinator: Viden Djurs will be the GameBiz Project coordinator, and the partner carrying the overall responsibility for all the promised project activities and intellectual outputs, even if the day-to-day responsibility for some of the project activities has been delegated to partners. To monitor the overall project progress, Viden Djurs has drafted a Quality Management Plan for the project, which be presented to the partners at the kick-off meeting for approval and for adding more details about the single activities. Also in the QMP, the responsibilities of the activity leading organisation will be described in more detail, and it will be agreed that in case of issues regarding project deliveries, or project delivery delays, the activity leading organisation will contact Viden Djurs to discuss possible reactions.
Regarding the financial management of the project, Viden Djurs will explain carefully to the partners what sort of reporting and documentation will be needed from them to fulfil the programme requirements.
Project partners: Will deliver the wanted deliveries to the QMP and to the financial management of the project.
Three transnational partner meetings and monthly online meetings between the transnational partner meetings:
Time: 3rd quarter of 2014, 4th quarter of 2015, and 2nd quarter of2016.
The hosts of the transnational partner meetings will be in charge of the planning of organising. Important issues will be discussed with the project coordinator. The University of Bournemouth will be in charge of the monthly online meetings. The meetings will be an important arena for supporting the overall progress of the project and be good instruments in the project management.
Activities supporting implementation:
GameBiz Business Incubators – GameBiz Business Incubator model – GameBiz Business model – GameBiz Business coach job description:
Time: from 4th quarter of 2014 to 3rd quarter of 2016.
The project will adapt and test a model for incubators for TVET students, who get an opportunity to establish their own company while still at school. Physical incubator environments will be established at the 2 Danish partners and Dutch partner DGG. Here actual testing of the project model can take place. Included in the model will be a business model for the upstart companies and a description of the functions of the GameBiz Business Coaches. After the testing, the necessary adjustments will be made, and the final model can be implemented at the mentioned institutions. The project partners that are universities will adapt the final TVET version of the model to be used at universities in a form that they find most appropriate, e.g. in physical environments, inclusion in curricula, or student counselling or a combination of these. (above mentioned triple helix model). All documentation from these activities will be placed for free download on the project homepage.
GameBiz Incubator Workshops:
Time: 1st quarter 2015, 1st quarter 2016.
To secure the implementation of the incubators, GameBiz organises 2 workshops for future incubator business coaches. Dutch Game Garden will be in charge of this task, and all other project partners look forward to benefitting from their extensive experience in this field. The course methodology will be action based, and already after the first course, the participating teachers will start making their first experiences with the incubator environments. Course description and teaching materials will be placed for free download on the project homepage.
Competences database:
Time: 2nd quarter 2015 to 3rd quarter 2016.
The companies started in the GameBiz project will be small – the estimated size will be 2-5 persons per company. Therefore, it is important that one of the things they learn in the incubator is how to form a consortium and where to find the competences needed to make bids for assignments (work-for-hire). For that purpose, the project will establish a competences database and ask all the new companies to register there. In the GameBiz Incubator workshops, the teachers will also learn how to work with such databases.
Communication, multiplier events, and valorisation activities: Time: 3rd quarter 2014 – 3rd quarter 2016
The project establishes a homepage, a communication platform for partners, a communication platform for staff involved in the workshops, and a routine with monthly online meetings. All project results will be featured on the GameBiz homepage, most of which will be for free download. Besides, as a part of the multiplier events, partners will, when relevant, submit conference papers, make presentations, and write articles about the project. The umbrella organisations of the project will have an important role in the multiplier events and in providing exposure for the young companies in the industry.
For a more detailed description, please see annexed GANTT chart and QMP.
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| - Projektets Forventede Resultater |
When this project ends, at least three incubators have been established. And all the other partners involved will be in a uniquely strong position to set up functioning GameBiz Business Incubators across Europe should they wish to, in the way that is most appropriate for each partner. Potential coaches will have received the competence development necessary to give advice to the young company upstarts on how to establish viable companies, and how to work with the competence database and the international company network. All partners wishing to establish GameBiz incubators will also make plans, based on the knowledge exchange of the project, for sustaining these in the future. All this is described in more detail later in this proposal.
Also, during the project period, there will be 3 transnational partner meetings that will function as important platforms for the coordination of the project.
Effekter
At the end of the project, all core partners will have fully tested GameBiz Business Incubators – and approaches to those – up and running, in different forms or shapes and as resourcing and structures at each institution allow, and for these incubators, there will be available incubator coaches, who are teachers who have acquired the skills and competences during the project needed to assist young students in setting up their own companies, making business models for the companies, and teach the young people how to make their companies viable. In the project, it is estimated that approximately 20 teachers will participate in the project courses and start up incubators.
The partner institutions will have a model for entrepreneurship and innovation which has been implemented and will thus heighten their student recruiting attractiveness, as they can include entrepreneurship and innovation in their curricula. Some of their staff members have been trained to become incubator coaches, and they will start making peer-to-peer training to qualify colleagues to participate in the work in the incubators. The model developed by the project will be easily transferable to other schools and other sectors than the gaming industry, and it is expected that this way of working will be copied by other schools and universities as it will attract more students and, at the same time, create an environment which is exciting to work with, not only for the teachers but also for the students.
The students at the partner institutions benefiting from the implementation of this project will get a chance of setting up their own businesses with the provision of expert advice on business models and distribution of finished products. They will also get access to a pan-European company network within the trade, exposure to relevant companies that might offer them work for hire and access to exposure in the GameBiz competence database. It is hoped this will push them towards working harder for their studies (and thus achieve better results) as the incubator approach will be steeped in and directly linked with teaching delivery for many of the institutions involved.”
At local and regional levels for the partner institutions, the project will lead to increased attractiveness of the TVET education, increased motivation among students, and a number of new companies in the games industry. At national level in the partner countries, the model will be copied and adapted for use in other TVET institutions and universities to the benefit of as well institutions, teachers and students.
At a European level, the project will inspire institutions of education to encompass entrepreneurship and innovation into their curricula, establish business incubators specifically tailored for targeting a particular branch of an industry to get more impact, and encouraging more young people to start up companies already when in school or during their studies.
Also, the project will have an impact on the overall European economy that will get a number of new talented companies that can tap in to the booming worldwide games industry and place Europe better in the worldwide market competition. Other sectors can easily adapt and use the GameBiz model, and that way the effect will be multiplied.
During the project period, the mentioned impacts will be measured as described in the attached QMP and by the participant evaluations of the project multiplier events. A further indicator will be the number of teachers that become qualified as GameBiz Business Incubator coaches. It is planned that at least 20 teachers will complete the project workshops. Besides, it is also planned that on their return to their own institutions, these teachers will carry out peer-to-peer training, so a total of approximately 60 teachers will be able to work in the incubators when the project ends.
The GameBiz model, including the business model plus the description of the incubator coach function will be placed on the project homepage, and a year after the end of the project, there will be at least 1,000 downloads of the model.
Already during the project period, GameBiz expects to log at least 5,000 visits to the homepage, and as the homepage will remain open for at least 5 years after the end of the project; at least 5,000 yearly visitors are expected.
The GameBiz competence database will be operated by Viden Djurs after the end of the project. It is hoped that at least 15 small new companies are expected to enter their company profile and competences there and, after the project period, at least 15 newcomers are expected per year.
At the start of the project, the 2 Danish partners will inform their respective staffs of the GameBiz project goals and activities. Plans will be made for the allocation of staff to the project, and those not participating actively, will be informed about the project on a current basis. Outside of their organisations, the 2 Danish partners will inform their respective networks of institutions of education of the project, and also invite them to all multiplier events as well as informal visits to the incubators. Besides, the Danish partners will inform the local, regional and national authorities of the GameBiz project – and also in this connection – seek their cooperation in the company creating process. There are various support actions available at all levels for small start-up companies, like e.g. the “start-vækst” programme, the Central Denmark Greenhouse activities, and the “Markedsmodningsfonden”. Public resources are relatively scarce, and therefore optimum care must be shown not to use LdV grants for services offered for free by other programmes. Also, since the GameBiz project combines education and industry development activities, the project will inform local municipalities, the Region of Central Denmark, and the Danish Business Authority (“Erhvervsstyrelsen”) about the project results. The umbrella organisation Interactive Denmark will, as associated partner, assist in disseminating the project results to the Danish industry.
Whenever staff from the 2 Danish partners participate in conferences and meetings, in Denmark as well as in the EU, they will bring flyers about the project for dissemination purposes. When relevant, the partners will send in conference papers, articles, and make presentations on the project.
The project partners will be encouraged to copy this dissemination methodology and thereby ensure that they also reach audiences at local, regional, national, and EU levels, and that the audiences will be public authorities, institutions of education, and private companies. The Spanish and British umbrella organisations that are associated partners will also have an active role here.
The primary target group of the project activities are teachers in Upper Secondary Education, continued education, and university teachers, who will acquire the competences needed to establish, run and further develop the GameBiz Business Incubators. The entire process will be so well documented by the project that afterwards, teachers, who have not participated in the project, can use the intellectual outputs of the project and start incubators of their own. The project homepage will encourage other schools to start their own incubators, to seek advice from the GameBiz partners in the process, and to enter their up-start companies in the GameBiz Competence database, as this will only strengthen the database further.
Secondary target group of the project are students in Upper Secondary Education, in continued education, and universities who now get a chance of setting up their own company with good guidance which could possibly result in reducing the risk typically involved with the set-up of a start-up. Again, in the first instance, this will happen within the project, but after the implementation of the GameBiz model in the partner institutions, it will be easy for others to copy it and start up their own incubators. A further target group is the TVET educational system, which because of the triple helix model gets improved possibilities of innovation, and thus improved attractiveness.
Finally, there is the European labour market – this project will improve its possibilities of tapping into the industry (the games industry) which is probably the fastest growing worldwide today. Rather than waiting for companies from outside of Europe to come to us and offer our young people jobs, we educate our youths to start up their own businesses. We have the talent as well as digital literacy needed among our young people – we just have to work systematically to teach our teachers how to assist the young up- starts.
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| - Projektets Forventede Effekt |
At local and regional levels for the partner institutions, the project will lead to increased attractiveness of the TVET education, increased motivation among students, and a number of new companies in the games industry. At national level in the partner countries, the model will be copied and adapted for use in other TVET institutions and universities to the benefit of as well institutions, teachers and students.
At a European level, the project will inspire institutions of education to encompass entrepreneurship and innovation into their curricula, establish business incubators specifically tailored for targeting a particular branch of an industry to get more impact, and encouraging more young people to start up companies already when in school or during their studies.
Also, the project will have an impact on the overall European economy that will get a number of new talented companies that can tap in to the booming worldwide games industry and place Europe better in the worldwide market competition. Other sectors can easily adapt and use the GameBiz model, and that way the effect will be multiplied.
During the project period, the mentioned impacts will be measured as described in the attached QMP and by the participant evaluations of the project multiplier events. A further indicator will be the number of teachers that become qualified as GameBiz Business Incubator coaches. It is planned that at least 20 teachers will complete the project workshops. Besides, it is also planned that on their return to their own institutions, these teachers will carry out peer-to-peer training, so a total of approximately 60 teachers will be able to work in the incubators when the project ends.
The GameBiz model, including the business model plus the description of the incubator coach function will be placed on the project homepage, and a year after the end of the project, there will be at least 1,000 downloads of the model.
Already during the project period, GameBiz expects to log at least 5,000 visits to the homepage, and as the homepage will remain open for at least 5 years after the end of the project; at least 5,000 yearly visitors are expected.
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