As IMPACTWHEEL progresses, one key question keeps guiding our work: how can we equip people inside universities to turn ideas into value-consistently, and at scale?
Within the consortium, Universitas Mercatorum offers a unique and valuable perspective. As the sole Telematic University within IMPACTWHEEL, it designs and implements its capacity-building initiatives entirely online, demonstrating that entrepreneurial training can be effective even when delivered remotely, particularly when it is practical, interactive, and rooted in real-world projects.
One goal, three audiences: building entrepreneurial capability across Universities
Universitas Mercatorum conducted three training programs, each tailored to a distinct target audience, yet all centred on a common goal: enhancing entrepreneurial competencies and equipping participants with practical tools to initiate, develop, or execute projects. Across all three pathways, we employed a unified set of tools to facilitate participants’ advancement from initial concepts to well-defined initiatives:
- The Value Creation Wheel (VCW) as a practical framework for addressing challenges and shaping value;
- Design Thinking to investigate user needs and refine solutions;
- Fundamental Marketing components (positioning, target audiences, channels, messaging);
- The Business Model Canvas (BMC) to organise and validate the underlying business logic;
- A structured approach to pitching to effectively communicate projects.
Instead of considering entrepreneurship solely as a “student-only” subject, we approached it as a university-wide competency—applicable to students, researchers, and professional staff equally.
Three audiences, tailored objectives
Students
The student pathway facilitated learners in developing startup initiatives or investigating entrepreneurial opportunities. The course enhanced their capacity to identify opportunities, articulate value propositions, and transition from an initial concept to a more testable and well-structured initiative.
Academic staff
The academic staff pathway emphasised enhancing an entrepreneurial mindset to facilitate the dissemination of research and to ensure that research outcomes create measurable value within the business sector. Participants examined applications, beneficiaries, and avenues for collaboration, knowledge exchange, and practical impact.
Non-academic staff
The non-academic staff pathway offered entrepreneurial skills and innovative methodologies relevant to routine tasks—facilitating internal innovation, project execution, and service enhancement—while fostering a common language and a systematic approach across organisational functions.
Why it matters
This work supports IMPACTWHEEL’s sustainability ambition by demonstrating:
- a replicable model (three audience-specific pathways adaptable to different contexts)
- a scalable delivery mode, where online training can widen participation and support long-term institutionalisation.
Importantly, the online environment did not reduce engagement: feedback from participants across all three courses was positive, supported by the use of digital e-learning tools such as breakout rooms, shared whiteboards, and real-time sharing of teaching materials, reinforcing that entrepreneurship education can work effectively online when designed around interaction and applied project work.
What’s next
As IMPACTWHEEL continues, Universitas Mercatorum will build on these results by reinforcing the repeatability of the training formats, strengthening connections with ecosystem actors, and supporting broader adoption of tools and methods across institutional processes.
No responses yet