iDEAlab network

iDEAlab at  the University of Banja Luka 

  

The University of Banja Luka has been established in 1975. It has 16 faculties and 54 licensed study programs. UNIBL staff has been involved in 70 Tempus projects, several FP6 projects and 2 FP7 projects. The other international projects were financed by: the European Commission, the Council of Europe, the United States of America Government, United Nations, UNESCO/CEPES, the World Bank, governments of several states. The University of Banja Luka is bound by more than 100 bilateral agreements on cooperation with public and private universities from all over the world. University Entrepreneurship Center was established in 2009, as an organizational unit of UNIBL. The Center is dedicated to promoting innovative thinking and development of entrepreneurial spirit among university population. Its aim is to contribute to economic and social development of the community, through stimulation of entrepreneurship, innovation and enterprise development, and University capacity building.

 

The role of the iDEAlab within the institution

iDEAlab is driving force in fostering student entrepreneurship and start-up creation at the University of Banja Luka. This is done by improving infrastructure, entrepreneurial culture and improvement of staff skills, who directly work with students based on entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial learning and in order to better support students to generate, develop and commercialise their own innovative ideas through entrepreneurship and/or open innovation.

 

iDEAlab status

iDEAlab is a central part of University Entrepreneurship Centre of the University of  Banja Luka.  It is defined as iDEAlab business incubator.

 iDEAlab staff

Currently, iDEAlab is staffed by four permanent staff member:

• Manager of iDEAlab, dealing with students daily operations of iDEAlab
• Project manager, dealing with project applications and implementation of projects that will enable iDEAlab future activities
• Technical person in charge of administration and logistics
• Career Centre operator who deals with students transitions to work placement

 

Target groups of the iDEAlab’s activities

The target group of the iDEAlab’s activities are mostly students of the University of Banja Luka, divided on:

• Potential entrepreneurs – students who have potential to become entrepreneurs and/or are interested in an entrepreneurial career, but still didn’t ready to start their own business, therefore they need counselling and mentoring.
• Active startup-ers – students with a concrete idea who want to realise that idea and start their own business, therefore they need assistance and mentoring in process of implementing their idea.
• Youth leaders – students interested in gaining practical knowledge and experience
• Young researchers – future researchers and scientific workers.

 

(Potential) iDEAlab partners

 Potential partners of the iDEAlab are based inside and outside of the University:

• Entrepreneurs – which started their enterprises based on knowledge and innovation
• Employers – companies and entrepreneurs interested for workforce from our University and willing to participate in creation of quality workers throw our educational system
• Companies – interested for cooperation with scientific-research workers from University
• Academic community -Universities and organisations in B&H and worldwide
• Public and private sector for support for developing entrepreneurship
• Local, national and international institutions
• Agencies for development, business incubators, technology and innovation centres, offices for technology transfer etc.
• Chambers of commerce, professional associations, NGO’s etc.
• Innovation Centre of Banja Luka

 

iDEAlab specific services/activities

 

• Training iDEA lab users (students and companies)
• Mentoring students ideas and start-ups
• Developing open innovations
• Establishing marketplace for ideas
• Many available modern technology tools and kits

 iDEAlab opportunities

 Opportunities

• Large number of students at University of Banja Luka (around 20000)
• University commitment  defined in strategic documents regarding  innovation and entrepreneurship
• Commitment of UNIBL in developing new building designated for  innovation, entrepreneurship, transfer technology where iDEAlab will play central role