The EduTECH Emprèn online programme opens for the development and promotion of technology projects on education

"The team of mentors encouraged me from the outset to present my product, to seek feedback from other experts, and to understand what the customer really likes". "EduTECH Emprèn gave us the opportunity to learn from leading figures in e-learning and by doing so, to carry out our project using better and more robust solutions". Those comments were made by Esteban Peñaherrera and Anna Domínguez, respectively, who are two of the entrepreneurs who have turned their ideas into business projects thanks to the EduTECH Emprèn pre-accelerator programme run by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), in which they have participated in the past.

The programme, which is aimed at projects with an innovative business idea related to e-learning, is now taking place for the fifth time, and has just opened a new call. Although there is no registration fee and the programme is open to anyone (whether or not they have links to the UOC), places are limited. Applications can be submitted until 15 September using this form.

A unique environment for nurturing ideas

In addition to being an entrepreneur involved in EduTECH Emprèn, Esteban Peñaherrera is a student on the doctoral programme in Education and ICT (E-learning). He is undertaking his project, WIN, under the supervision of Llorenç Andreu, a professor in the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences at the UOC, who is the leader of the Cognition and Language Research Group (GRECIL), affiliated to the eHealth Center, and an expert on learning difficulties and language disorders. He took part in EduTECH Emprèn last year with the WIN project, and this year it was one of the eight SpinUOC finalists. It consists of an interactive video game to help children improve their oral skills. Thanks to two different models of artificial intelligence, it does not need handsets. The game is played with movements of the body and productions of speech.

"I came to the UOC to do my doctoral degree, but one of my priorities was to participate in EduTECH Emprèn and SpinUOC because I wanted to learn how to become an entrepreneur", said Peñaherrera. "It's been a marvellous experience, in which I've learned the essentials about how to create a business model, have strategies and perform a financial analysis. Now I know how to reach customers, how to advertise WIN, and how to sell it. I've also been able to incorporate many of the lessons learned into my doctoral degree".

After the UOC entrepreneurship programme, Peñaherrera now has a basic product that is viable for his video game, and during the second half of this year he will be carrying out the initial validation tests with his target audience of schoolchildren. "What I really want is for the child to get hooked on my game, to have fun, not to feel like they are in a classroom, but instead to feel like they're playing. At the same time, my aim is for WIN to produce good results and to help improve oral skills and reading levels".

Anna Domínguez's target audience for her eTrivium project could not be more different, but her business path does not greatly differ from Esteban Peñaherrera's. With its inclusive model of online training and learning adapted to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), eTrivium aims to enable the creation of collective intelligence by means of automated technology that helps SMEs to absorb all their personnel's knowledge and turn it into training programmes that foster the acquisition of new skills, in processes known as upskilling (or performance optimization) and reskilling (professional recycling), which are essential in these times of technological disruption and rapid changes in the markets.

"EduTECH Emprèn is a programme for companies with enterprise in their DNA. Having the support of an institution like the UOC gave us access to knowledge of the world of entrepreneurship which is strongly focused on the opportunities that online learning represents for individuals and companies", explained Anna Domínguez. "We were able to transfer much of what we learned in the programme to shape our plan for business and growth consistently and ambitiously".

Today, eTrivium, a project that was also chosen as one of the eight finalists of SpinUOC, and was one of those which accompanied the UOC at the last 4YFN start-ups exhibition at the Mobile World Congress, is growing, and is in the middle of a round of investments. "It's been an honour to be able to share sessions with top-level speakers and our concerns with the entire innovation and entrepreneurship team", added Domínguez. "The dynamism and friendliness which the team extended to us made it very easy to collaborate and learn throughout the programme".

How to participate in EduTECH Emprèn 2023

EduTECH Emprèn is aimed at projects in the e-learning sector that are focused on developing a prototype or service, defining their business model, and becoming a company or entrepreneurial initiative. The pre-accelerator programme includes training, the possibility of conducting pilot tests in-house, and support from a mentoring and investment network to accompany the selected projects in all the phases of growth and successfully take them into the online learning market.

The programme, in which 76 people have participated to date, will include online training sessions on business management, innovation and technology, lasting a total of one hundred hours across 10 weeks, between 3 October and 31 December. It is open to any project which innovates in the field of learning and new technologies, regardless of the area it works in (from pedagogy to management) or the technology used, including analytics, internet of things (IoT) devices, virtual reality and artificial intelligence.

Registration for the fifth edition of EduTECH Emprèn will be open until 15 September, and can be completed through this link.

EduTECH Emprèn is an initiative by the UOC undertaken through Hubbik, a platform dedicated to the promotion of entrepreneurship, open innovation, support for the transfer of research results and collaboration among the entire UOC community. It is supported by the Ministry of Enterprise and Labour of the Government of Catalonia and co-financing from the European Social Fund.

El programa EduTECH Emprèn contribueix a aconseguir l'objectiu de desenvolupament sostenible (ODS) número 4, garantir una educació inclusiva, equitativa i de qualitat i promoure oportunitats d'aprenentatge durant tota la vida per a tothom.

UOC R&I

The UOC's research and innovation (R&I) is helping overcome pressing challenges faced by global societies in the 21st century by studying interactions between technology and human & social sciences with a specific focus on the network society, e-learning and e-health.

Over 500 researchers and more than 50 research groups work in the UOC's seven faculties, its eLearning Research programme and its two research centres: the Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) and the eHealth Center (eHC).

The university also develops online learning innovations at its eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC), as well as UOC community entrepreneurship and knowledge transfer via the Hubbik platform.

Open knowledge and the goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development serve as strategic pillars for the UOC's teaching, research and innovation. More information: research.uoc.edu.