Third Mission Activities
2024-03-30 15:41Third Mission Activities
Third Mission activities of Polis University
To address the growing societal and economic challenges, there is an increasing demand for universities to use their knowledge from research and teaching to fulfill their so-called “Third Mission” in society, territory and economy. This implies taking responsibility, actively and consciously, for the society on whose behalf they are working.
The Third Mission at Polis University has two key priorities:
- Targeted use and transfer of academic knowledge to help resolve diverse societal challenges;
- Transfer of technologies and innovations in the form of cooperation with public and private enterprises.
Third Mission Activities at Polis University
In the course of the project “Third Mission of the University” we systematically documented Third Mission activities, which are already being implemented at Polis University (including its Co-Plan Institute, and Metro_Polis Studio, all together under the umbrella of the University), by means of a university-wide online surveys (2023-2024).
Based on relevant literature and internal discourses, Polis University assigns third mission activities to the following three dimensions:
Social and Societal Transfer
Social and Societal Transfer - refers to the targeted use of scientific knowledge to solve various societal challenges.
Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge Transfer - involves the adequate preparation and sharing of scientific knowledge with target groups outside of the university sector (e.g. practitioners, politicians, pupils, etc), and the systematic integration of scientific knowledge into societal discourses.
Technology Transfer
Technology Transfer - involves the transfer of knowledge, ideas, technologies, innovations. licenses and patents from the university to economic contexts.
The Third Mission “Project” @ Polis University
Please click on the respective box in order to get to the description of the activities. Use the search function at the top right to search for specific topics!
Baseline Survey with External Operators
2023 – 24
Baseline Survey with Internal Staf
2023 – 24
Findings of Albania on 3-rd Mission of HEI-s
2023 – 24
At Polis University, there exist various established structures/institutions which promote, support and/or implement Third Mission activities. These include amongst others:
- FR&D Faculty for Research & Development dealing with postgraduate studies (Continuing education LLL, and Third level university studies/research);
- IF Innovation Factory dealing with Innovation (The Makerspace FabLab, and OMB Observatory of Mediterranean Basin, a center of excellence with Co-Plan, Ministry of Finance, and UNECE) & Incubation of start-ups (TiranaInc., the first inter-university incubator in Albania)
- ZMSKK dealing with students, Students Senate, ALUMNI, and Professional Associations.
- Corporate Communications
- Research Services & Career Development
- Transfer Office
- The Children & Youth Office
The Project “Third Mission @ Polis University” is being conducted in addition to these established structures/activities as well as cross-university initiatives (such as the EU4Innovation, GIZ, SIDA, AKSHI, as well as local authorities, the Ministry responsible for innovation) with an explicit focus on activities which are based on research and the objective of increased networking of smart-resilient design and creative entrepreneurship. With regard to cooperations, it should be noted that in the case of activities in the field of technology transfer, in some cases no details of funding by companies may be given. In addition to the persons responsible for the projects, in most cases a team of pre-docs and post-docs is or was also significantly involved in the activities.
