Ulysseus secures €1.98 million EIT funding to foster futures-ready innovators and transformative entrepreneurship

Ulysseus European University is a partner in Transformative Entrepreneurship for Futures-ready Ulysseus Innovators (TEF-UI), a new satellite project funded by the EIT Higher Education Initiative with a total budget of €1,986,270.

Selected under the EIT-HEI 2025 Building Synergies call, TEF-UI will run from September 2026 to August 2028 under the coordination of University of Münster (Germany). The project brings together universities, innovation organisations and entrepreneurship support actors from across Europe to strengthen innovation and entrepreneurial capacity within higher education.

TEF-UI addresses a growing challenge for European higher education institutions: ensuring that students, researchers, educators and innovation practitioners are equipped not only with technical expertise, but also with the skills needed to navigate uncertainty, anticipate systemic change and contribute to sustainable societal transformation.

Futures Literacy is at the heart of this project, a competence that enables individuals to imagine alternative futures, challenge assumptions and make better-informed decisions in the present. Through this approach, TEF-UI combines futures thinking with entrepreneurship, intellectual property management, sustainability, digital transformation and venture development, creating a comprehensive framework for transformative innovation.

One of the project’s main outcomes will be the development of a STEM-focused Futures Literacy and transformative entrepreneurship training portfolio, supported by a train-the-trainer model that will build long-term institutional capacity across the Ulysseus Alliance. Existing Ulysseus Innovation Hubs and entrepreneurship support structures will serve as learning, experimentation and start-up support environments.

In addition, TEF-UI will establish an alliance-wide innovation observation mechanism, strengthen strategic collaboration with organisations such as Climate-KIC, EIT Health and 28DIGITAL, and create open-access resources that can be reused by higher education institutions beyond the project consortium.

The consortium brings together ten full partners: University of Münster (Germany), University of Seville (Spain), University of Genoa (Italy), Université Côte d’Azur (France), Technical University of Košice (Slovakia), University of Montenegro (Montenegro), Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), MCI – The Entrepreneurial School (Austria), Baumstark (Austria) and Impact Hub Tirol (Austria). The project is further supported by three associated partners: HIGH-TECH.NRW, R-Factory eG and TAFH Münster GmbH (Germany).

Through TEF-UI, Ulysseus continues to expand its commitment to innovation, entrepreneurship and societal impact, further strengthening its role as a European alliance dedicated to educating the innovators and change-makers of the future.