OREANDA-NEWS. Today, the UT Idea Lab launched the cooperation project “Network Globally, Act Locally” between the University of Tartu and two US universities – the College of Charleston and Nebraska Wesleyan University – to improve students’ entrepreneurial knowledge and skills.

According to Maret Ahonen, the Head of the Idea Lab, all participants of the project will get an experience of working in an international and interdisciplinary team thanks to practice?oriented studies.

In autumn 2014, a competition was held to select six students from each participating university. In the second week of March, these 18 students will gather in Tartu to form joint teams and start looking for solutions to social problems the students themselves are interested in, based on the principles of start-up companies.

During the week in Tartu, the teams will generate and develop their business or project ideas in the field of social entrepreneurship, participate in various workshops and do presentations.

Several enterprises of Tartu have promised to introduce their activities to the teams; the participants will visit the producer of medical equipment and furniture EQUA O? and the Estonian Printing Museum.

At the end of the week, the student teams will present their business ideas and set their development goals. The presentation of the first ideas generated during the week in Tartu takes place on 13 March at the UT Career Day at the Dorpat Conference Centre.

After that the project teams will continue teamwork online. In developing their ideas, the students are guided by mentors – teaching staff and practitioners from Estonia and the US. The project ends in June, when the participating students meet again, this time at the College of Charleston, to present their developed business ideas or projects to US experts.