Therefore it aims to strengthen cross-sector cooperation and digital content exchange. The project is partially funded by the European Commission's eLearning initiative and involves more than sixty participants. It is led by a core consortium of six experienced institutions from research and industry. The project orchestrates the following activities in order to promote the implementation of U2C (University-to-Corporate)-brokerage services:

• identification of needs and demands along the educational brokerage value chain;
• organisation of specialised workshops and public seminars with main stakeholders;
• analysis of prerequisites for the implementation of successful business models;
• identification of the required technological infrastructure and organisational solutions through surveys and screenings;
• the development of a model and roadmap.

The project aims at preparing the ground for a sustainable U2C framework by providing a business model together with an implementation roadmap based on a Private-Public Partnership scheme. At the core of this business framework, lies a European brokerage service specifically devised to retrieve and transfer knowledge generated in an academic context for corporate training and learning needs. The consortium has created a first prototype model which is currently under discussion with experts from industry and academia. The basic structure is shown in the following figure.


align="center" hspace="5" alt="First Prototype Model, EduXchange" />


Within the general framework and by analyzing different types of U2C exchange business models, the project pursues the following objectives:

• to create appropriate channels and services for European HEIs,
• to market valuable academic knowledge,
• to facilitate the transfer of new knowledge from its context of generation to appropriate contexts of application,
• to enhance international competitiveness of European corporations (large corporations as well as SMEs) by making use of new, academic knowledge for corporate education and training needs,
• to facilitate the access to and shared use of digital formats of knowledge, thereby considerably reducing the costs involved in corporate training/learning.

EduXchange aims to establish a network of collaboration, projects, and initiatives in the field of education brokerage at national and European levels with a view toward exchanging research results and possibly transforming project results into the design of a viable U2C-brokerage model. Therefore the project operates in the mode of Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that involve key actors from the academic and the corporate world. SIGs include, at the outset, people from organizations, institutions, and corporations who are in a position to identify the needs and demands on both the academic and the corporate sides. Three major SIGs are envisioned in the scope of the project, each with a different focus.


Technological advancements applied to eLearning services and related technologies are the focal point of EduXchange's Special Interest Group One. The main effort of this group focuses on the emerging practices in content exchange between HEIs and the corporate world, which, as yet, are not well defined. From a functional point of view, Special Interest Group One includes an advisory body that combines the expertise of its members from the various fields within its scope. Our vision for SIG One is to gather top experts in the field of eLearning technology and services from the HEIs and the corporate world in order to create an exchange mechanism of expertise with the EduXchange consortium.


A collection of eLearning services and technologies essentially derived from currently running pilots or promising prototypes constitutes the research pool of the group. A modest number of initiatives will be analysed so as to provide an indication of the technological innovations and potential breakthroughs in the coming years, the time required to implement, deploy and integrate them in the eLearning process as well as in the current socio-economic context.


SIG2 focuses on the assessment of learning requirements in companies, with a special emphasis on SMEs. While there is a good understanding of the needs of large, multinational corporations and the strategies they have deployed to implement e-training, little is known about the work currently being done in SMEs.


As there is no possibility of undertaking a statistically significant, cross-sector survey of a relevant sample of SMEs in Europe, SIG2 will reach out to market players who have already displayed e-training activities that are either in direct relation with SMEs or which can be, in time, extended to SMEs, and to public or private organizations whose mission includes providing advice to their member organizations or to their staff. SIG2 welcomes experts from the following organizations: corporate e-training service providers, corporate e-training platform providers, mobile IT technology providers, HRD in large corporations, lifelong learning and executive education departments of higher education institutions, SMEs, professional unions, Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and Trade Unions.


EduXchange project SIG3 deals with the relationships among and the co-operational framework of universities and corporations; these are - generally speaking - knowledge suppliers and knowledge purchasers. In this framework, the members of SIG3 discuss how to set up and maintain a platform for education and knowledge brokerage. This includes the design of technical solutions as well as communication pathways, cooperation policies, organizational structures, and a coherent and validated business model. All these elements will serve as a basis for a roadmap for the implementation of EduXchange as a professional service in the market of learning, education, and knowledge exchange.


More than sixty partners from academia and industry have already agreed to work in the eduXchange SIGs. The main objective for the intended work in all three Special Interest Groups is to enable direct contact among institutions and experts from higher education institutions and the corporate sector. Interviews are arranged with SIG members to identify the current status as well as emerging requirements relavent to SIG topics. These interviews are carried out with selected SIG members from the academic and the corporate sector.


Besides these interviews, surveys are conducted in order to gain a clear image of the trends, outlooks, and the requirements of stakeholders who cannot participate more actively in the SIG work. In order to reach its ambitious goals, eduXchange organises public seminars to create awareness of the need for U2C-brokerage services and conducts SIG-working sessions to validate the business model and the services to be offered. The next workshop open to public participation will be organized during the upcoming Online Educa Conference in Berlin, where the consortium will present project results and have a booth.