On Tuesday, 1 February, the kick-off event for the subject ‘Startup Entrepreneurship for Built Environment’ was held, where Professor Antti Peltokorpi from Aalto University (Finland), Professor Laur Koskela from the University of Huddersfield (England), and professors Targo Kalamees and Martin Thalfeldt from Tallinn University of Technology discussed the greatest challenges and opportunities for advancing start-up entrepreneurship in the construction sector. Other participants included the companies involved in the project: Ülemiste City, Liven, Merko, Nordecon, and Welement. The companies told students about their own challenges as well as opportunities for collaboration.

Assistant Professor Ergo Pikas, who is leading the subject, stated the following: ‘The kick-off event was aimed at collecting ideas for identifying the main problems related to the built environment as well as opportunities for addressing these problems. The fact that both researchers and businesses are interested in contributing with challenges and participating in the course shows that these are important issues that need to be addressed collaboratively by the university and specialists and companies from various fields.’

Over the next few months, student teams will start seeking ways to overcome the discussed challenges. On 18 May, all teams will appear before a panel of judges to share their ideas. The three best teams will receive cash prizes and the opportunity to present their ideas at the pan-European competition EuroTeQaThon where they will face off with teams from other EuroTeQ partner universities.

The challenges that students will be addressing relate to the following areas:

• cities (e.g., construction/buildings, outdoor lighting, streets),
• energy (e.g., recyclable materials, transport, data management),
• consumption (e.g., food, plastics, fashion). The EuroTeQ Waste Challenge is part of the EuroTeQ Collider project. The theme for Collider 2022 is ‘Leave No Waste Behind.’ Through work performed in teams (of 4 to 6 members), Collider aims to develop solutions that are economically sustainable, environmentally friendly, and responsive to society’s needs. In order to solve real-life problems, it is important to foster interdisciplinarity, which is founded on knowledge gained from different fields and the ability to link such knowledge to the needs of society and industry. Collider provides an excellent opportunity to develop methodologies that support the integration of co-creation, innovation, and science into learning processes.

The EuroTeQ Waste Challenge is part of the EuroTeQ Collider project. The theme for Collider 2022 is ‘Leave No Waste Behind.’ Through work performed in teams (of 4 to 6 members), Collider aims to develop solutions that are economically sustainable, environmentally friendly, and responsive to society’s needs. In order to solve real-life problems, it is important to foster interdisciplinarity, which is founded on knowledge gained from different fields and the ability to link such knowledge to the needs of society and industry. Collider provides an excellent opportunity to develop methodologies that support the integration of co-creation, innovation, and science into learning processes.