EIT-HEI initiative: EDHEC commits to reshaping entrepreneurship education in Europe

Coordinated by EDHEC Business School, the CODEUNITED project (Connecting and Development of UNiversity-oriented InnovaTion Ecosystems through entrepreneurship eDucation) brings together four higher education institutions - Aalto University (Finland), Brunel University London (UK), LAB University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Sweden) - and three business partners: MAZE Impact (Portugal), West London Business (UK) and Cogknit Oy (Finland). Through CODEUNITED, these players are combining their expertise to develop innovative approaches to teaching entrepreneurship, strengthen synergies between universities and innovation ecosystems, and disseminate these practices on a European scale.

Rethinking entrepreneurship education

CODEUNITED aims to make entrepreneurship training more coherent, inclusive and connected to campus realities. Faced with the fragmentation of innovation support schemes, often marked by redundant actions, internal competition and a lack of connection with student expectations, the project aims to bring together students, teachers, researchers, incubators and economic partners on a long-term basis around methods, tools and training designed at all levels. With this in mind, the consortium has drawn up a two-year action plan with precise collective objectives to be rolled out across all five partner institutions, including training 1,250 students, mentoring 125 of them, training 250 staff members, supporting 28 start-ups or scale-ups, and establishing 14 new strategic partnerships.

CODEUNITED was selected in April 2025 by the EIT-HEI (European Institute of Innovation and Technology - Higher Education Initiative), which awarded it funding of 1.34 million euros. This European Union initiative aims to strengthen the innovation potential of higher education and research establishments. "Obtaining this European funding is recognition of the work we've been doing at EDHEC for over 3 years on responsible entrepreneurship, explains Ludovic Cailluet, Professor and Associate Dean, EDHEC Centre for Responsible Entrepreneurship. The school's international strategy and its desire to have an impact on the real economy also involve the European development of its entrepreneurship support programs."

EDHEC's expertise serving a European vision

EDHEC is taking part in this project as part of its strategy to develop responsible entrepreneurship on a European scale. The school is contributing through its expertise in entrepreneurial training and the design of innovative methodologies. The RED method (Responsible Entrepreneurship by Design), developed by EDHEC and used by over 1,000 entrepreneurs and students, has been identified as a structuring approach by EIT-HEI. It will be mobilized within CODEUNITED to design learning paths geared towards the creation of sustainable, aligned and inclusive businesses.

At EDHEC, the project is led by the Centre for Responsible Entrepreneurship and relies on the expertise of the EDHEC Entrepreneurs ecosystem, which supports over 300 students and 70 startups every year. It also mobilizes a strong academic community, with the support of more than 25 professors and teacher-researchers specialized in entrepreneurship, committed to developing new teaching methods and impact-based support systems.

Building on a growing momentum

CODEUNITED is in line with EDHEC's European commitments. In 2023, the school launched INNOVA Europe, a coalition active in ten countries (Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom) to structure the dissemination of responsible entrepreneurial skills in higher education and to help impact projects emerge.

With this new project, EDHEC is pursuing its ambition to connect the academic world with reality in the field, and to train a new generation of responsible leaders on a European scale.