The Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB) is the third oldest University in Greece; it provides education both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in the fields of Economics, Business Administration, Marketing, Accounting and Finance, Management Science and Technology, Informatics, and Statistics. AUEB is a leader among the higher education institutions of economics and business in Greece and the broader region, based on the quality and excellence of its students and teaching staff, quality and range of education programs offered, as well as its high impact research activity. In the last fifteen years, AUEB has also put significant effort in promoting, encouraging, and supporting entrepreneurship and innovation. AUEB is involved in i3-MARKET through the ELTRUN research lab, and the Athens Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACEin).
ELTRUN & ACEin
ELTRUN is the E-Business Research Centre of AUEB. Founded in 1992, it aims to establish a European center of excellence in research and development in E-Business. ELTRUN currently consists of more than 30 researchers, including 5 members of the academic staff of AUEB. Over the years, ELTRUN has successfully produced state-of-the-art research and completed more than 60 international research projects. ELTRUN is also actively engage with the local business ecosystem conducting several sectoral analyses yearly, and offering relevant training and seminars within, and beyond the scope of the university.
As part of its strategy towards innovation and entrepreneurship, AUEB has established the Athens Center of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (ACEin), the University’s incubation center. Key strategy of ACEin is to support newly established very small and small companies through agile methodologies, design thinking, and lean start up, operating in innovative fields, such as e-commerce, ICT, social entrepreneurship, etc. Within the framework of ACEin, these companies are offered training on how to establish and run a start-up, services from experts in fields such as accounting and taxation issues, legal issues, as well as mentoring and networking. ACEin organizes and supports various events, from specialized training programs to competitions, hackathons, networking events, etc. Besidesactively supporting nascent ventures, ACEin promotes entrepreneurship and innovation through trainings, educational and outreach programs.
AUEB in i3-MARKET
As a business centered institution, AUEB mainly supports the project’s business exploitation with regard to the current market and regulatory landscape. More specifically, AUEB is working towards formulating viable and sustainable business models for i3-MARKET as part of a broader project commercialization strategy that can also serve as a blueprint for data-marketplaces and other relevant actors in general. Furthermore, this work requires an in-depth research of the complex regulatory and legislative framework in order to ensure that these business strategies are in accordance with EU law but most importantly to help towards the effort of making i3-MARKET a project that serves the principles of EU for privacy and data protection by-design. For AUEB, i3-MARKET offers an experimentation field were notions such as data-driven business models, smart data/contracts, data ownership and protection, etc. can be explored and tested in real life, in order to gain insights for academia.
Within this context, i3-MARKET constitutes an exceptional opportunity to conduct high impact research and enhance the educational services offered. As such, AUEB’s involvement paves the way for academic publications as well as knowledge to be included in several bachelor’s and master’s degrees and theses.