In the Silicon Venturing Rotterdam Innovation Lab (SVR), the students set up a student innovation company alongside the hospital. This venture is coached by RUAS tutors in close consultation with the contact person at the hospital. The “free” and challenging setup of the Innovation Lab offers the students plenty of scope to develop on a personal level. The students, who represent at least six different specialist disciplines, have a four-day working week, a workplace at the hospital, no predefined assignment or problem to tackle, and free rein to interpret the curriculum as they see fit. The students are required to identify their own problem at the hospital and define their own learning questions, both as a group and individually.
The learning goals for the students are to develop their knowledge of innovation processes, but first and foremost to develop competences relating to Learning to Innovate at RUAS: being innovation-driven, demand-driven, being collaborative, able to generate new knowledge and able to engage in interactive learning. The competences concerned correspond largely to 21st-century skills.