Back to ER challenge
Back to ER challenge is the training workshop, held in 2021, for Service Design students at the University of Bologna, organised in collaboration with ART-ER and Consulta degli emiliano-romagnoli nel mondo, with the aim of designing innovative services for stimulating and supporting high skilled expats of Emilia-Romagna who are willing return in the region.
During the meetings, students used a service design methodology to design services dedicated not only to fostering the return of Emilia-Romagna talents (by birth or education) with high skills but also to supporting the relocation and/or integration of their partners and families, especially if they are internationals.
At the end of the workshop, each team presented its project in front of local stakeholders (selected universities, companies, institutions, associations, etc.), in order to encourage reflection on how to rethink existing services and create new ones. The event ended with the awarding of the prize by a jury of experts (representatives of Gruppo Controesodo, Mamme di cervelli in fuga, Talents in Motion, Consulta degli emiliano-romagnoli nel mondo, ART-ER) to the team that best identified the needs of the expats.
The winning project was also presented in the public online event "Back to Emilia-Romagna - Storie di expat e servizi per il rientro" held on 2021, December 20th in the framework of the initiative On the Move - The moving ecosystem.
Project proposals
ExchangER The service enabling expats from Emilia-Romagna who just came back to work with regional companies to benefit from the multicultural environment, relations and international professional experiences with a high innovation content, through a temporary exchange initiative based on the twinning of one's own company with a foreign one.
Otium The service enabling returnees to improve the quality of their free time creating extra-work activities relevant to their own personal and professional passions with a high innovative content, through both a digital and physical ecosystem that integrates gamification and QR-code technology to stimulate active participation.
Talenture The service allows expats who want to come back to show their value to Italian companies, and for these companies to get to know and valorise these profiles in order to establish new working relationships. This happens through a collaborative game in virtual reality, supported by AI, that allows participants to be projected into future scenarios in order to test them and prepare for the challenges to come.
Xquality This service allows expats who are willing to come back to identify the company they want to work with according to an optimal alignment of both human and professional qualities between the candidate and the company by using group play activities focused on soft skills.
PartnER The project allows couples, formed by an expat from Emilia-Romagna and his/her partner, who want to return, to find satisfactory job positions for both. This is made possible through a ‘matching’ between the expat and companies interested in him/her. These companies will then intermediate to also match the expat's partner's profile with a second job suitable for him/her through a platform for virtual interactions.
PathfindER The project is about a service allowing expats from Emilia-Romagna with families to complete bureaucratic procedures for returning to the region through an immersive and playful online experience making it easier, faster and adding fun.
Updates The service allows expats working as researchers and academics and their families to keep up-to-date and maintain contacts with the most innovative organisations of the region, through active participation in professional development events during which they can test future scenarios through interactive technologies and collaborative methods, and through the creation of a network of companies and professionals active in the field of research and innovation in Emilia-Romagna.
VirtualER The service is aimed at expats from Emilia-Romagna and their families who are willing to come back. It helps them to identify companies that reflect their working culture and enhance their experiences abroad through a Mixed Reality platform, offering interactive gamified activities between companies and talents.
Retention of international talents in Emilia-Romagna
In 2019 the University of Bologna and ART-ER organised the first workshop dedicated to students of the master's degree in Service design aiming at developing innovative service concepts to foster the integration of foreign students and researchers in the region.
At the end of the course, during the technical seminar "For a regional strategy to attract and retain international talents", students presented their final projects.
Project proposals
Play and Know A project about learning the university system through a series of events where gamification and design toolkits become a tool for dealing with university procedures.
Home Mate This project is about a service that makes it easier for foreign students to find accommodation by offering an intercultural exchange to Italian students. The latter, through the service, can make their home available to incoming students to host and welcome them, supporting the settlement in an unfamiliar environment.
Chinamentor This mentoring programme dedicated to Chinese university students aims to encourage young talents to follow their own interests for a future in the region. Students will be mentored by Chinese professionals based in Emilia-Romagna who work in local companies to enable them to create strong ties with the region and increase their sense of community.
R-Camp International R-Camp International is about a service dedicated to international researchers, designed to offer them a programme of training activities, to get them involved in and to let them experience the regional research context.
International Research Prize Festival The International Research Prize Festival is about a day of workshops, lectures and exhibitions to inspire and celebrate foreign talent in innovative research in Emilia-Romagna. The Festival could also foresees the prestigious International Res Prize to the best foreign researcher of the year in Emilia-Romagna.
Pills of Me The Pills of Me project is about an opportunity for international researchers to have greater visibility in Emilia-Romagna companies, thanks to small training sessions (pills) that allow researchers to showcase their soft and hard skills.
