Traditionally, Universities have been seen as the main provider of base research to be later transformed into innovation by firms. However, in the last years, we have been assisting to a slight repositioning of Universities within the ideal “innovation chain”. In particular, an increasing number of Academic institutions started organizing and managing entrepreneurial programs aimed at awarding, but also supporting, the successful transformation of research-based ideas into innovation and, at the same time, the conversion of students and researchers into entrepreneurs (Fini, 2011, 2017). The aim of this white paper is to discuss this phenomenon by presenting a selection of 15 entrepreneurial contests carried out by several European universities. Our goal is to identify typologies, commonalities, (potential) inconsistencies and best practices out of such contests.
