It is a fact that some of the most formidable companies of the century have been founded by young researchers. The list includes the likes of such world-leading players as Google (founded by Sergey Brin & Larry Page, PhDs), Intel (founded by Gordon Moore and Robert Noyce, PhDs), BioNTech (founded by Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci, PhDs), and many others. It is also a fact, however, that today’s prevailing pedagogical models do not support the path from science to market. That means our smartest, best-trained talents are not properly prepared to develop solutions to pressing societal problems that the world is facing. It is against this backdrop that I created UNIBO Launchpad/ReActor.
Originally designed to cater to the entrepreneurial aspirations of the academic community of Bologna University, UNIBO LaunchPad quickly outgrew those boundaries becoming a reference point for science-based entrepreneurship education in Italy. Over the past years, hundreds of articles have appeared in mainstream local and national media outlets featuring the unique qualities of this programme as well as the stories of some of its protagonists, the science-entrepreneurs.
During five editions, the programme has attracted 120 applications, selected 40 teams, and spawned several science-based companies that moved on to attract early-stage funding, awards, and accolades (too many to be listed here!). Many of these companies were PNI (Innovation National Prize) winners or finalists and in January 2022 we experienced our first exit: the company created by one of our scientists was acquired by a global corporation.

Great teachers should never shay away from cultivating meaning and critical thinking in their students. They should refuse to offer easy ‘yes or no’ answers by promoting the human spirit of inquiry. I believe true leaders respond to a calling and so don’t need to justify their actions in terms of expectations of their consequences: “I do what I do because I am who I am”. Following a sense of self has its own perils, but it celebrates a non-calculative view of humanity: grand entrepreneurial visions are tied not to hopes for great accomplishments but to a willingness to act authentically, in the name of a conception of ourselves and our calling.

I wish to encourage my fellow entrepreneurship educators to help their students undertake their personal journeys based not (only) on considerations of usefulness but on an attempt to become who they really are. To those who think that this is naïve thinking, I say maybe. I am aware that incentives and consequences are powerful navigational devices to confront the vagaries of life. But I also know that education is only worth its name when it is embraced as a matter of vocation, not as a matter of usefulness.

As James March reminded us “Higher education is a vision, not a calculation. It is a commitment, not a choice. Students are not customers; they are acolytes. Teaching is not a job; it is a sacrament”. Celebrating this sacrament is a privilege we must honor for the vision of humanity it shoulders.

I am convinced that fundamental science research has the promise to deliver exceptional economic and societal outcomes. For this reason, I am deeply committed to empowering cohorts of young entrepreneurially minded scientists to advance their ground-breaking discoveries toward scalable technology ventures, positioning them for broad societal impact in the long term. As part of this commitment, my vision is to create the premiere reference point for the entrepreneurial training of scientists-entrepreneurs across Europe.

Sustaining this vision requires resources and partners of course. While I am immensely grateful to all the public and private institutions that so far have supported my pioneering effort in Italy, scaling the program at the European level requires a quantum leap in resource access and the long-term commitment of major international institutions. I have already started to probe the European Commission’s many funding schemes aimed at fostering innovation through translational science. I am also contemplating applying for funding opportunities promoted by major private foundations invested in the diffusion of entrepreneurship as a driver of prosperity.

The pursuit of scientific discovery leads to the technologies of the future. Fostering an entrepreneurial culture in science is a crucial step to turning these technologies into viable and sustainable products/services that can help humanity and the world we are living in.