Student entrepreneurship and exploitation of research results in Southern France
On 7 and 8 December 2021, the Policy Learning Platform organised an online peer review with the French Région SUD Provence-Alpes Côte d’Azur as host. The two-day review revolved around student entrepreneurship and the exploitation of research results through innovative start-up creation and technology transfer.
Peers from across Europe
Under the moderation of the Policy Learning Platform's experts on SME competitiveness Luc Schmerber and Mart Veliste, peers from Germany, Italy, Ireland, and Northern Ireland gathered to exchange their experiences and provide advice to the host. The six peers were:
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Thomas Bartel, Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts Baden-Württemberg (Germany)
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Maiia Deutschmann, Projektträger Jülich (Germany)
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Dr Thomas Grobman, Projektträger Jülich (Germany)
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Donato Iaccobucci, Università delle Marche (Italy)
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Bredo O’Dwyer, Munster Technology University (Ireland)
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Steve Pollard, Ulster University Business School (Nothern Ireland – United Kingdom)
Content of the peer review
While the “Région SUD Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur” has been awarded the European label "European Entrepreneurship Region" (2021 and 2022) by the Committee of European Regions, it aimed to collect the vision of experts to challenge its action and to consider potential optimization.
Also, this peer review was an occasion to learn about actions developed by foreign student entrepreneurship programs (good practices exchange).
The first day of the meeting was dedicated to a comprehensive presentation of the relevant policies and actors in the Région Sud. Many regional stakeholders, such as incubators and technology transfer organisations attended the meeting and exchanged with the peers.
The second day was dedicated more specifically to the development of recommendations and concrete proposals for actions based on the experiences of the peers and the policies in place in their home regions and organisations.
Policy questions
The exchange was structured along the following questions:
How can universities and further actors best promote entrepreneurship among students and researchers?
Which structures and programmes can best support the creation of businesses by students? Are there suitable European mobility programmes for them?
How to specifically promote the exploitation of research results by doctoral students? Which support structures and programmes are needed?
Learnings
The peer review allowed the host to understand how student entrepreneurship and start-ups created by students and young doctors are supported in other European regions, especially with respect to the level of financial commitment.
The recommendations developed by and with the peers will be discussed during the consultation phase with the regional actors in the framework of the preparation of the regional Higher Education, Research and Innovation scheme for the programming period 2021-2027.
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