The Mission: Start-up Europe

• Innovation and cutting-edge business practices will become vital if Europe is to stay competitive with the US and East Asia, but the business world is concentrated in certain areas and limited to a “business” class rather than researchers.
   
• In addition, to date, EU start-ups have had to rely too heavily on US risk capital.

The mission is set to “start-up” the EU economy by:

1. Creating an extensive network of business and “spin-off” centres at universities to encourage the transformation of university research into commercial product and process innovations.
    
2. Including practical business know-how in the education curriculum.
    
3. Establishing a network of innovation hubs and business support structures in regions outside the usual business centres. These would help launch any type of start-up, including craft, industrial, agricultural or cultural businesses, as well as social, non-profit enterprises.
    
4. Improving access to start-up finance through tax incentives and EU funding.