Leonardo Gallo and Italo Parrilli from Bocconi University, along with Sakurako Maki from Sciences Po, were awarded first prize in the 2025 futurEU competition, a flagship initiative of the CIVICA European University alliance. Their policy brief presents bold solutions to one of Europe's most pressing challenges: bridging the innovation gap between EU countries and global tech leaders.
The Core Idea: University Start-Up Hubs
Their proposal focuses on building university-based technology hubs to convert academic research into market-ready innovations. Drawing lessons from Silicon Valley and similar ecosystems, the team argues that European universitiescan become start-up incubators, fostering scalable solutions with real-world impact.
These hubs would function as bridges between research and commercialization, enabling the EU to compete more effectively with global innovation powerhouses such as the United States and China.
Addressing the Innovation Bottleneck in the EU
The team began by analyzing the current EU innovation funding model and identified major barriers to technology transfer and startup scalability. Despite a small 0.6% improvement in overall performance from 2023 to 2024, systemic inefficiencies remain. They highlight the lack of a unified funding framework that prioritizes technology scaling and commercial deployment.
The European Commission’s 2030 innovation targets remain distant. According to the students, this is due to the absence of a cohesive policy connecting R&D to startup ecosystems.
Designing a Practical Roadmap for Innovation Funding
While drafting their policy, the team faced the challenge of creating a viable funding roadmap. By analyzing mechanisms like the European Innovation Council (EIC) and other EU funding schemes, they proposed a three-stage innovation funnel:
- Early-stage support for university research with commercial potential
- Mid-stage incubation through local university hubs
- Late-stage acceleration for scaling start-ups across borders
Their model includes measurable outcomes to ensure accountability and return on investment.
CIVICA’s Role in Empowering European Student Voices
The futurEU competition brought together student teams from across the CIVICA alliance, encouraging collaboration and critical debate on EU policy. For the winning team, it was not just an academic exercise — it was a chance to shape the future of European competitiveness through civic engagement and policy innovation.
"We believe that deep tech innovation and startup scale-up from universities are key to closing the EU’s competitiveness gap," the students shared.
Their work exemplifies CIVICA’s mission to empower students through interdisciplinary education, policy engagement, and mobility opportunities across leading European universities.
Looking Ahead: Innovation, Mobility and European Leadership
This project reflects a broader vision shared by the CIVICA alliance: that student-led research, cross-border collaboration, and academic mobility are essential to solving Europe’s grand challenges.