Good practice:

START CUP Emilia Romagna

The competition for innovative business projects has been created taking inspiration from a MIT program. It has been promoted by a group of professors from University of Bologna and now it is managed by ART-ER (Attractivity, Research and Territory in Emilia Romagna), the Consortium between the Emilia-Romagna Region, regional universities, research bodies operating in the region, regional Union of the Chambers of Commerce and other local representatives.
The Start Cup has been set up to promote the access to market of highly-innovative business ideas born during researches. It now scouts new projects accompanying them on their way to the market. The Cup addresses individual persons or teams who wish to start up the development of innovative products and services in the Region and have a relation with a research center or a university. Projects focus on ICT, Industrial e Life Science and Cleantech & Energy.
Green innovative ideas owners can address ART-ER territorial offices for business support and development, approaching the competition. Selected innovative business ideas are accompanied through a three-steps process, where creators are supported and guided to develop a business model before, a business plan then and - if they pass the previous steps - they participate to a pitch that crowns the winner. Moreover, they have the support of different experts and they can have 1:1 meeting with successful enterprises, in order to have a market comparison and mentoring.

The scouting path is financed thanks to FSE, while final prizes are offered by businesses who sponsors the competition. In 2021, 5 people run the central core of the start Cup, while there are 9 people acting as local contacts for ART-ER.

Among the winners of the last 5 editions of the Start Cup E-R, 3 clean tech start-ups won national prizes, demonstrating the high value of the Start-Cup competition, selection and mentoring program.
The competition contributes to build the entrepreneurship culture among the researchers, increasing the number of those who transform their findings into a business.

When the competition had few applications, the solution was the creation of a stronger network with universities and with businesses. The network with businesses makes possible to offer to the Startcuppers higher prizes and free individual mentoring sessions to have an insight on the target market.

Start Cup is a competition that can be implemented in many regions, as it can easily be adapted to the specificity of each territory. It stimulates the cooperation between local entities and research centres, boosting local green economy. The coaching path can be enriched with other services or restrained to only some of the ones proposed in Start Cup.
A stimulating competition to boost innovation for new green entrepreneurial ideas is a great way to improve the quality of the green start-up sector and to promote the green economy.