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Guidance supporting Europe’s aspiring entrepreneurs
Policy and practice to harness future potential

prospective (student) entrepreneurs have an access to experienced business
coaches and entrepreneurs.

4.4.2. Business incubators
Invention, research and technological development can be transformed into
innovation; entrepreneurship is important as a diffusion mechanism to transform
scientific inventions (academic spin-offs) into new products, services and
businesses. Consequently, many individual HEIs, or networks of HEIs, have set
up incubators to nurture enterprises that can be spun off, sometimes with the
support of venture capital provided by the HEI or with the help of HEI connections
(Volkmann, et al., 2009). Incubation is a business guidance process that
accelerates the successful development of start-up companies by providing
entrepreneurs with targeted resources and services. The main goal of the
incubation process is to produce successful enterprises that are financially viable
and freestanding. While much of the support offered by HE-related incubators is
technical, practical or financial by nature, advice from experts and investors is
fundamental to the service.
Examples of successful incubators situated in HEIs were provided by HE
entrepreneurship experts interviewed from Austria, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Liechtenstein,
Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. In
Hungary and Portugal incubators are predominantly run by regional authorities,
not universities. Incubation services are run by national public bodies in
Luxembourg and Malta (Malta Enterprise and public research centres). In
Bulgaria and Romania business incubation opportunities do not exist for HE
students or are very rare. In countries where business incubators do exist, the
quality of services differs between institutions. For instance, in Iceland technology
parks and business incubators are either well established with developed
services, or new and in need of help to function well.
In some of the new Member States (e.g. Latvia and Lithuania) there is
growing interest in business incubation. In Latvia, several business incubators
are currently being developed, which will provide entrepreneurial possibilities to a
variety of individuals, including HE students (Zarins, 2009). For example, the
Riga Science and Technology Park (RSTP) attached to the Riga Technical
University (Latvia’s principal technical university) is set to be one of the largest
innovation hubs in the country. A number of incubators exist in Lithuania, but only
a few target HE students. One of these is the recently established business
incubator at Siauliai University.

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