Fostering an entrepreneurial mindset in Europe is increasingly recognized as a strategic driver of innovation, growth, and competitiveness. While the EU has made significant investments in research excellence (ERC), breakthrough innovations (EIC), mobility (MSCA), technology transfer (EIT), and research infrastructures (RIs), there remains a gap between scientific research and entrepreneurial practice. Too often, researchers and innovators develop outstanding ideas and technologies without the practical exposure or entrepreneurial mindset needed to translate them into market-ready solutions.
At the same time, European startups and SMEs, i.e. the backbone of the innovation ecosystem, face difficulties accessing high-quality talent, particularly from the EU’s pool of PhD candidates, postdocs, and emerging innovators. Initiatives such as EURAXESS provide useful resources but often fall short in connecting researchers with non-academic career opportunities, especially in dynamic, innovation-driven companies. Barriers include administrative complexity, limited transparency, weak industry connections, and cultural inertia that discourages researchers from exploring alternative career paths.
InnoNext addresses this challenge by establishing a pan-European scheme that bridges research excellence with entrepreneurial ecosystems, enabling researchers and startups to meet, collaborate, and co-create.
The project is built around the activation and support of innovation internships across EU member states, underpinned by an AI-driven matchmaking platform.
The scheme provides:
1) Practical entrepreneurship experience for researchers through internships in startups and SMEs.
2) Mentoring and acceleration tracks for both talents and hosting companies.
3) A replication and upscaling toolkit to extend the methodology beyond the project’s lifetime.
4) Tailored communication and visibility actions to increase awareness of EU funding programmes among talents and businesses.
The InnoNext initiative will generate impact at multiple levels:
- Scientific and Career Impact: Offer to researchers with entrepreneurial skills and broaden their career horizons beyond academia. It enables a new generation of innovators capable of driving deep-tech and science-based ventures.
- Technological Impact: Introduce state-of-the-art AI-based discovery and matchmaking, revolutionising how talent and opportunities are connected, improving efficiency, accuracy, and scalability across the EU.
- Economic Impact: Provide startups and SMEs with access to highly skilled talent, accelerating the development of new products and services, strengthening Europe’s competitiveness, and supporting the emergence of new unicorns and scale-ups.
- Societal Impact: Promote diversity, inclusion, and cross-sector collaboration. By fostering researcher mobility and entrepreneurship, InnoNext contributes to solving societal challenges in areas such as health, sustainability, and digitalisation, while ensuring talent retention in Europe.
- Policy Impact: Deliver actionable recommendations and an upscaling roadmap for future EIC and EIT work programmes, supporting EU policy goals in innovation, employment, and education.
