This volume focuses on academic spinouts by exploring the structural barriers limiting the commercialisation and scaling of research-based ventures across Europe. From a practical angle, it notably addresses investment readiness, intellectual property frameworks, technology transfer support, grant alignment and institutional incentives.

Bringing together evidence, real-life experience, policy analysis, and practical recommendations, the document provides a deep dive on how fragmented investment terms, academic incentive structures, and limited recognition of IP as a financeable asset constrain the creation and eventual growth of spinouts. The volume highlights the need for more investor-friendly spinout models, modernised technology transfer practices, greater monitoring and funding mechanisms better aligned with the realities of innovation coming out of some of the best labs in the world.

In accordance with the EU Startup & Scaleup Strategy, the publication outlines concrete policy actions, including the standardisation of equity and royalty frameworks, reforms to commercialisation governance and culture within universities, and adaptations to public funding instruments to better support the full patent lifecycle.

By tackling the “valley of death” between research and market deployment through IP-backed financing, European world-class universities and research centres could play an even greater role in strengthening the European innovation ecosystem, ultimately bolstering the continent’s competitiveness and technological sovereignty.