MAGAZINE FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY N°4 - JULY/SEPTEMBER 2020 MAGAZINE FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY N°4 - JULY/SEPTEMBER 2020 GUGLIELMO MARCONI UNIVERSITY magazine GUGLIELMO MARCONI UNIVERSITY magazine Academic Highlights MULTIPLIER EVENT IN HUELVA Glance at the Future FOR SUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITY IN THE EUROPEAN UNION. Spotlight on Research GUGLIELMO MARCONI UNIVERSITY IS ONE OF THE WINNERS OF THE CALL “CAPACITY BUILDING FOR HIGHER EDUCATION 2020”. MAGAZINE FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY N°4 - JULY/SEPTEMBER 2020 GUGLIELMO MARCONI UNIVERSITY magazine Startups and University Spin-offs By Tommaso Saso Even in Italy we’re starting to talk about not particularly common type of startup, the spin-offs. The Ministry of Education, University and Research defines the term “spin-off”, as “foundation of a new legal entity, a joint stock company, a limited liability company or a startup, starting from the resources of a pre-existing company or from other companies”. But the “spin-off”, a business branch that splits from a company to take on a different legal form to do what it did before, is actually not really a novelty. The real novelty is the launch of these spin-offs within universities and public research institutions in general. This means that they can represent an interesting tool for research and experimentation of new products and services for the development activities of universities, but also for businesses. For the sake of clarity, it is necessary to specify that the term “spin-off” can be divided into at least two types: Industrial Spin-off and Research Spin-off. In case of the Industrial Spin-off, we are talking about the entrepreneurial activities generated by an already started business and can be divided into two types: individual or corporate. In the case of the “individual industrial spin-off” we are talking about companies created by a single individual, or more people, who decide to become independent from an organization to start a business autonomously, while the “corporate industrial spin-off” concerns a specific business of the parent company which is transferred to a new independent company. In this case it is called Start-up in the strict sense of the word. The Research Spin-off, on the other hand, represents an entrepreneurial initiative born by “budding” from academic or research institutions. The initiative of these companies comes from researchers or professors, who leave the organization to which they belong to start an independent entrepreneurial activity, aimed at exploiting the skills and research activities developed within the university organization, with which they generally maintain collaborative relationships. In this category there are also two other branches based on the type of participation that the university has with the created spin-off company. In fact, we will have University Spin-offs in case the university participates in the company structure, and Academic Spin-offs. In the university context, the launch of the Research Spin-off is intended both as a tool for enhancing the knowledge of the university and as a transfer to the production system of new knowledge in science and technology. For the Marconi University it was the Technology Transfer Commission, endorsed by professors and researchers from the various interdisciplinary departments, in order to promote the activities aimed at the evaluation, protection, marketing, commercialization and management of the intellectual property developed in the context of research projects. The Ministry includes “fostering contact between university research structures, the productive world and local institutions, supporting research and disseminating new technologies with positive effects on industrial production and the social well- being of the territory” among the main goals of the spin-offs. Therefore, we talk about University Spin-offs when the university participation in the shareholding structure of the new company is planned, whereas we talk about Academic Spin-offs in case when this participation is absent. The share varies according to the arrangements of the concerned university and usually can consist of both assets in kind (license to use the university’s proprietary equipment, interior spaces, and laboratories) and in terms of share capital. To start a University Spin-off or Academic Spin-off procedure, it is necessary to start from a proposal from one or more subjects who may be professors, researchers, and even technical-administrative staff. Other subjects or institutions can also participate in the spin-off, such as holders of research grants, holders of post-graduate and post-doctoral scholarships, students, undergraduates, students of specialization courses and PhDs, graduates, specialists, natural or legal persons, companies and organizations. In the event of a university spin-off, with the participation of the universities in the capital, there is no fixed limit. The single university can set the threshold, generally from 5% up to u 30%, but there is no firm rule. In fact, we have universities that set it at 10%, others at 15%, 20%, 30% and so on. In the case of the Maroni Commission, which I chair, it is expected that the Technical Scientific Committee makes a “proposal for the participation” and that the actual decision on the matter is then up to the Board of Directors. MAGAZINE FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY N°4 - JULY/SEPTEMBER 2020 GUGLIELMO MARCONI UNIVERSITY magazine A further point to consider concerns the nature of the contributions that the universities undertake to the spin-offs. In this case, wider dynamics which affect university legislation and the constraints present in it regarding the participation of universities in commercial companies come into play. In fact, in some cases, the regulations expect that the university’s participation in the spin-off preferentially consists in the contribution of goods and services, while the contribution of money is considered a possibility to consider case by case. This is the line of Guglielmo Marconi University. I remind, that from a purely legal point of view a spin-off is the creation of an actual company (innovative startup), therefore there is the obligation to establish statutory ad hoc provisions, in order to regulate the relations of the university towards the shareholders and align the modus operandi and the governance of the startup to the constraints and limits of the University regulations and statutes as well as, of course, to the provisions of the MIUR. The Marconi University Spin-off Technology Transfer Commission also provides for a Business Incubator activity. The incubator promotes the dissemination of the entrepreneurial culture among the various actors of the University, fosters relations with the territory within the innovation ecosystems and promotes and supports the birth and the first phase of development of start-ups and spin-offs based on entrepreneurial ideas with a high rate of innovation and with a strong connection with university research. The services offered by the Incubator are: enhancement of research results through entrepreneurial training, incubation and post-incubation. The detail of the individual services is commensurate with the type of proposal and requests. The Incubator provides these services to University spin-offs and start-ups with ongoing relationships or relationships under development with the world of university research on innovative projects and, subordinately, with start-ups not directly linked to the research, but selected on the basis of tenders or agreements and in any case characterized by a strong degree of innovation or repercussions on the territories and sectors of interest to the University. We are currently working on about ten projects and are evaluating several others. Academic Highlights Multiplier Event in Huelva The University of Huelva, as coordinator of HY2GREEN project (“Enhancing hydrogen new profiles for the coming European ‘green’ energy model”), arranged the project Multiplier Event in Huelva (Spain), the September 26, 2020. During the event the project results achieved were presented and discussed, and in particular the specific training program developed and tested for new professionals adapted to the new energy models based on ICT and oriented to employment for these profiles. Guglielmo Marconi University as project partner also virtually participated in the event. The event also provided the opportunity to share experiences and to establish new alliances on hydrogen technology education. For further information please contact [email protected] by Susanna Correnti MAGAZINE FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY N°4 - JULY/SEPTEMBER 2020 GUGLIELMO MARCONI UNIVERSITY magazine HC Seminars successfully ended their second academic year Seminar Half a Classroom last meeting took place virtually on July 15 2020. The meeting explored the relationship between storytelling and media ecosystems investigating the trends of storytelling practices in the context of convergence culture; as the issue was particularly well adapted to the virtual format, the meeting had a rich audience of bachelor, master and PhD students. Guest coordinator of the entire seminar titled “Narrative technologies and storytelling: interaction, participation, collaboration” was Prof. Domenico Morreale, lecturer of “Sociology of Cultural Processes” and “Theories and Techniques of Mass Communication” at UGM. The event, organized in collaboration with the “Social and Transmedia Framework”, an inter-university research group dedicated