This review was a collaborative effort between the OECD’s Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE) led by Lamia Kamal-Chaoui, Director, and the European Commission’s Directorate for Innovation, International Cooperation and Sport in the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, led by Antoaneta Angelova-Krasteva, Director. It was undertaken in partnership with the Ministry of Education, University and Research of Italy, led by Lorenzo Fioramonti.
Raffaele Trapasso, Coordinator of HEInnovate, and Giulia Ajmone Marsan, former CFE staff, prepared the report under the supervision of Lucia Cusmano, Acting Head of the SMEs and Entrepreneurship Division, CFE. Andrea Capaccioli, former OECD staff provided substantive inputs and comments to the review. Maria Sobron Bernal, CFE, provided assistance. A team of experts also contributed to the drafting of this report, Professor Magnus Klofsten and Eloïse Germain of the University of Linkoping Sweden, Wolfgang Polt and Maximilian Unger from Joanneum Research Austria. Professor Pedro Teixeira form the University of Porto and Maria Manatos from the University of Aveiro in Portugal. Christopher Cripps, Director, international development, Sorbonne University, France, participated in one mission as peer reviewer.
The OECD wishes to thank the European Commission for its support and in particular Begoña Arano and Maria Palladino from the Directorate General for Education and Culture of the European Commission who actively contributed to the realisation of the review.
The review team is also grateful to the Ministry of Education, University and Research for its contribution to the review. In particular, we are grateful to Fulvio Esposito, Vania Virgili, Elena Lo Fiego, Technical Secretariat of the Minister, Giuseppe Valditara and Luigi Pievani of the Department for Higher Education and Research; Angelo Siddi, Marzia Foroni and Francesco Olivanti of the General Directorate for Planning, Coordination and Financing of Higher Education Institutions and the Support Office.
Site visits to Higher Education Institutions were instrumental to the production of the report. The review team extends its gratitude to the rectors and coordinators and staff members of Higher Education Institutions who provided fundamental assistance to organization of site visits. The OECD team thanks in particular Maria Del Zompo, Simonetta Negrini from the University of Cagliari, Giuseppe Novelli and Corrado Cerruti from University of Rome Tor Vergata, Gaetano Manfredi and Piero Salatino from the University of Naples "Federico II", Fabrizio Micari and Livan Fratini from the University of Palermo. The OECD also thanks Antonio Felice Uricchio and Silvana Sirico from the University of Bari, Guido Saracco and Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli of the Polytechnic of Torino, Ferruccio Resta and Paola Bertoli of the Polytechnic of Milan, Francesco Ubertini and Elena Consolin from the University of Bologna. Francesco Frati and Moira Centini of the University of Siena, Pierdomenico Perata and Andrea Piccaluga from the Scuola Universitaria Superiore S. Anna di Pisa, and Vincenzo Barone and Andrea Ferrara of the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa. We are also grateful to Cristina Messa, Danilo Porro, Luca Beverina, Michele Nicolosi for their contribution to the Stakeholders’ Seminar, held in the University of Milan Bicocca, in May 2019.
Members of the steering group of this review, which was chaired by Angelo Riccaboni from the University-Business Observatory, also provided key insights and comments reflected in this review. Theses members include Maria Letizia Melina, Federico Cinquepalmi and Paola Castellucci from the Department for Higher Education and Research, Directorate General for Students and Internationalization, Vincenzo Di Felice and Luciano Catani from the Directorate General for Research of the Ministry of Education, University and Research, Gaetano Manfredi, Cristina Messa and Michele Nicolosi, Italian Rectors’ Conference, Paolo Miccoli, Sandro Momigliano, Alessio Ancaiani, Marco Malgarini, Carmen Nappi and Brigida Blasi, Italian Quality Assurance Agency, Andrea Piccaluga and Sabrina Corrieri Network of Centres for Technology Transfer, Giovanni Perrone, Italian Association of University Incubators, Francesca Trovarelli, University-Businness Observatory. Thanks are also extended to the Ministry of Economic Development, represented in this process by Stefano Firpo, and Confindustria, Nicoletta Amodio and Alfonso Balsamo, for the contributions received on the material produced by the Steering Group.
The project would not have been started and successfully completed without the support of Marco Mancini, former Head of Department for Higher Education and Research, and Daniele Livon, former General Director for Planning, Coordination and Financing of Higher Education Institutions.
Thanks are also due to Eleonore Morena for editing and formatting the report and to Pilar Philip, CFE, who prepared the final publication.