Experts of innovation and technologies transfer from Italian universities will gather in the Hotel des Geneys in Bardonecchia from 6th to 8th March 2017 during the Netval Winter School 2017, organized by Netval (Italian Network of Technologies Transfer Offices of Universities and Public Research Organizations) and supported by the University of Turin, Politecnico di Torino and the University of Eastern Piedmont.

Netval was founded in 2002 and today includes 56 universities and 6 research organizations; its objective is to give value to the university research in front of the economic and business sector, by building bridges between the public research and the businesses which are interested in improving their competitiveness through innovation.

Netval’s schools are always organized in different Italian cities and are a great opportunity to take stock of the situation of the relationship between university innovation and businesses. Participants in this event are professors, researchers, doctors, experts of technologies transfer, entrepreneurs, sponsors, experts who will present incubators and businesses’ accelerators, experts of this sector and other interested figures (not business partners of Netval as well).

The main topic of this Netval Winter School will be the “student entrepreneurship”. It is clear that nowadays universities and research organizations are able to support professors, researchers and doctors in creating start-up and spin-off companies thanks to businesses’ incubators.

Both in Italy and abroad there are more and more businesses which are founded by young students who haven’t got their degree, yet; these businesses are likely to generate successful enterprises.

The question is: how can Italian universities make the innovative potential of the students emerge? And how can they help them realize it, so that they are able to create real businesses?

The vice-deans of scientific research and technologies transfer of the organizing universities, professor Silvio Aime (University of Turin), professor Emilio Paolucci (Politecnico di Torino) and professor Roberto Barbato (University of Eastern Piedmont), are satisfied with the positive effects this event could have on the region. They are also very proud of Netval’s choice of welcoming the offer of the three Piedmont’s universities: this shows its great interest in innovation and in collaboration for the realization of common projects of Piedmont’s universities.