Becoming an Entrepreneur for a Trial Period: The Pre-Incubation Experience

In most member states of the European Union a major failing of the innovation system is that inventions generated at universities and other higher education institutes are too rarely commercialized by the creation of new, innovative firms. One reason for this can be found in the accumulation of obstacles that prevent academic researchers with a technology-based business idea from setting up their own company. Such obstacles include a lack of knowledge in business management and negotiation skills, the unknown market potential of products and services, high financial risks and the widespread fear of failure. In this article a new and innovative support scheme is described, based on the concept of ‘pre-incubation’ and set up by the Institute for Innovation Transfer at the University of Bielefeld. The core of the concept is a university-associated facility, the pre-incubator, which is a new device for managing the spin-off process. The innovative feature of the pre-incubator is a specific management, legal a...