Lab to Unicorn Initiative

The Lab to Unicorn Initiative will turn Europe’s scientific excellence into scaled companies. From 2026, the Commission will back a network of leading university-rooted startup and scale-up hubs to collaborate across borders, opening shared access to services, infrastructures and corporate demand. A common blueprint will standardise licensing, royalty/revenue-sharing and equity models for universities and inventors, while capacity-building strengthens technology-transfer offices and embeds venture-builder roles in research organisations and universities. The Initiative will issue guidance on State-aid and IP rules so public institutions can grant IP and infrastructure access lawfully. Together, these measures compress time-to-market and raise Europe’s scale-up success rate.