Submitted Abstract
The University has decided to provide more favourable pre-incubation conditions for University spin-off projects. It is important to properly time the incorporation of a spin-off company to avoid premature incorporation of spin-off companies, which may be a risk upon completion of a FNR POC for two key reasons: either the market situation is not yet mature, or the employment contract of the principal investigator can no longer be renewed.Consequently, with several external investors and the support of the Banque et Caisse d’Epargne de l’Etat and, in the future, the European Investment Fund, the University intends to provide access to pre-seed funding as the earliest stage of venture funding through a Société d’Investissement en Capital Risque – SICAR ‘Pre-Seed Fund’). This would allow the provision of working capital to mature the idea/innovation and realize first business plan milestones already before the setting- up and the early stages of an independent incorporated spin-off company. Concurrently, the University aims to create a working environment, as a pre-incubator called THE-BOX, in which researchers can focus exclusively on developing a primary version of their idea built to an extent, which can be presented for further funding in a competitive market, and this outside the constraint of fixed-term work contracts at the University. Additionally, above the detachment of academics, THE-BOX would allow the principal investigator to team up with one or more business developers to validate market access and shape the innovation in a way that market requirements can be met (i.e., development of a minimum viable product, for commercial purposes).Conclusively, in view of the above, the objective of this KITS project is to implement these two vehicles at or in vicinity of the University to enable a return on historical investments made by public research actors in complementary assets in the Luxembourg innovation ecosystem.