Economics & Management 4/2025

Italy is struggling to transform its scientific excellence into innovation and enterprise. Despite being among the top ten countries in the world for research output, the gap with the United States and Europe in terms of venture capital, business start-ups, and talent attraction is still striking. Fragmentation, localism, and lack of scale all limit the growth of competitive innovation ecosystems. Tech Europe Foundation (TEF) was created as a response to this, to support deep tech research, foster an entrepreneurial culture, and encourage new business creation, with the aim of solidifying the link between knowledge, the market, and sustainable development.