Addressing the classic debate over whether entrepreneurship can genuinely be taught in a classroom, or if it is purely an innate instinct, Aalto’s Ganoo weighs in. “We don’t believe there’s any need to focus on the conflict between studying entrepreneurship or becoming an entrepreneur; we offer students a bird’s eye view [of the business landscape] so they don’t repeat the same mistakes – it’s a practical, first-person experience.” “Entrepreneurs aren’t simply born; entrepreneurship can be learned through skills, mindsets and tools”, maintains Polimi’s Agasisti. “Rigorous management education accelerates founders by making these elements actionable, from problem framing to scaling decisions. Crucially, business schools must bridge theory and practice through experiential learning, helping students turn knowledge into capabilities that support survival and growth.” Edhec’s take on entrepreneurship is that it involves a “defined set of skills – identifying real problems, taking action, testing under pressure and building a team”, explains Cailluet. He adds an important caveat: “But acquiring these skills doesn’t necessarily guarantee success. Research shows that gender, geography and background shape who gets funded and who doesn’t. We are exposing and breaking down these barriers with the help of our Innova partners.” He echoes former Nokia CEO Siilasmaa’s point when he says: “Together, we believe we can give students the skills, the grit and the mindset to build a European entrepreneurial ecosystem that stands on its own terms: ambitious, inclusive and distinctly European – not a copy of Silicon Valley, but a model in its own right.” Forging partnership pipelines Looking ahead, ESMT’s Efe elaborates on how the Innova alliance is evolving its incubation pipeline to ensure that academically driven ideas are successfully brought to the fore as commercially viable and impactful ventures. “You need to put the right founders, mentors and peers together and give them the right ecosystem and resources – that belief shapes how Innova evolved. The quality of ideas rises every year by choice, not chance. By selecting the right national partner in each country and connecting them with each other, we keep improving our offerings, our entrepreneurship education and our ability to attract the right talent.” Meanwhile, Polimi’s Agasisti points to the way they are strengthening the pipeline through initiatives such as the European Responsible Startup Barometer, a survey of 433 startups launched last year to assess environmental, social, governance and civic practices. “This evidence-based approach helps align academic insights with market needs, supporting founders in prioritising sustainability, measuring impact systematically and attracting partners and investors across Europe”, he comments. Cailluet homes in on the relationship-building aspect of the coalition, describing Innova as the “connective tissue” between member universities. “A founder in Milan meets a peer solving
Aalto lecturer in entrepreneurship Apurva Ganoo (sixth from left) is keen for academic institutions to pool resources through initiatives like the Innova coalition
Institute of Innovation & Technology’s Higher Education Initiative, designed to scale up entrepreneurship education. Rather than one business school relying purely on tuition fees or internal budgets to build entrepreneurship programmes, together they can leverage EU-level innovation grants to co-create curriculum, share incubator networks and give their students access to an international pool of mentors, investors and research labs. “Partnering with Edhec is a good match”, enthuses Ganoo, “they are colleagues you can trust and learn from”. Building bridges across borders Over at Edhec, Ludovic Cailluet, associate dean at the Centre for Responsible Entrepreneurship, concurs wholeheartedly. “In a world pulling apart, European collaboration has never been more necessary. When we founded Innova Europe, we started from a shared conviction: European universities are the best place to shape the next generation of responsible entrepreneurs, but only if we do it together, across borders, at scale. The talent, research and ecosystem connections exist; what was missing was the shared infrastructure to bring them together.” EMST’s Baris Efe, head of Vali (the school’s dedicated entrepreneurship hub and incubator), agrees that silos needed to be broken down. “The biggest challenges we face do not stop at borders: climate change, social inequality, economic strain – Innova bridges that gap. We connect entrepreneurs and academic centres across Europe in the context of responsible entrepreneurship; we genuinely believe it is the only way to change the world for the better.” Tommaso Agasisti, associate dean for international relations at Polimi, picks up on the theme of a series of gaps that needed to be addressed as the reason behind the creation of Innova. “We aimed to bridge three gaps: an educational gap, ensuring continuous entrepreneurship exposure; a fragmentation gap, bringing a cooperative, multi-school European perspective; and an action gap, enabling students to test ideas, move from concepts to prototypes and experience venture creation.”
28 Ambition • ISSUE 4 • 2026
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