Italian Higher Education (HE) is facing some crucial challenges and actions are essential to unleash its full potential within the European context. Promoting an entrepreneurial and innovative agenda and a new sustainable development model should become pivotal in every education policy. Furthermore, a long-term national strategy should encompass engagement and the so called ‘third mission’ (that is to say, generating knowledge outside academic environments to the benefit of social, cultural and economic development).

Entrepreneurship and innovation are key drivers of inclusive growth and social cohesion. This is why it is important that higher education systems and institutions strategically develop innovative and entrepreneurial approaches towards education, research and engagement with stakeholders, and act as catalysts of these processes.

For years now, universities and companies have undergone significant transformations that have led to new forms of collaboration to help face the challenges of the current economic and technological context. Bearing in mind that collaboration between academic and business worlds is a driver of success with mutual benefits for all actors involved – and more generally for society, in 2014 the Fondazione CRUI (Foundation of the Italian Rectors Conference) established the University-Business Observatory.

This publication presents the findings and recommendations of the HEInnovate review of the impact of higher education institutions (HEIs) on entrepreneurship and innovation in Italy. The review assesses the strategies and practices of HEIs in Italy in supporting entrepreneurship and innovation, along with the government policy context. It highlights many good practices put forward by Italian HEIs to engage with businesses and communities at the local and international level and to capitalise on cultural and natural amenities, in the country. The review further discusses the need for a strategic approach to the entrepreneurial and innovation agenda in higher education.

Universities’ entrepreneurship and innovative practices are burgeoning all over Italy. Some of these practices resonate at the international level, while others have a strong local dimension. Recent policy initiatives, including outside the higher education domain, have helped promote the “entrepreneurial and innovation agenda” in higher education. Strategic support from the central government could catalyse these engagement practices, with an impact on Italy’s innovation capacity, human capital endowment and sustainable growth.

This introductory chapter provides an overview of the higher education (HE) system in Italy. The aim is to presents the main actors and institutions of the system and to discuss the framework conditions of the “entrepreneurial and innovation agenda” in Italy. In addition, the chapter assesses some recent policies that aim at strengthening Italy’s innovative potential.

This chapter presents the HEInnovate guiding framework and applies all its dimensions to Italy’s higher education system and to Italian higher education institutions (HEIs). The aim is to have an all-round discussion of the capacity of higher education (institutions) to engage and create value for the economy and society while fulfilling their teaching and research missions. The chapter illustrates national features, and some selected case studies, in the eight dimensions of the HEInnovate framework, also explaining why Italy chose to focus in particular on a subset of four dimensions for this review. It displays some relevant results of a Leader Survey, a questionnaire that was administered to all Italian HEIs.

Knowledge exchange between higher education institutions (HEIs) and other stakeholders is an important catalyst for innovation, the advancement of teaching and research, and local development. It is a continuous and bidirectional process, which includes the stimulation and direct application and exploitation of knowledge for the benefit of the social, cultural and economic development of society. This chapter begins with an introduction discussing theoretical aspects of knowledge exchange – including university-industry collaborations – followed by a section describing the Italian case and discussing challenges and opportunities. Importantly, the chapter benefits from information gathered in a stakeholder workshop held at the University of Milan “Bicocca” in May 2019. Policy recommendations conclude the chapter.

This chapter expands on the findings of Chapter 2 related to the internationalisation of the Italian higher education system. It provides a more in-depth discussion of the challenges faced with regard to the need to embed internationalisation into systemic and institutional strategies and providing a conceptual framework to analyse this phenomenon under a multidimensional perspective. It explores which rationales drive internationalisation in Italy and in which areas, and what actors are critical in these respects. The chapter also presents various national models and good practice examples.

Digital technologies are transforming people’s life, business and society. Higher education systems and institutions are particularly affected by digital transformation, which can enable new services and provide new opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship. Higher education institutions (HEIs) embracing digital technologies can become drivers of growth and development for their own ecosystems. This chapter introduces relevant concepts and definitions on how the digital transformation is affecting HEIs and presents the specificities of the Italian case, discussing good practices and challenges emerged during study visits. Recommendations for policymakers and leaders of HEIs conclude the chapter.

This chapter expands on the findings presented in Chapter 2 with a focus on organisational capacity, funding, people and incentives. It discusses actions that steering actors and higher education institutions (HEIs) are undertaking in Italy to increase the efficiency and the effectiveness of the system, in order to reach their targets with respect to all missions and dimensions of higher education – in particular the ones discussed in the previous chapters. The chapter also presents several good practices at the national and international levels, focusing mainly on the funding system built in recent years.