EBN Position Paper: Contributing to the ‘EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy’

The European Business and Innovation Centre Network (EBN) welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to develop a comprehensive EU Startup and Scale-up Strategy, which sets out a clear framework to position Europe as a global leader in innovation and entrepreneurship. The Strategy highlights Europe’s strong foundations for a vibrant innovation ecosystem — from world-class talent and cutting-edge research to a growing wave of tech entrepreneurship. Currently, Europe is home to more than 35,000 early-stage start-ups and 3,400 scale-ups, collectively employing 3.5 million people. Entering the market and scaling up remain two of the most high-risk stages for startups, as identified by the European Commission.

As a non-profit organisation facilitating a pan-European community of over 175 quality-certified European Business and Innovation Centres (EU|BICs) and Associate Members, EBN strongly supports the strategic objective of increasing the capacity of regional economies to innovate and transform. The EU|BIC community is keen to contribute constructively to policies aiming to position Europe as a leading global innovation powerhouse by 2030, with a particular focus on driving green, digital and social innovation through empowering territorial development and regional innovation ecosystems.

EBN’s role and distinct contribution

EBN drives high-performing innovation ecosystems through four core missions: fostering regional development, delivering quality business support, improving access to finance, and enabling innovation to scale.

Through its community of EU|BICs, EBN delivers measurable impact, with supported startups achieving an 83% three-year survival rate. Our EU|BIC certification, created by the European Commission, ensures consistent excellence in innovation support.

EBN’s distinct contribution to the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy is rooted in several key aspects:

Quantifiable impact of quality support: EBN provides concrete evidence of the effectiveness of structured, quality-certified business support.
Emphasis on quality certification and measurable performance and growth: originated by the European Commission and managed by EBN, represents a unique commitment to standardising and continuously improving the quality and impact of business innovation support service across Europe.
Deep rootedness in place-based innovation: EBN’s operational model is fundamentally built upon leveraging place-based innovation ecosystems for sustainable economic development and is characterised by strong, established ties with regional and local governments and stakeholders.
Practical implementation network: EBN offers a ready-made, pan-European network of certified entities. These EU|BICs already function as trusted local agents for various EU programmes (including EDIHs, EEN, and EIC Business Acceleration Services) and act as crucial innovation ecosystem builders and orchestrators on the ground.

Fostering Entrepreneurial Cultures Across European Regions

EBN and its community recognise that a flourishing startup and scaleup environment demands more than financial resources and physical infrastructure; it fundamentally requires a supportive entrepreneurial culture that actively encourages innovation, calculated risk-taking, and sustainable forms of collaboration. EU|BICs are instrumental in cultivating this culture across diverse European regions.

Since 2004, the EU|BIC community has organised over 64,000 such events, averaging more than 4,000 annually. Beyond events, EU|BIC foster entrepreneurial culture by identifying and nurturing talent from academia and industry, enhancing entrepreneurial skills through dedicated training, mentoring, and coaching programmes, facilitating collaborative partnerships among stakeholders, and promoting an innovative mindset through real-life innovation practices. Examples like EU|BICs JIC in Brno (CZ), Instituto Pedro Nunes in Coimbra (PT), and Technoport in Luxembourg illustrate how targeted support can cultivate a regional culture where entrepreneurship and risk-taking are encouraged, creating role models that inspire future innovators, and nourishing the growth of scale-ups based in Europe. This aligns with the need to address Europe’s perceived risk aversion by actively fostering an entrepreneurial spirit.

Strengthening Regional Innovation Ecosystems through ESO Capacity Building.

A distinguishing feature of OBN’s approach is its dedicated focus on empowering Entrepreneurship Support Organisations (ESOs), specifically its network of quality-certified EU|BICs. This empowerment aims to enhance the innovation capacity of regional economies, with a particular emphasis on supporting emerging and moderate innovator regions.

The EU|BIC certification serves as a key framework for ESOs to assess and improve their performance in driving regional sustainable economic development. EBN actively advocates for increased recognition and structural support for ESOs within European innovation policy, arguing their perspective remains underutilised, especially concerning ecosystem building in less developed regions.

Addressing Hurdles: Insights from the EU|BIC Community.

Feedback from EBN members, including JIC, Krakow Technology Park, META Group, and EurA, confirms the relevance of the challenges identified by the European Commission, and provides further insights.

Confirmation of identifies hurdles. There is a clear consensus among EBN members that startups and scaleups face significant challenges regarding access to finance (particularly later-stage), regulatory burdens and fragmentation (prompting calls for a unified “28^th regime), market access, and access to infrastructure, lnowledge, and services. Members’ activities directly address these issues daily.
Identification of additional challenges. Beyond the primary hurdles, members highlight the detrimental impact of fragmented funding and support mechanisms at both national and EU levels, often perceived as user-unfriendly and necessitating external support. A critical gap is also noted in the systematic collaboration between research teams and innovation actors (accelerators, (university-linked) incubators, and investors), hindering market-driven research commercialisation. Furthermore, specific needs were identified concerning underdeveloped secondary markets for early-stage investments, insufficient support for defence innovation, and the need for better integration of venture building models.
Key recommendations from the community. Based on their practical experience, EU|BIC community members propose several actions. There is strong support for improving access to finance, notably by boosting EIC funding (with a potential (D)ARPA-style approach for early-stage), simplifying state aid rules, improving conditions for secondary markets and exits, and mobilising institutional investment.

Regulatory simplification is paramount, with strong backing for “28^th regime”, standardisation, and platforms for mutual learning among administrations. Enhancing ecosystem collaboration and knowledge transfer is crucial, requiring stronger links between research and innovation actors, support for university spin-outs, mandatory IP support in funding programmes, and potentially thematic platforms for strategic sectors. Finally, the integration and empowerment of ESOs like EU|BIC is seen as vital for effective implementation and ecosystem orchestration.

EBN Recommendations for the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy

Leverage the EU|BIC community: Recognise and utilise the existing pan-European network of quality-certified EU|BICs as trusted implementation partners for strategy initiatives, particularly for delivering support services, fostering ecosystems, and reaching diverse regions.
Support and empower quality-certified ESOs: Provide dedicated structural and financial support to high-quality ESOs, like EU|BICs, acknowledging their role as ecosystem orchestrators. Prioritise capacity building, especially in emerging and moderate innovator regions, to enhance their ability to support startups and scaleups effectively.
Promote quality standards in business support: Champion the adoption of quality standards and certification frameworks, such as the EU|BIC Certification, to ensure effectiveness, transparency, and continuous improvement in the business support landscape across Europe.
Prioritise radical regulatory simplification: starting with common definitions and registration, and foster harmonisation and mutual learning to reduce administrative burdens.
Ensure accessible and collaborative funding mechanisms: Design EU funding instruments to be more accessible to startups and scaleups, potentially incorporating collaboration with established ESO networks for outreach and support. Explore complementary funding models where EU funds top up regional/national initiatives managed by ESOs.
Strengthen academia-industry links via ESOs: Actively involve ESOs in initiatives aimed at improving technology transfer, research commercialisation, and university spin-out processes, leveraging their position as intermediaries between research institutions and the market.

Conclusion

To sum up, EBN firmly believes that a vibrant ecosystem of startups and scale-ups is essential for Europe’s future competitiveness, resilience and sustainable development. The EU|BIC community, with its proven track record, quality framework and deep regional embeddedness, stands ready to collaborate with the European Commission and Member States to ensure the successful implementation of the EU Startup and Scaleup Strategy. By empowering regional innovation ecosystems and leveraging the expertise of quality-certified support organisations like the EU|BICs, Europe can effectively address the identified hurdles and unlock the full potential of its innovative entrepreneurs.